The Seventh Element

by lifeofthe6

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Human
Length: 14939

Argent Schild is an unremarkable person whose life turns into a remarkable adventure.

Argent Schild is an unremarkable human who expects his holiday to be just like any other: simple and pony-filled. When Twilight Sparkle unexpectedly breaks through the dimensional wall through his television, however, this brony's life becomes anything but simple. He is taken to Equestria where he will go on an adventure that will prove that he may not be as unremarkable as he thought he was. In fact, his role could turn out to be quite Elemental.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-03 13:51:45 UTC

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A sleepy sunbeam woke Argent Schild on the first day of the beginning of a long break from classes.  With not much planned for the holiday, Argent decided today was the perfect day for watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic—again.  As a brony, this was an activity that occupied much of the twenty-year-old’s free time.  Argent prided himself in this fact.  When it came to the little pastel colored ponies, there was little he did not know.  He loved the show as much as he loved the community it spawned, and was always up to date on what was what in the brony world and all pony-related news.

Aside from his eccentric hobby, however, Argent was not someone to be mistaken for anything a normal person would call “outstanding.”  He was not very athletic, was only smart enough to barely get into his second-choice university, and generally preferred not to stand out when he didn’t need to.  He never saw any downside to exhibiting nearly zero personality traits, so he never did.

Argent lived by himself in an apartment just off his college’s campus.  He wasn’t solitary because he didn’t like people—he had friends and kept in contact with his family regularly—he just operated better alone.  Just the same, he preferred enjoying his favorite activity, watching ponies, on his own as well.  He could perfect the factors around his enjoyment this way.  This morning was no different.  With the exact episode he wanted to watch in mind, Argent drew the curtains closed, poured a glass of milk, assembled a simple toasted bagel and cream cheese breakfast, and sat down in front of his television.

He clicked to the on-demand feature of his TV setup.  He navigated through the kids section, scrolled down to The Hub, and finally selected his desired show.  Upon clicking the episode Fall Weather Friends, however, the television did not begin the episode.  Instead, the screen gave a bright flash and then fell dark.  Instantly upset, Argent got up and inspected the TV to see what was wrong.  The light on the bottom of the monitor indicated that it was on.  The cable box showed no signs of malfunction, either.  He was just about to chalk it up to an issue with the cable provider when the screen flashed back on with a still picture of Twilight Sparkle’s library.  He sat back down to wait for the episode to continue, assuming that the program had to buffer before it could be projected smoothly to the TV.

“Wait,” Argent said to himself, “Twilight’s library never shows up in Fall Weather Friends.  Did I choose the wrong episode?” He had just picked up the remote when Twilight’s head invaded the majority of the screen, surprising him more than it should have.

“Hello?  Is anypony there?” Twilight said.  Argent froze as Twilight’s big, purple eyes searched the room before locking on to him.  She was just in the TV, right?  She wasn’t looking at him, right?  This was just some new episode that was leaked, right?  Just to make sure he wasn’t going insane, he slowly walked across the room, keeping his eyes on Twilight.  She followed every movement he made.

“Hello?” Twilight repeated, “Can you hear me?  Can you understand me?”

Sweet Celestia, Argent thought.  Twilight Sparkle is actually talking to me.

He slowly nodded, being careful not to blink just in case what lay before his eyes was a hallucination that would disappear as quickly as it had manifested.  He cautiously approached the TV and sat down in front of it.  He and Twilight stared at each other for a moment.

“It looks like that dimensional window spell I tried worked, because you’re certainly not anything I’ve ever seen before,” Twilight said finally, apparently proud of herself.  Argent gulped.  NASA had nothing on this type of “first contact”.

“Twilight Sparkle; I know you,” Argent whispered.  Twilight cocked her head.

“What?  You know me?  How is that possible?  This is the first time ponies have made contact with… whatever you are.”  Argent got up and grabbed the first pony related thing he could find: a calendar.  He brought it back to the TV and showed January to Twilight, which had her picture on it.

“I know it sounds weird, but I know all about you.”  Twilight tapped her chin with her hoof.  “Now, how could you possibly know about me, but I don’t know anything about you?  We’re part of two totally different dimensions!” After a short moment of thinking, Twilight gasped,

“It must be the multiverse theory!  It’s real!”  If there was one complicated thing in the world that this completely unremarkable young man did know about, it was the multiverse theory.  The topic was commonly brought up in many discussions he had with other bronies on the possibility of the human world and the world of Friendship is Magic connecting somehow.  Such a possibility was always written off as a pipedream, though, or at least a technology which would not be seen in the current generation.  Bronies had always assumed humans would be the one to break the dimensional barrier.  Never did they guess that the dimension of ponies would break into their own first.

“You have a theory of the multiverse, too?” Argent asked.

“You do, too?” Twilight gasped again, “This is unprecedented!  This is unbelievable!  This is—wait, how did you know my name?”

“What?”

“You called me ‘Twilight’ earlier, but I never introduced myself.”  Argent held up the calendar again. “Yes, that’s my picture, but that still doesn’t explain how you know who I am.”  Argent went on to explain everything he knew about Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and her world.  With each fact, the purple unicorn grew more and more astounded at the volume of knowledge he had.

“Amazing!  Are you some kind of pony expert in your world, then?” Twilight asked.

“No, not exactly.  You see, I’m a brony,” Argent said.  Twilight’s face was not what Argent had expected when he explained to her what a brony was.  She seemed fascinated rather than disturbed by the notion of grown males enjoying something that was meant to be for little girls, especially since she was part of the creation.

“I think I understand now,” Twilight nodded, “In your world, we only exist as fictional creations of this ‘Lauren Faust’ character.  To you, our world is her imagination turned into the ‘TV show’, and you ‘bronies’ embrace and expand on that.  Thus, our world exists without really existing.”

“Um, what you said,” Argent agreed.

“So, what are you, exactly?  Who are you?” Twilight asked.

“I’m a human.  My name is Argent Schild.”

“Huh, what an interesting name.  Oh, this is so exciting!  Now I want to know all about you.  Your species, I mean.”

“I can tell you what I know, but it’s going to take a while.  Why don’t we keep it interesting by sharing facts?  I’ll say something about my world, and then you tell me something about Equestria that I don’t know yet,” Argent suggested.

“Okay, we’ll do that,” Twilight smiled.  Argent and Twilight spent almost two hours telling each other about their respective worlds.  It was an odd conversation in many aspects.  For one, two beings from two completely separate realities were communicating.  Additionally, for the first time in his life, Argent actually came to life.  He explained concepts and facts with enthusiasm and gusto.  He was actually showing character.  Twilight was invested in the conversation as well, relaying information that Argent thought would never be revealed by the show Friendship is Magic itself.  Equestrian history, science, all things that were hidden behind the veil of an entire dimension was being leaked through this tiny hole in the fabric of space and time not 40 inches across.

“Unlike in your world, we’re the only creatures on the planet that can communicate on a level like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Horses, cows, and donkeys don’t talk here.  We don’t have gryphons, dragons, or cockatrices either.”

“Oh, it sounds like a lonely world.”

“I wouldn’t say that.  There are about seven billion humans in the world.”

“Well, then it sounds like a crowded world,” Twilight and Argent laughed.  After a bit more of exchanging information, Argent got an idea.  It was one thing to talk to a being in a different dimension, but could it be possible to actually travel to another one?  They could see each other, after all.  You can’t do that with a normal TV without some sort of recording device.

“Say, Twilight.  You called this a dimensional window spell, right?” he asked.

“Yes, why?” she answered.  Argent gave a little smirk,

“Windows aren’t just for seeing through.  They open and close, as well.”

“Well, sure they do, but I don’t see what that has to do with my—Argent, what are you doing?”  As Twilight spoke, Argent had moved aside his furniture to create a corridor to the television.

“You might want to move aside, Twilight,” Argent announced.  Twilight followed suit as Argent charged at the television.  He half expected to slam right into it and wake up in his bed, convinced everything that had happened up until now was a dream, or at the very least suffer a painful concussion while destroying half of his living room.  No such collision occurred, though.  Instead, when Argent opened his eyes, his were met by the gaze of an astonished Twilight Sparkle, who was suddenly a lot closer, and a lot more real than she was through the TV screen.

“By Celestia, I can’t believe that worked!  I mean, it turned you into a unicorn and all, but it worked!” Argent’s eyes flew wide,

“It did what!?” He looked down at himself, and sure enough, what were once legs were replaced with four hooves, a pony’s body with a brown coat, auburn hair for a mane and tail, and even a horn.  Argent did the only thing he could think of after being turned into a pony.  He screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Holy crap!  The hooves and the mane and th-the horn!” He looked over at a mirror on one of Twilight’s desks, “My eyes are huge!” Argent tried to pace frantically to properly gauge what just happened, but suddenly having twice the locomotors as usually proved extremely problematic.  He tripped and fell on his face, which only embarrassed him to the point of shedding a few tears.

“Calm down, Argent!  It’s all right!  I know it’s shocking, but you look fine,” Twilight assured him, resting her hoof on his head.  Argent took a deep breath and did his best to stand up.

“I’m sorry, Twilight.  It’s just that it’s not every day I change species.  I thought I’d stay human when I jumped through.”

“I did, too,” Twilight admitted, “I wonder what caused the transformation.” Already in scientist mode, the Element of Magic began examining Argent a little more thoroughly than he would have liked.  He didn’t speak until Twilight zeroed in uncomfortably on his flank,

“Um, is there something interesting back there?” He did his best to force an awkward smile.

“Yes, actually there is.  You don’t have a cutie mark,” Twilight said.

“Why would I?” Argent asked, “I’m a human, or I was a human, and we don’t have anything that identifies our skills or talents besides our ability to actually do them.”

“Well is there anything that you’re good at?  Anything you have a passion for?” Argent thought back as far as he could, but no particular talent came to mind; he regretted not standing out in anything for once.  He wondered what his cutie mark would have been if he actually put his mind to any of his tasks sometimes.

“Nothing, really.  I’m not all that remarkable,” he said.  Twilight actually looked a little disappointed, but as soon as her expression faded, she perked up again,

“I’ll tell you what I tell Applejack’s little sister and her friends all the time, then: It’s never too late to figure out what makes you special.  Your cutie mark will come with time and determination.”

“It looks like I’ll be getting that time,” Argent said, “The dimensional window is closing.”

“What?  Oh, no!  I forgot it had a time limit!  Let’s see, how am I supposed to extend its time again?” Twilight flipped through her books fervently; trying to find the one that contained the spell she cast to open the dimensional window.  Though Twilight was worried, Argent seemed perfectly content while the purple unicorn tossed tome after volume around while the magical portal slowly closed.

“Twilight,” Argent called.  Twilight did not respond.

“Twilight,” again, she continued to search for her spell.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Argent yelled, stopping Twilight in her tracks.

“You scared me!  I thought you were my dad for a second,” she sighed.

“It’s fine that I’m here for a while.  I don’t need to be anywhere for a few days, actually.  So, since I’m in Equestria, would it be all right if I stayed here for a couple days?” There was probably no better way he could imagine spending his holiday than hanging out with his favorite characters in Equestria.  Amid the confusion from when he first jumped through the dimensional window, Argent had forgotten that he planned on asking Twilight earlier.

“Sure, I guess that’s okay,” Twilight replied with a puzzled look, “But aren’t you worried about getting home?  What if you’re stuck here?”  Argent had thought of that.  Not just before he jumped through the television, either.  He often pondered the thought of actually living in Equestria since becoming a brony.  It would mean giving up a lot.  Technology, the perks of being a bipedal with hands, the necessity to wear clothes most of the time; all would mean little or nothing with life as a pony.  It would also mean, depending on the circumstances, leaving without a trace or much explanation as to where he had gone.  His family and friends would worry to the point of desperation.  Would he forget his old world, though?  He didn’t think so, which is why he usually concluded that if he were to go to Equestria for an extended period of time, it would be best to have a method of return.

“You’re a smart mare, Twilight,” Argent said finally, “If anything, I’d count on you to find a way back.  After all, it’s not like you can’t just use that spell again and open the dimensional window.” Twilight nodded in agreement.  Suddenly, something caught her eye,

“Well, would you speak of Tartarus.  There’s that spell book right there!  I should store this in a safe place for when you’re ready to—” the purple unicorn didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence.  As soon as her horn’s magical glow began to surround the book, it began burning in a brilliant blue flame.  Argent and Twilight barely had a chance to say anything before the key to returning the former-human back home—and to his original form, floated to the ground in a pile of scraps and ashes.  Argent was now legitimately nervous,

“Now this is a problem, isn’t it?”

Chapter 2

“Now, don’t panic,” Twilight said, clearly on the verge of panicking.

“Why do you think the book just burned up like that?” he asked.

“Some spellbooks are only meant to be used once.  I didn’t know that was one of them, though.  There wasn’t a warning or anything,” Twilight explained.  Argent sat down, once again with an odd calm that baffled the young mare.  This ability to perform—or rather do remarkably little with no stress was something unique to Argent.  He was a devout optimist who thought that simply being alive at the end of a day made it a good one.  So, in this case, he may have been stranded in a dimension other than his own for an indefinite amount of time, but at least he was alive.

“How can you be so calm at a time like this?” Twilight asked.

“I already said I was staying here for a while anyway, didn’t I?  The way I see it, we can cross the getting-me-back-home bridge when we come to it.  For now, I’m on vacation.” Argent replied.

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Vacation?  But…” she stopped.  Clearly this weird being came from a place where urgency wasn’t that important.  That or he was a unique case.  Regardless, Twilight internally came to terms with the dilemma, and decided to trust the unicorn she had known for a total of five hours.

“Never mind.” Twilight continued, “Well, if you’re on vacation, I can at least help you meet some ponies to have fun with.  Come with me, I’ll introduce you to my friends!”

Argent was about to suggest resting, seeing as he was the one who had just gone through the ordeal of spatial distortion unlike anyone before him.  Twilight could talk up a storm, too.  Conversing with her about their respective worlds introduced a bit of fatigue on his new body as well.

That all seemed to disappear with the proposition of meeting the rest of the “Mane 6”, the name the bronies gave to the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.  Rest could wait; there was history to be made.

Closest in proximity to Twilight’s library was Carousel Boutique, Rarity’s dress shop and home, and it was where the pair of unicorns stopped first.  Even though Argent already told Twilight that he knew all about them, she still gave him a bit of caution when they arrived at her door,

“Now, Rarity can be a little… judgmental, but that doesn’t mean she’s a bad pony.  Just don’t point out anything about her mane, coat, eyes, makeup, or pretty much anything about her.  She won’t stop talking about it and we won’t get a word in until sundown.”

Argent nodded understandingly.  Shortly after Twilight knocked on the door, it glowed blue and opened, revealing a slightly flustered Rarity.

“Oh, hello, Twilight, dear,” she sighed, “Please, do come in.  I just finished up a very large order, so forgive me if I look a tad flushed.  I’m pleased you came by, though.  I needed a breather after all that sewing work.”  It was only then that she noticed Argent standing behind Twilight.  He was idly surveying the interior of the boutique, taking in details, as he had only seen some frames from the episodes the shop was featured in.

“Hello there, are you a friend of Twilight’s?” Rarity said.

Argent’s attention switched from a mannequin with a recently completed dress to the pony that had just called him.

“Oh, um, yes.  My name is Argent Schild.  I’m pleased to meet you, Rarity.” He instinctively bowed—well, he did what he assumed was a bow for a pony.  Rarity, taken aback, put her hoof to her mouth coquettishly.

“Oh, my,” she said, “Your manner betrays your, um, casual appearance.”

“It’s natural, isn’t it?  Men shouldn’t use informal introductions for a lady, even if they do look as ‘casual’ as me,” Argent replied, silently realizing that was quite out of character for himself.

Twilight furrowed her brow.

“You didn’t bow for me,” she contested.

“Yes, but I came through a dimensional rift when I met you.  That kind of tends to throw manners out the window.” Twilight blew on her bangs.  The feeling that Rarity got special treatment made the white unicorn smile a little.  She was probably trying to hold back a bigger grin for her friend’s sake.

“What brings you and your very polite friend here?” Rarity asked, putting emphasis on the “very.”  “You said something about a dimensional rift of some sort?”

“Yes,” Twilight nodded, “Argent here came through a portal I opened when I was researching space-time spells.  He’s from an entirely different universe!”

“A different universe?” Rarity echoed.

“Exactly.” Twilight nodded.  “He wasn’t even a pony before he came through.  He was a strange two legged creature called a ‘human.’  We don’t know what caused the change, but Argent said he’s fine with it.”

“We hit a snag when the portal closed and the book used to open it burned up into ashes, so I currently don’t have a way to get back, but as I told Twilight, I’m on vacation anyway.  We can figure out a way to return when I’m ready to go home.” Argent added.

“So right now I’m just taking him around town to meet you and the others.  Do you want to come with us?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, I would most certainly like that.  Before that, however…” Rarity stared at Argent.  He looked to his sides, and then pointed to himself with his hoof.  “Let’s see if we can’t tidy up that mane and tail for you.  In its present state it looks positively dreadful—no offense.”

“None taken.” Argent shook his head, “I could barely keep my hair combed when I was a human.  I could use a good cut.”

Rarity got to work on Argent’s mane-do and tail, and after a short while, he looked much more “presentable” as Rarity called it.  What was once a long, red-brown mane that had trouble staying out of his eyes was now much more kempt, combed, and of a medium length that looked contained but flowing.  His tail followed suit.  He thought he heard her say something about being “just Fluttershy’s type,” but he dismissed it as mare talk.

The next stop was Sugarcube Corner to see Pinkie Pie.  Argent was particularly excited to meet her; he could witness her physics-defying antics and general Pinkie-ness firsthand.  Or was it firsthoof?

The horned trio arrived at Sugarcube Corner and entered it only to find it completely dark.  Twilight was about to use an illumination spell when the lights suddenly flicked on and the three found themselves surrounded by a plethora of pastel ponies.

“SURPRISE!” they yelled.  It certainly was a surprise.  What this random party was for only Pinkie Pie knew.  The pink earth pony in question wasted no time in zeroing in on the soiree’s main guest, Argent.  Her big, perpetually excited blue eyes were suddenly nearly touching his own.

“Were you surprised?  Huh, huh, huh?  Were ya?  ‘Cause I’d be surprised if I was just being shown around town and I walked into a bakery where a whole bunch of ponies suddenly yelled ‘SURPRISE!’ Oh, silly me, I totally forgot to introduce myself.  I’m Pinkie Pie, and I threw this party just for you, pony I’ve never met before!”

“Pinkie, how did you… when did you… what!”  Pinkie’s insane ability to know everything that was happening in Ponyville at any given time, then instantly plan and throw a party for anything remotely worth celebrating had confused Twilight from day one.  It shouldn’t be physically possible.  Her other friends and the townsfolk taught her to chalk it up to “Pinkie just being Pinkie” most times, though.  It didn’t stop her from wondering occasionally.

“Well, I had just finished changing Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake and then I looked outside the window and saw you and Rarity with a stallion I’d never seen before, so I thought to myself ‘he must be new, because I’ve never seen him around before, and I know everypony in Ponyville, but I don’t know him yet, and if he’s new, he might not have a lot of friends, I mean he’s with Twilight and Rarity but you can have lots more friends than just two, so what can I do to make that guy a lot of friends really quick—I know, a party!’  And that’s where you come in!”  Pinkie stared with a cheesy grin like Argent, Twilight, and Rarity were supposed to instantly comprehend what she just said.

“How long ago was this?” Rarity asked.

“About twenty minutes.” Pinkie replied.

“I give up.” Rarity threw her hooves in the air then trotted off to mingle with the other partygoers.

“So who’re you, mysterious pony who Rarity kinda likes?”

Argent pretended he didn’t hear the last part of that sentence.

“My name is Argent, Argent Schild.  It’s nice to meet you, Pinkie Pie.” he bowed.

Twilight frowned.

“Ooh, you’re neat!  Where are ya from, Argie?” Pinkie began bouncing up and down.

Argent guessed that was her way of being charmed, though he had no basis to think so.  Come to think of it, he hadn’t bowed much at all when he was a human.  He wasn’t normally this formal, either.  Why was he so proper now?  Dismissing the thought in light of the fact that he was in the middle of a party thrown in his favor, Argent went on to explain everything to Pinkie just as he had to Rarity.  He wasn’t sure she picked up on everything, though, because she just kept bouncing as he was talking, occasionally telling him things she thought were fun.

“You wanna play some party games?  They’re fun, fun, fun!” Pinkie proposed.

“I’d like to, but Twilight was showing me around town before this.  As great as this party is, I kind of want to get back to that, too,” Argent answered.

“Okie dokie lokie, then!” With that, the Element of Laughter bounced off to play with other ponies.

“Rarity, we’re about to head over to Fluttershy’s place.  Are you coming?” Twilight called to Rarity.

“So sorry, darling, but I’m having the most delightful conversation with Bon Bon at the moment.  Shall I join you for dinner tonight, then?”  Rarity said.

“Sounds great!” Twilight smiled. “See you at 6 o’clock sharp!”

Dinner.  The thought of food had lightly crossed Argent’s mind when he was contemplating whether to go through the portal to Equestria, but he hadn’t pondered a change of diet in detail.  There was one huge difference between ponies and humans that might take a lot of explaining, followed by frequent subsequent reassuring.

Humans eat meat.

Argent was fond of meat, too.  How this fallacy slipped his mind was beyond him.  He began making mental notes to avoid the words “bacon,” “steak,” and “fried chicken” among other things to prevent himself from jeopardizing his new friendships—and his only ticket back home.  Of course, it didn’t help that he and Twilight were en route to animal central of Ponyville.  Now, he wouldn’t even consider eating the majority of the critters that stayed at Fluttershy’s cottage.  They were mostly songbirds and rodents.  There were chickens, though, and while he didn’t often think about an animal becoming food when he ate meat since it came pre-killed, skinned, and packaged in his world, such thoughts might be a bit less escapable when he considered the fact that in order to get meat in Equestria, he would have to do the duty of preparing it.

These were his thoughts as he idly chatted with Twilight on the way to Fluttershy’s house.

Twilight knocked on the pegasus’ door, which Fluttershy promptly answered.

“Oh, hi Twilight!” she said in her small voice that had captivated the hearts of millions of bronies worldwide.  Once Fluttershy spotted Argent, she shrunk back to peeking around the door.

Right, stranger anxiety, Argent thought.

“There’s no need to be scared, Fluttershy.  This is my new friend, Argent Schild.  He’s from another dimension,” Twilight smiled.

Argent was unsure of whether this was to put the cream yellow pegasus at ease or whether the fact that she still got giddy from the product of her reality-altering experiment earlier.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Fluttershy.” Argent bowed once again.

“Oh, my, thank you,” Fluttershy blushed.

“You sure do like to bow, Argent,” Twilight pointed out.

“I can’t help myself.” Argent shrugged. “It just feels like the right thing to do when meeting someone.  It’s strange, though, I never acted like this when I was a human.  I’m not saying I was a rude person, but I certainly didn’t bow to everyone.”

“Well, if anything, it’s better that he got more polite after becoming a pony, isn’t it?  It wouldn’t be good if he turned into a monster or something scary like that.” Fluttershy said.

There was a short silence.

“Oh, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be so rude.  Please, come in.” Fluttershy opened the door to let her two friends in.  As usual, her cottage was abundant with life.  Birds chirped and flitted about and rodents scampered around, some assisting with housework by dusting or cleaning.  Angel, Fluttershy’s pet rabbit, seemed to be directing some of the activity, though it was unclear exactly how active his role was since it mostly consisted of him waving off other animals as he munched on a bowl of nuts and fruit.

“Don’t mind the animals; they’re just helping with a little bit of spring cleaning, is all,” Fluttershy told them.

“It’s all right, I love animals,” Argent replied, holding up his hoof to allow a sparrow to land on it.  He quickly corrected himself, “I don’t mean I eat them or anything, I mean I get along with them well.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Of course you wouldn’t eat them, that’s just ridiculous.”

Thankfully for Argent, this topic didn’t get a chance for elaboration, as the sound of two arguing ponies permeated through Fluttershy’s cottage door.

“I told you we don’t need to be here.  Fluttershy’s got her animals to help her every year!” one voice complained.

“And Ah told y’all it don’t matter who’s helpin’ already.  Ya gotta help yer friends out every once in a while.  Honestly, RD, sometimes Ah don’t know if yer the Element of Loyalty or the Element of Laziness,” the other voice retorted.

Inside, Fluttershy floated over to answer the door.  Only two ponies she knew argued like that.  It was okay, though, Fluttershy knew that their arguing meant that they were getting along fine.

“Rainbow Dash, Applejack!  I’m so glad you could make it,” she hugged both of them.

“Yeah, well we woulda been here earlier if somepony weren’t so darn reluctant to do a little bit o’ manual labor,” Applejack rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash, who simply stuck her tongue out in response.

“It’s okay, girls.  I’m just glad you could be here to help.  I don’t know if I’ll need it, though, since I got a couple of unexpected visitors myself.” Fluttershy gestured inside to where Twilight and Argent were waiting.

“Well if it isn’t Twilight and… uh, who’re you?” Rainbow Dash flew up to Argent, whose bowing had become instinct by now.

“I’m Argent Schild.” he said, “I suppose this saves Twilight and I time finding you two ourselves.”

“Whadaya mean?” Applejack asked.

Twilight went through the process of explaining who Argent was and what they were doing to Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy once again.

“Mighty pleased to make yer acquaintance, Argent,” Applejack tipped her hat in respect, “It’s not everyday ya get to meet somepony from a whole ‘nother dimension, though I guess ya weren’t ‘somepony’ before.”

“Can we not get into a science talk right now?  My head is hurting already,” Rainbow Dash sighed, putting a hoof to her head.

“Right,” Twilight frowned; visibly disappointed that she would not be able to turn this meeting of friends into a lecture.  “Oh!” she suddenly perked up, “Fluttershy, what time is it?”

“Um, it’s about a quarter to six.  Why?”

“Argent, we have to get back to the library for dinner with Rarity!” The unicorn teleported away only to return a second later because she forgot her passenger.

“While Twilight is forgetting things, would you girls like to come with us?”

“Heck yeah, we would!  I’m starving!” Rainbow hastily agreed.

“Hold on there, partner,” Applejack interrupted her, “Y’all sure there’s gonna be enough grub to feed us all?”

“I’m sure Spike and I can figure something out,” Twilight assured them.  With a large burst of magic, Twilight whisked all of the ponies away to the library.  Their sudden arrival knocked the chef’s hat off of a busy baby dragon, who nearly dropped dishes full of food en route to the round table.

“Geez, Twi, watch where you land, will you?” Spike said.  He then looked around at the number of dinner guests, “Huh, I guess Pinkie Pie was right when she said there were going to be a lot of ponies over here.  Good thing I made so much food.”

“Pinkie?” Twilight parroted, “How would she know—”

“Hi, girls!  And not-girl!” Eerily on cue, Pinkie popped out of nowhere to greet her friends.

“How did you know we’d be here?” Fluttershy asked the question that needed to be asked first and foremost.  The pink earth pony giggled,

“Oh, that’s easy!  At Argie’s ‘Welcome to the Dimension Party’ I heard Rarity say she was going to Twilight’s place for dinner, but since Twilight and Argie already left I couldn’t ask them if I could come, too, so I asked Rarity if I could tag along with her!  Then Rarity said ‘That’s all right, the three of us will be fine on our own,’ then I said ‘But dinner is more fun with lots of ponies!’ Then Rarity sighed and just walked off, and then I thought that Argie kinda thinks like me, so he’ll like a bunch of ponies at dinner, too, so when he and Twilight are out meeting the others he’ll probably ask them if they want to come to eat with us, and they’ll say ‘Yes!’ because they’re our bestest friends and bestest friends love to eat together,” she took a deep breath, “So that’s when I came over here to tell Spike we’d better go shopping for food ‘cause there’d be a lot of ponies over for dinner, and Spike just shrugged and said ‘Whatever you say, Pinkie,’ and then we went and got food, came back, cooked it, and then poof!  You guys are here!”

“But that doesn’t explain how—”

“Ah wouldn’t dive too much farther into it, sugarcube,” Applejack shook her head, interrupting Rainbow Dash.  Argent made a mental note that he was the first human to hear Applejack call someone “sugarcube” in person.  Or was it in pony?

Promptly at six, Rarity arrived, clad in an elegant evening dress.  When asked what the occasion was, she hastily replied that she anticipated that Pinkie would go about inviting everypony anyway, and a lady did not show up casually to a dinner party, even if it was among her closest friends.

At the table, the moment of truth came for Argent.  Spread before him was a full course meal of various vegetables, dishes fashioned out of hay, an orchid stem soup garnished with petals, and fruit juice for drinks.  For foods that Argent had never seen before, he had to hand it to Spike and Pinkie Pie making them look appetizing.  While he unsteadily levitated just about everything on the table to the plate (this was only his second instance of using magic in the day, something which he picked up surprisingly quickly), he only heartily attacked those foods he was used to eating: the vegetables consisting of carrots, peppers, turnips, and potatoes.  By the time he had finished those, all of his other companions had nearly cleared their plates, quickly making him aware that he was the odd one out.  Five of the ponies stared at him in confusion, while Spike seemed indifferent as he still worked at a rather large sapphire for his dessert.  Only Twilight had an expression of general understanding,

“I’m sorry, Argent.  I guess a human’s diet is different than a pony’s.  I should have asked you what kinds of things you ate before we came to dinner,” she said.

“I see y’all ate yer vegetables, though.  You got carrots ‘n things back in yer world?” Applejack asked.  Argent nodded,

“Yeah, we have everything that’s here in my world, too, but humans don’t normally make meals of hay and flowers.” His stomach dropped.  He had hoped he would be able to get away with eating what he could without any questions, but even as a pony in a world full of ponies, he stood out too much.

“So what do you eat?” It had to be Fluttershy asking that question, Argent cursed in his thoughts.  The last thing he wanted was to traumatize the poor pegasus.  He could withhold the parts of a human’s menu that weren’t meat, but even as nice as these Ponyville residents were, he knew they’d be angry if they found out later in some haphazard way and he lost their trust.  The former human sighed deeply, bracing himself for whatever responses he was about to elicit,

“We humans eat vegetables and fruit like you do.  We eat breads, pastas, and sweet things like cakes and pie, too.  An important part of our diet, though, is, um… meat.” Argent’s voice got very small toward the end of his sentence.

“Pardon?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.  It was no use hiding it anymore,

“Meat!  Chicken, cows, pigs, fish, and other animals!  Humans eat meat!” As expected, everyone at the table gasped.  Even Spike dropped his gem in surprise.  Also as feared, Fluttershy fainted, and Rarity was close to it.  The remaining conscious ponies suddenly looked very apprehensive.

“You don’t eat p-ponies, do you?” Rainbow Dash asked cautiously.  Argent defended himself,

“No, no, not at all!” he waved his hooves, “Look, it’s true I eat meat, but for most humans ponies aren’t even on the menu.  I mean, I don’t have to eat other animals—lots of people don’t.  I don’t even know how the stuff I didn’t try yet tastes, so maybe I’ve got a whole new bunch of foods that I’ll like!  Also, we don’t even have pegasi or unicorns in my world.  The only ponies we have are small and are normally pets or for riding!”

Argent’s words both assuaged the situation and opened up an entirely different wound.

“You use us as pets and mounts?  Well, I never!” Rarity flipped her hair.  At least Argent didn’t need to worry about inter-species romance anymore.  The others were about to verbally assault (physically for Rainbow Dash) Argent when Spike burped up a scroll.  Argent let out the biggest sigh of his life.  He was lucky the Elements of Harmony would drop anything and everything when a letter from Princess Celestia came.

Wait, a letter from Princess Celestia?  That meant what was about to come next was either really good or really bad.

Twilight unfurled the scroll and scanned the page, shooting deadly glances at Argent every few lines or so.  After she had scanned the letter five or six times she looked around at her friends—Fluttershy had just recovered—before finally locking on to Argent.  With a furrowed brow, she said,

“We’re all off to Canterlot in the morning.  The princesses want you.”

Chapter 3

As awkward as the remainder of Argent’s first evening in Equestria was the train ride to Canterlot the next morning was even more so.  The seven ponies rode in near complete silence.  Fluttershy purposefully averted her gaze from Argent as much as possible and even Pinkie Pie wasn’t too keen on trying to keep anyone’s spirits up.  The sole male unicorn had to do something to mend the rifts he had opened, though.  During the last leg of the trip, he spoke up,

“Look, girls, I suppose an apology on behalf of the entire human race is in order.  I’m sorry that our consumption of animals offends you and that our treatment of ponies makes them so subservient to us.  You have to understand, though.  Where I come from is completely different than this land, and you’re judging me like I’ve been a pony doing all these things my entire life.  Humans and the human world parallel this one in many ways, but where we’re different, we’re really different.”

Argent waited for a response and received none.  He sighed and spoke again.

“It would take me forever to explain absolutely everything, but the extremely short version is that not all humans do what I described to you.  Plenty of us think that eating animals is disgusting and wrong and the same goes for the treatment of them.  Humans are good beings, I promise you.”

After a short silence, Rainbow Dash was the first to respond,

“Does the word ‘good’ mean the same thing there as it does here?  I still don’t like the idea.”

“Then don’t like the idea, but at least start by trusting me.  Consider me an ambassador.  Perhaps in the future humans and ponies can create a permanent link between our worlds and we can become allies.” Argent replied.

“I don’t know…” Twilight said skeptically.

“I’ll give y’all a chance,” Applejack nodded, prompting confused looks from her friends.  After seeing that response she elaborated, “Sure, what ya said about humans was shockin’, but I’m the Element of Honesty, and that don’t mean nothin’ if I can’t at least tell when somepony’s bein’ sincere.” The train began to slow, as did the angry thoughts of the six mares.

“Truce?” Applejack offered her hoof.  Argent shook it and smiled,

“Truce.  Thank you, Applejack.”

With that ordeal off everyone’s conscience for the time being, it was time to focus on a more pressing matter.  Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had requested an audience with Argent and the Elements of Harmony.  Somehow they had been alerted to his presence, and apparently it meant something.  The summoned ponies arrived in the throne room to both princesses awaiting them not far from the door.

“Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student.  I’m so glad you could come,” Princess Celestia said.

Twilight bowed.

“I wouldn’t ignore a call from you, Princess.”

“We extend our greetings to you, as well, bearers of the Elements of Harmony,” Princess Luna addressed the others, to which they responded with a bow.

“And you,” Celestia turned her regal gaze to Argent, who also bowed without hesitation, “On behalf of us all, welcome to Equestria.”

“It’s a pleasure to be here,” Argent nodded, “But how did you know about me?”

“A few things told us,” Luna began, “First, we are always aware when Twilight Sparkle borrows from the Canterlot library, especially when what she checks out is from the highly restricted Starswirl the Bearded wing.” Twilight blushed.

“Secondly, alicorns like us are particularly in tune with high level magic, and can detect when such spells are utilized and what happens when they are used.”

That explains a lot. Argent thought.

“And most importantly…well, follow me,” Celestia beckoned.

The group made their way to the vault that held the actual Elements of Harmony.  Since the incident with Discord, the vault had been re-designed to require the horns of both Princesses to open, among other further security checks.  Celestia and Luna inserted their horns into their respective keyholes, causing the doors to react, glow, and open with a flourish.  An intense light emanated from inside, their source being the necklaces and crown the Elements manifested themselves in, on display upon a pedestal.

Interestingly, however, the Elements did not glow in the colors of their respective gems.  Instead, they all gave of a distinct silvery light.

“Oh, my,” Rarity gasped. “What’s happened to the Elements?”  Luna shook her head, a neutral look adorning her face,

“We are not entirely sure.  They began to react this way directly after Twilight used her dimensional spell.”

“So you suspect it has something to do with me?” Argent asked.

“We’re almost certain, now.  The glow was less intense yesterday when you were in Ponyville.  It must have something to do with your proximity to them.” Celestia said.

“So if they’ve been getting brighter and brighter as I get closer, what do you think would happen if I were to touch them?” Argent wondered out loud.

Pinkie Pie decided now of all times was the perfect opportunity to be a scientist.

“Well we’re not gonna find out if you’re just standing there!  In you go!”

The pink pony shoved Argent into the vault, crashing him into the display and causing the Elements to fall all over him.

Just as he recovered, the necklaces and crown began to float and snapped to the necks and head of the Mane 6.  His eyes—as well as the eyes of the Elements’ bearers—began to shine the same silver as the jewelry.  This trance had only been exhibited in Twilight before, a precursor to a huge blast that banished Nightmare Moon on one occasion and turned Discord to stone on another.  This time, though, with all the Elements alight, a silver beam shot out of each ornament at Argent, enveloping him in the same light.  After a few seconds the emanation subsided and the Elements returned to their original state, with one exception: there was an extra necklace around Argent’s neck.

“What just happened?” Argent asked to anyone who could answer.  He was left dazed and knocked back onto his flank.

“A new Element of Harmony.” Celestia said.  She and her sister were wide-eyed, a departure from the demure nature they both normally carried.

“Come again?” Twilight asked, flicking her ears to make sure they were working properly.

“Dearest subjects, we have only seen this once before, more than one thousand years ago.  It predates even our banishment to the moon.” Luna explained partially.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy said.

Celestia spoke up, regaining her composure.

“The Elements of Harmony have had multiple incarnations over the eons.  Most recently is the jewelry you have on, and before that was the stones once held in the old castle in the Everfree forest.  When those appeared, so did the newest Element: the Element of Magic.  Luna and I quarreled over who would bear the sixth.  I possessed three, while Luna had two, so she argued that she deserved the new Element to balance us out.  Unfortunately, it was not our decision to make…” she trailed off.

“The Element of Magic chose Celestia, and thus the events transpired to transform us into Nightmare Moon.  You are aware of the rest.

“This time, however, it seems the Elements have evolved as we have.  They have chosen one host each, somehow learning not to attribute more than one to a pony to avoid the events of one millennium ago.  Now, a new one is here.”

“What is it?” Twilight questioned.  Argent looked down at his new accessory to examine it.  Like its counterparts, this new Element bore a gem inset a broad gold body.  The gem appeared to be a white diamond shaped in the form of a shield.

“A shield?  What Element could that possibly represent?” Twilight asked.

“What makes Rainbow Dash’s lighting bolt loyal, or Applejack’s apple honest?  The Elements seem to reflect your cutie marks, not necessarily the traits they embody.” Argent pointed out.

“An astute observation,” Luna concurred, “When the Elements belonged to my sister and I, they did not take a definite form.  They simply resided inside of us.”

“But Argent has no cutie mark,” Rarity said.

“He will soon,” Celestia spoke loudly.  Her declaration gained the attention of the ponies in her company, eliciting further explanation, “For the time I have known them, the Elements of Harmony have never done anything without a purpose.  If they are currently in an era where they must reflect the cutie mark of the pony they are aligned to, Argent will have his own in the near future.”

Before the conversation could continue, two royal guards burst into the room, one of them severely battered with the other supporting him with one hoof.

“They’re… they’re everywhere!” the injured guard breathed heavily.

“What is everywhere?  What’s going on?” Celestia demanded.

“I don’t know, milady.  He is part of the patrol unit scheduled to visit Ponyville today.  He flew into Canterlot’s port like a fruit bat out of Tartarus.  He just keeps saying ‘They’re everywhere’ over and over,” the other guard reported.  The mention of their home froze Twilight and her friends.  Luna’s horn glowed and a spell surrounded the shell-shocked guard.

“Let your mind be still as the night and cast your fears to the stars!”  Luna’s voice echoed.  The spell subsided and the guard looked up with much clearer eyes, though they were still filled with fear and worry.  “Now, what has transpired to send you here with such haste?”

“Ponyville is under attack by Diamond Dogs.  Thousands of them.”

“But we just left yesterday!” Twilight stammered.  Argent was afraid he would be blamed again, given that cataclysmic events did not usually happen independently of each other so closely in time without being related, but the Mane 6 weren’t shooting him any nasty glances.  In fact, they were about ready to bolt out of the castle and hop on the first train out had Celestia not stopped them.

“Wait, Twilight.” The sun princess magicked Twilight’s crown and the other Elements of Harmony, including Argent’s, off of their bodies and back into their casings.

“Diamond Dogs love shiny things, and your Elements are no exception.  We cannot risk losing them, or you, in all this chaos.”  The vault to the Elements closed with a series of clicks and locking sounds. “Get to Ponyville and assess the situation.  See if you can learn why the Diamond Dogs have attacked, and whether they plan on just stopping at just one town.  Luna and I will stay here and put Canterlot on alert.  Take an airship.  It’s faster than the train.”  Twilight Sparkle and her friends galloped out of the castle.  Only Argent stayed put.  A mixture of feelings including confusion and intense worry swam around inside his brain.  He was supposed to be in Equestria on vacation—albeit a very strange unplanned one.  Now over the course of two days he finds out he is the host of a seventh Element of Harmony and Ponyville has fallen under siege.  No part of that was relaxing.

“Did I do all this?” He asked to no one in particular.

“It’s not likely.” Celestia answered him. “I can’t help feeling that your arrival and the attack on Ponyville are connected to some effect, though.  It’s not your fault, but I could sense the tension between you and the others.”

That was for something completely different, Argent thought.

“Go with them.  Seven ponies are better than six, even if one of them isn’t entirely a pony.  You can help somehow.”

“Yes, Princess,” Argent nodded before he ran off to catch the airship, “Thank you, and pass that on to Luna, too!”

At the port, the last of the moorings had just been released on the ship the Mane 6 had boarded.  Argent leaped on as it began to float away.  He landed with a thud.

“I didn’t know I could jump that far,” he said, gasping for breath.

“Comes with the territory,” Applejack shook her hind leg, reminding Argent that his new body came with a host of physical abilities that humans did not have.

“So you’re coming, too?” Twilight asked.

“I have to be able to do something.  I hope you all don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t help but feel responsible.” Argent replied.  Rainbow Dash flew up in his face,

“Yeah, well we’ll see if we have to beat you up, too, after we deal with the Diamond Dogs.”  Applejack pulled her back by the tail,

“Easy there, RD.  He’s a new Element of Harmony, now.  I’m thinkin’ the fiasco in Ponyville’s just some kinda coincidence, but if we’re gonna be fightin’, it’s good to know that he’s on our side.”

“Oh, those Diamond Dogs!  I shall never forget the time that group of them had the nerve to keep me captive as some sort of gem radar.  Those ruffians!” Rarity growled.

“I just hope everypony back home is safe,” Twilight said, peering over the edge of the airship’s gondola toward Ponyville, “I think we might have a war on our hooves.”

Chapter 4

A breeze blew over the gondola as the airship crested the last hill before Ponyville.  It prompted the ponies to look over the edge to get a better look at the town under siege.  The damage had only gotten worse since they last peered to the horizon.  Smoke had begun to rise from the thatched roof buildings, implying that the Diamond Dogs had been up to much more than just roughhousing some ponies.  A small team of the dogs ran just below the ship.  Argent kept an eye on them, and narrowed his eyes when he noticed that they appeared to be readying some sort of device.  He had never seen it in Equestria before, but it did look awfully familiar from somewhere.

A projectile followed by a whoosh of smoke pierced the balloon of the airship and detonated.  Argent had his answer as to what the device was.

The Diamond Dogs had somehow acquired a rocket launcher.

“We’re going down!” The airship’s captain called out.  He began running for the edge just as a flaming support beam crushed him mid-leap.  Twilight prepared a magic platform for the rest of the ponies to evacuate to.  They all hopped on and Twilight moved the platform quickly away from the falling vehicle.  It crashed in a brilliant blaze.  Argent could see the Diamond Dogs celebrating its destruction just as the magic platform landed behind a building.

“What in the hay was that?” Applejack asked, her eyes containing a mixture of anger, confusion, and fear.

“A rocket launcher,” Argent said plainly.  The six mares looked at him intently, waiting for him to continue.  Their trust of him was shaky enough as it was, but he knew he had no choice but to inform them of what he knew, “It’s a weapon.  You put this thing called a rocket in a specially made tube and aim it at what you want to hit.  When you pull the trigger, the rocket flies out, and if your aim is good enough, whatever you hit blows up.”

“Let me guess, something from the human world?” Rainbow Dash glared at Argent.

“Yeah, but don’t look at me like I brought it here.  Normally, only human militaries have those.”

“And?”

“And I’m just a normal human—not a soldier or anything!”

“You sure seem to know about a lot for just a ‘normal human.’”

“Twilight knows a lot for a pony, and you trust her, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but that’s—”

“Look, Rainbow Dash, I don’t know what’s happening, why it’s happening, if I’m connected to this, and even if I am, how I’m connected to this.  If you recall, I came here on a vacation.  Do you think this necklace and a burning city is my, or anyone’s idea of a sunny good time?!” Argent yelled.  Rainbow’s shocked face kept him from blowing up even further.

“Sorry.  It’s been a rough couple of days.”

“No, I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions like that.  We cool?” Rainbow extended her hoof, and Argent experienced the first ever true “bro-hoof.”

“I hate to ruin your little ‘bonding moment’ but we do have a Ponyville to save, dears.” Rarity said.

The seven ponies emerged from their cover behind the building to a scene of utter chaos.  Walls broken down, entire blocks ablaze, debris littering the streets, and ponies of all kinds running and flying to escape the destruction the Diamond Dogs had wrought on the town.

“Thank Celestia; it’s the Elements of Harmony!” a pony with a lily in her hair ran up to the group, “They came out of nowhere around noon.  I was just watering my flowers when the house across the street from mine just blew into smithereens!  I cowered down for a couple minutes but it all just grew louder.  When I finally looked up again those dogs were marching in from everywhere and all of Ponyville looked like a picture straight out of Tartarus!”

“Calm down, Lily.  Did they say anything as they were coming in the town?” Twilight asked.  Lily narrowed her eyes.

“You think I stayed around to listen to them?  Once I had my chance I booked it out of there as fast as my legs could carry me!  I just hope Daisy and Rose are okay.  They were out shopping when it all started.”

“Thanks for the information.  Get to a safe place and we’ll take care of this.  It won’t be the first time we’ve saved a place from certain destruction!” Twilight assured her.  The pony rolled her eyes,

“Yeah, well it happens a little more than I’d like.  I recommend calling in the Equestrian military to come help you out with this one, though.” Another explosion rocked the street, “I’ll see you later!  I’ve got to get out of here!”

Just as Lily ran away Fluttershy spoke up,

“Twilight, I was taking a look around from above and saw a huge group of Diamond Dogs headed for Sweet Apple Acres.  I think that’s where we should go first.”  Applejack’s eyes widened,

“Yer darn tootin’ we’re goin’ there first!  C’mon, y’all!  Ain’t nopony gonna get the jump on mah home and get away with it!”  The orange earth pony bolted off in the direction of her home, where there was indeed a sizable battalion of Diamond Dogs en route to the farm.  As the ponies ran past the dogs at a distance Twilight couldn’t help but notice, “I’ve never seen Diamond Dogs act this way.  Through all my research I’ve only found them to fight in leaderless small groups.  This is an organized army!”

“I think I see why there are so many on their way to Applejack’s place—look over there!” Rainbow Dash pointed ahead.

Diamond Dogs were being sent flying left and right thanks to a triple-tag-team of the three other Apple family members of Sweet Apple Acres.  Applebloom distracted them while Granny Smith—surprisingly nimbly—hit them over the head with various household objects.  While dazed, Big Macintosh bucked them off the farm into next week.  From the tired looks on their faces, they had been at it for a while.

“Guys!  Ah’m here!” Applejack called as she and the others hopped over the fence to the front grounds of the farm.  Rainbow Dash barreled into a leaping dog that was headed for Applebloom.  Twilight and Rarity used small magic blasts to knock a few more away.  Pinkie (somehow) deployed her Party Cannon to help set up the perimeter around the tired Apples.

“Y’all okay?” Applejack asked, embracing her family.

“We are now, thanks to you guys, sis!” Applebloom said.

“All right.  I need y’all to head to the storm cellar while we handle things out here,” Applejack implored.  Granny Smith interjected,

“Like hay we will!  Ah haven’t seen this much action since the Pony-Dragon war more than a thousand moons ago!”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac nodded.

“Is that where you got that helmet?” Applejack tilted her head.

“Sure is!  But that’s a story for another time.  More dogs a-comin’!”

“Fine, you and Big Mac can stay, but Ah am not havin’ mah little sister out here.  It’s way too dangerous!”

“But Ah can fight, too!  I’m a big—”

“Ah said NO, Applebloom,” Applejack lashed back, tears welling up in her eyes, “I ain’t losin’ no more of mah family.  Not no way, not no how!”  Granny Smith put her hoof around the young filly, knowing full well what her granddaughter was referring to.

“Come on, young un’.  Ah’ll go with you to the storm cellar.”  As the two Apples retreated, Applejack turned back to her friends, who had varying expressions of concern splayed across their faces.

“Ah’m fine, sugarcubes.  Now let’s get these varmints off mah farm and outta Ponyville!”  The Elements of Harmony, including Argent, stood ready for the Diamond Dogs’ next move.

“Attack!” one of them called, holding a sword high in the air.  A wave of them, teeth gnashing and voices snarling, made a beeline for the waiting ponies.  Argent set his horn alight in an intense silvery glow,

“Time to see what I can really do!”

Argent’s horn illuminated, and as it did, the necklaces and tiara of the other six ponies began to light as well.  The light then grew around and enveloped their bodies.  It shone for a moment, and faded to reveal that it had donned suits of armor on the ponies, each one stylized to match each Elemental crest.

“How did you do that?” Twilight asked, inspecting herself.

“I… I didn’t.  At least I don’t think I did.  Do you think it’s connected to my Element?” Argent said.

“Well, there’s no time to figure that out right now.  We’ve got a fight to win!  Everyone, charge!”

The seven ponies rushed into battle.  Though they were vastly outnumbered, they felt like they had every advantage in the world.  Whatever the nature of the armor Argent had summoned, it was deflecting every blow the Diamond Dogs were throwing at them.  Be it claws or swords or maces or battle axes, the attacks would just bounce off harmlessly.  The Elements of Harmony used their seemingly infallible defense to fight back fiercely.

Twilight’s magic blasted away as Rainbow Dash wove through them to assist with swift and precise aerial attacks.  Applejack and Big Mac bucked harder than they ever bucked any apple tree to send targets flying.  Rarity made use of her packed sewing supplies and fired sewing needles with her magic at incredible speeds.  Pinkie Pie’s Party Cannon blasts were assisted with dexterous control of unusually heavy maracas as makeshift clubs.  Even Fluttershy managed to stare down a few Diamond Dogs into retreat.  As magic blasts were a surprisingly easy skill, Argent joined Twilight in her ranged attacks.  After about an hour of straight fighting, an enemy officer finally called the order to fall back, and Sweet Apple Acres was finally safe.  Once the last grunt disappeared over the horizon out of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash landed beside Twilight,

“What now?” she asked.

“As much as I’d like to rest, the rest of Ponyville is still under attack.  We have to go make sure there aren’t many ponies in danger.”

“It’s a good thing Argent made us this fancy armor.  Ah don’t know what we would have done without it,” Applejack noted.  The other ponies nodded their agreement, except Big Macintosh, who did not gain a suit of armor and had sustained a few injuries.

“Oh, right.  Big Mac, y’all go to Granny Smith n’ Applebloom and get patched up.  We’ll be fine.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac nodded and galloped as fast as he could to the Apples’ storm cellar.

“At any rate, are you sure we can handle the rest, Twilight?  These guys aren’t Changelings,” Argent pointed out, “We’ll be here into the night, and that’s if we don’t get ourselves captured, or worse.”

“I never planned on continuing while we’re this tired,” Twilight shook her head, “I’ll call for some help.”

The purple unicorn put her horn skyward and sent up a brilliant purple flare that suspended in the air for a second, then beamed off in the direction of Canterlot.

“You mean the Equestrian Army?”  Fluttershy asked, “Do you really think it’s that bad?”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry, dear.” Rarity assured her pegasus friend.  A moment later, a yellow flare returned from the sky and flew straight to Twilight’s horn.

“Well, are they coming?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes.  Apparently they’re very close, and Princess Celestia is with them!”  Just as Twilight finished speaking, rhythmic hoof stamps could be heard in the distance.  Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy rose up to see where it was coming from.

“Over there, from the north!” Fluttershy pointed.  The seven ponies ran in the direction of the advancing Army.

The Elements of Harmony wove through soldier upon soldier to reach Princess Celestia’s chariot.

“Princess!” Twilight called, getting Celestia’s attention.  Celestia fluttered out of her chariot and began walking beside her student.

“Twilight, I’m glad you all are safe… where did the armor come from?”

“Argie’s necklace lit up all like ‘BOOM!’ and suddenly we were covered in metal!  Pretty swanky, huh?” Pinkie explained.

“The Elements keep surprising me each and every day…” Celestia said quietly.

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked,

“Oh, sorry.  It’s nothing.  More importantly, the Diamond Dog invasion is more serious than we thought.”

“You’re kidding,” Rainbow Dash gasped.

“I wish there was room for jokes, Rainbow Dash.  At the same time the Dogs marched on Ponyville, more armies entered cities all over Equestria.  Entire populations have been driven back to Baltimare’s Horseshoe Bay and the Port of Vanhoover.  There have even been reports of action between Diamond Dogs and Changelings near the Badlands.” Celestia said.

“Any word on how they’re organized or why they’re attacking?” Argent asked.  A glance into the stallion’s eyes told Celestia that not only his body had been in battle today.

“I see you’ve thought about it, too.  In the midst of the attacks, some Equestrian forces have reported the use of odd weaponry never before seen.  They’re incredibly destructive and have already cost thousands of lives, military and civilian alike,” Celestia could barely hold back the choked tone in her voice.  Argent guessed if a millennia old Princess was this distraught, the Kingdom of Equestria has likely not seen such destruction in such a short amount of time.  Even the guards around her seemed somber.

“Come, we must take back Ponyville as soon as possible.  This is probably a bad time to mention this, but Ponyville’s town hall holds a secret that will be key in preventing more bloodshed.  Also, Argent,” Celestia turned to Argent with a look more serious than he had ever seen any pony—or human for that matter—look in his entire life,

“It may be on your shoulders alone to save Equestria.”

Chapter 6

“Well if that doesn’t sound like the most self-indulgent contrived conclusion I’ve ever heard,” Carl snorted, “I know you’re supposed to be the key to saving Equestria, but you’re already talking like you’re some sort of knight in silver armor ready to do some hero thing that ‘only you can’ or some crap.”  Argent couldn’t help but remember that he had indeed penned a fan-fiction or two in which his exact situation came about with him at the center, albeit under very different circumstances—he wasn’t a genius that built a portal to Equestria all on his own in the basement of his mansion, and he didn’t feel a strange brotherly connection with Rainbow Dash as if they were mysteriously related somehow.

Still, Carl’s words irked him a little bit.  The grayish-blue stallion before him may have been a military man once, but Argent didn’t feel his condescension was warranted.

“I’m sorry if I come off as rude, sir, but I’ve seen ponies die today.  A couple days ago, the only thing I ever wanted to see a pony do was learn about friendship.  Hell, up until Twilight went and broke the universe in my living room, none of this even existed!  So if I happen to be the next crown prince of Equestria or some nonsense like that, you are just going to have to deal with it, because that means that I am not only my own ticket home, but yours, too.”

“Wow, snappy much?” Rainbow Dash whispered.  Carl coughed and sighed,

“Sorry kid, I guess this is a bit much to take in over only a couple days.”  He cleared his throat again,

“Now then, Element of Chivalry, we can get down to business and find out what’s making these Diamond Dogs so tick.”  Carl gestured to Princess Celestia, prompting her to speak,

“Remember that Carl said that the dimension Equestria resides in has been opened to the one that Argent came from a total of three times.  The first time was the true first contact, made all those years ago as a result of his research.  Twilight’s experimentation with the spells she found in the book she borrowed from the Canterlot library; in other words, the event that brought Argent here, was actually the third instance.”

Celestia pointed her horn to a display that had a map of Equestria on it.  A dot not far west of Ponyville began flashing, “The second anomaly happened here, a few months ago.  Though the high level magic alerted both Luna and myself, we foolishly ignored it, as it was over as soon as it began and we did not detect any significant presence as we did with Argent.”  Twilight chimed in,

“So, in short, you think that whatever, or whoever caused the second anomaly is behind the Diamond Dog invasion.”  Rainbow Dash flew up and flexed her hooves,

“Well then let’s get on over there and beat up whoever’s responsible!” she declared.

“We can’t just waltz in and ask where they got all their weapons from.  We’ll be full of holes the second we set hoof underground.” Argent pointed out.  Rainbow lowered herself, rethinking her strategy.  Carl spoke up again,

“You’re both right and wrong, Argent.  While it’s true that we can’t just knock on their door like we’re selling cookies, we do have a method of ‘intimidation,’ so to speak.”

“What do you mean?  Even with magic, we’re hopelessly out-gunned, in that we literally have no guns.” Argent said.  Carl gave a small smirk.

“Not exactly.  Celestia, let’s show them what else we’ve been working on.”  Celestia nodded and used her horn to light the ground below them.  The light faded to reveal that the floor they were standing on was actually sectioned into a concentric circle: the outer ring held the computers and machines that lined the wall for Carl’s research and surveillance.  The inner circle held the DTM prototype and the ponies.  It was actually a platform that began descending even deeper below Ponyville, finally coming to rest in a cavern easily hundreds of times the size of the large room they were just in.

As the platform thudded to a halt, lights came on in the cavern, illuminating walls lined with thousands of sets of body armor and guns.  This was not human equipment.  As Argent inspected them, he realized that they were designed differently—these were meant to be used by ponies.  The rest of the cavern looked like a parking lot sectioned off into numbers and letters for easy classification.  There were no cars in the “parking spaces” though.  Instead, fearsome tanks stood stalwart side by side from one end of the cave to the other in at least a few dozen rows.

“This is Equestria’s hidden arsenal.” Carl said proudly.  Twilight, Argent, and Rainbow Dash’s jaws nearly hit the floor.  Princess Celestia surveyed the room with a mixed look of pride and concern.

“They are fantastic, Colonel Saunders.  I don’t remember requesting this many in Ponyville’s vault, though.”

“Wait, there are more places like this?” Twilight asked, bewildered.  Celestia nodded slowly,

“Yes, my student.  Hidden arsenals like this one have been built all over Equestria.  Ponyville’s is one of the smaller ones.  Canterlot’s, of course, is the largest.”

“But why?” Twilight’s eyes showed intense worry, “Equestria hasn’t seen large-scale war since before Discord’s time, and in all my studies I’ve never read about us conquering anypony, either.”

Celestia sighed.

“When Carl first suggested we use some of his technology years ago, both Luna and I were skeptical.  We had few enemies, and those we did have could be easily kept at bay with the spears, shields, armor, and magic of our military then.  We were aware, though, that lands far beyond Equestria were advancing at a much faster pace than our old kingdom.  Primitive versions of these ‘guns’ and other tools and machines of war being developed meant that eventually somepony would be angry, crazy, or desperate enough to use them.

“My sister and I reluctantly agreed that it would be best to gain an edge over those that might harm us in the future, so we agreed to adopt human technological advances for pony use.  We could not worry our subjects, though, so we kept these arsenals a secret, and instead explained heightened taxes and increased royal spending with a program meant to research other non-military technologies.”

“So this is what we’re going to use to get into the Diamond Dog base west of Ponyville?” Argent said, putting his hoof on one of the tanks.  Carl nodded,

“Yup.  I call these tanks ‘Wizards.’”

“Why do you call them that?” Twilight cocked her head.

“Because they run on magic.  Each tank has a four-pony crew: a commander, a gunner, an ammunition loader, and a driver.  The driver has to be a unicorn, though, or the tank won’t work.  It’s a failsafe to keep the tanks out of enemy hooves.”

“Wouldn’t that be assuming whoever the crew would be facing wouldn’t have unicorns?” Twilight inquired.

“Yeah, but whoever ‘they’ might be also doesn’t know that you need magic to run the thing, so it’s better than nothing.”  Argent was silent for a moment, then whipped around, eyes wide.

“I’m driving one of these, aren’t I?”  Carl raised an eyebrow,

“You’re a unicorn, aren’t you?”  A rumble from the surface reminded the ponies in the cavern that the world above them was in danger.

“Let’s get to the surface,” Carl said.  Before he hopped back on the platform he pressed a few buttons on a control panel.  Three of the tanks began rising up with Argent, Celestia, and the others.  “These should be enough to get into the base.  Those mutts may have rockets, but I didn’t design the Wizards to be pushovers.”

“Aren’t you going to come with us?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“No can do.  I have to stay here and protect the DTM.  Until we know more about them, there’s no telling when the Diamond Dogs might try to take Ponyville again.  You and the Elements of Harmony can handle it, though.  I’ve got confidence in you.”

On the surface, Argent saw that the tanks Carl sent with them had risen out of hidden platforms around Ponyville’s Town Hall.  Soldiers and civilians appeared scared of them at first, but relaxed when they saw Celestia and Twilight near them with no fear.

“Oh, my, what peculiar looking vehicles!” The Element of Generosity trotted into the square from the direction of the hospital.  Fluttershy floated low to the ground just behind her.

“Rarity!  Fluttershy!” Twilight hugged her friends, “How are the injured?  It’s not too bad, is it?”  Fluttershy gave a very small smile, if for nothing but assurance,

“There are a few bad cases, but Nurse Redheart and the other doctors did very well treating ponies as fast as they did.  They should all be just fine.”

“Yes, I’m very pleased to see that so many ponies are all right,” Rarity glanced up at the Wizards, “Twilight, what are these, um…”

“They’re Wizards.  They’re war machines built using technology from Argent’s world, but for use by ponies,” Twilight answered.

“You built weapons in the short time we were gone?” Rarity gasped.

“No!  They were already here.  It’s… it’s a long story.”

“We’re gonna use these babies to bust in the Diamond Dog base near here and find out who’s responsible for all this!” Rainbow Dash punched the air repeatedly.

“Oh, my,” Fluttershy said, covering her mouth at the thought of more violence, “How do we go about doing that?”

“Well, for starters, each of these needs a crew of four.  Can you aim, Rarity?” Argent asked.  The white unicorn seemed taken aback,

“Can I aim?  Why, I participate in magic archery regularly!”

With Argent driving, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash manned the first tank.  They gathered Pinkie Pie from a damaged Sugarcube Corner where she was ensuring that the Cake family was unharmed.  Once Applejack bade farewell to her family, she, Pinkie, Twilight, and a soldier from Celestia’s Elite Guard commandeered the second tank.  Another group of Equestrian soldiers occupied the third.

“So we’re usin’ these fancy tanker things to get those Diamond Dogs back fer bustin’ up Ponyville?” Applejack said over the radio inside her tank.  The first leg of the ponies’ journey to the Diamond Dog base was used to train them in use of the Wizards.  Argent expected it might be difficult getting the hang of it, but he and the other crew members mastered the controls quickly and were soon on their way to their mission.  The tanks rumbled loudly along increasingly rocky ground as the ponies neared the craggy land where the Diamond Dogs resided.

“We’re probably going to fight, but that’s not why we’re going to their base, Applejack,” Twilight warned her.  She stood on her hind legs to get a view out of the hatch of Wizard she was commanding while she spoke,

“This is just a means to an end, and that end is finding out why the Diamond Dogs are attacking and who gave them their weapons.”  One of the soldiers of the third Wizard poked his head out of his tank and waved Twilight down.

“Miss Sparkle!  We’re nearing the outskirts of enemy territory.  I suggest we stay inside the Wizards where it’s safe.”  He disappeared back into the tank, closing the hatch.  Twilight nodded and gulped, remembering that they were about to be in very real danger.  Defending Sweet Apple Acres from one group of Diamond Dogs was one thing, but going head-on into an entire stronghold full of them was something else entirely.  She ducked back into the tank and locked the hatch.  Just as she did, Argent’s voice crackled over the intercom,

“There’s movement in the bushes ahead!” He said.

“Fluttershy, load a shell!”  Rainbow Dash ordered.  Fluttershy struggled to lift one of the heavy projectiles, at least five inches in diameter.  She flapped her wings to help, but the small confines of the turret prevented much movement.  Rarity used her magic to assist the pegasus loading the casing into the gun breech.

“Where’s my target, dear?” Rarity asked as Argent brought the Wizard to a halt.  The other two tanks stopped as well.

“About twenty degrees to the left.  Angle the barrel downward a little as well.  If we just scare them out of hiding, they may run straight back to their base, and we’ll be right on their heels.”  Mechanical whirring sounded through near silence as Rarity rotated the turret of her Wizard according to Argent’s direction.  The bushes he pointed out glistened for a split second before three Diamond Dogs suddenly popped out and aimed a rocket launcher at the tank.

“Quick!  Fire!” Rainbow yelled.  The sound of the Wizard’s cannon was so deafening, the whoosh of the rocket launcher firing could not even be heard.  A small crater opened up as a result of the shell’s explosion.  As Argent expected, the hiding dogs began high-tailing it out of there, dropping the spent launcher as they ran.  Their rocket bounced harmlessly off of the Equestrian soldiers’ tank and exploded behind them.  The three Wizards began following their assailants at full throttle.

The ponies bounced around the inside of their tanks as they thundered after the Diamond Dogs.

“Don’t let them get away!” Rainbow Dash commanded over her headset.

“Like hay Ah will!” Applejack called back.  She was the gunner for the tank Twilight was commanding, and nearly knocked Twilight off her hooves as she suddenly aimed the turret in the Dogs’ path.

“Hold on, Applejack!  We want to chase them, not kill them!”

“Chasin’ crows don’t keep ‘em off a farm, Twi!” Applejack ignored the purple unicorn’s orders and fired.

It was the first time any of them had taken a life.

Chapter 5

Celestia’s words echoed in Argent’s mind as he and the other ponies walked toward Ponyville’s damaged town hall.  Thanks to the help of the Royal Equestrian Army and Celestia’s Elite Guard, taking back the town took only a short while and resulted in minimal casualties.  As soon as the area was secure, Celestia ordered her troops to begin setting up treatment camps.  Ponyville’s hospital was quickly filled to the brim with injured civilians and soldiers.

Fluttershy felt that she could best be of help assisting the hurt ponies, so she and Rarity went off to help the medical effort.  Applejack voiced her concern for her family and dismissed herself to be with them for a while.  Pinkie Pie couldn’t bear to see so many sad ponies around her; she did not hesitate in doing what she did best—darting all around Ponyville to bring a quick smile to whoever may need it.  Only Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Argent remained in the hall to hear the Princess’ news about the secret under the town hall.

“Here, under the lectern, is a switch that can only be activated by a certain spell.   I will teach it to the two of you, Twilight and Argent.”  Celestia lit her horn and touched it first to Twilight and Argent’s horns and then to the lectern, which split to reveal a button that the alicorn pressed with her hoof.  A large image of Ponyville’s town crest in the center of the floor opened up to reveal a spiral staircase.  Torches lit themselves the entire way down.

“Who else knows about this?” Twilight asked.

“Just you three, Mayor Mare, Luna, myself, and one other.  It is only me and my sister, however, who know the origin of this object.  It came here long ago during Luna’s banishment.  I hadn’t even taken Twilight under my wing yet.  That’s neither here nor there, though.  Let’s go.” Celestia said.  The four ponies descended the staircase to a cavernous hallway.  Rainbow Dash floated slightly ahead of the others, but was suddenly stopped by Celestia’s magic.

“Wait, Rainbow Dash.  I must disable some traps, first.”  Celestia walked over to a torch and pulled on it.  A panel with old-looking symbols emerged from the wall.  Celestia pressed a few in sequence and a series of clunks, scrapes, and thumps echoed throughout the hall.

“Wow.  I guess you really didn’t want anypony getting to this thing.”  Rainbow gulped.  Had she not been stopped by the Princess, who knows what disaster could have awaited her?

Celestia gave a nod to let Twilight, Argent, and Rainbow know that it was okay to continue.  They approached a huge metal door at the end of the hall.  Celestia’s horn glowed again and she inserted it into a hole in the center of the door, not unlike the vault that once held the Elements of Harmony.  It slowly swung open and a blinding light poured out.  Its source wasn’t the secret object, though.  Instead, the light came from glass bulbs and various displays on odd machines.  They were lined up along the wall of the circular room.  A massive tarp draped over something in the center.

“Are you familiar with the things in here, Argent?” Celestia turned to the brown unicorn.  Argent was still busy scanning the room when he answered,

“Hardly,” he shook his head, “Back in my world, I’m just a student.  Most humans, in fact, would probably be lucky to work with machines like this, much less understand them.”

“So you don’t know what they are?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“No, I do know what they are.  They’re computers: devices built to do all sorts of things like tests, calculations, simulations, and analyses.  They can do a lot more, too, but that’s their main function.  These computers, though, are very large and powerful ones.  The average human doesn’t even know how to use one this big, much less a room full of them.  Princess, where did these come from?"

“I believe I can help explain that.”  Before Celestia could answer Argent, a pony came from around the giant tarp-covered object.  It was a gruff but thin bluish-gray stallion with a blonde mane that was receding and had lost its luster.  His tail was cut short.  Like Argent, he had no cutie mark.  He had a hardhat with a light on it, which he switched off after coming out from under the tarp.

“The name’s Carl.  Carl Saunders.”

“Carl?  That sounds like a—” Argent began.

“Human name?  You’re right about that,” he spoke as roughly as he looked, “I’m a human, like you.  Well, at least I was.  I’ve been a pony for the last thirty years.”  Argent, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash were in shock.

“So Argent’s not the first human to come to this world?” Twilight asked Celestia.

“If what we know is correct, he won’t be the last one, either,” Celestia said, “Twilight, when you completed your dimensional window spell, you very well may have saved Equestria by bringing Argent here.”

“I don’t get it, what’s going on?” Twilight shook her head.

“I thought I said I would be explaining things,” Carl interrupted.

“I’m sorry.  Please, continue.” Twilight hushed.  Carl cleared his throat.

“As I was saying: thirty years ago I was a colonel in the United States Army.  I was part of a secret scientific branch researching the more… unorthodox side of weapons development.  We were in cahoots with the CIA on a project that could move objects from one place to another instantaneously, y’know, to help with troop deployment and stuff.  The folks in the CIA wanted a part of it to plant spies without having to drop them in locations with planes or things like that.

“The project was a huge success, but no one but the team closest to the technology, including me, knew that.  You see, we completed the technology to connect one point in space to another, but not without going through a whole bunch of other ‘spaces’ first.  We accidentally discovered the very framework of the multiverse, and while trying to find our way back to our own universe, we kept stumbling upon another that was not ours, but had developed life and its own laws of physics.”

“You mean Equestria?” Twilight asked.  Carl snorted,

“The purple one’s smart, ‘Tia.  I can see why you took her as a student.  Yeah, kid, I mean Equestria.  We thought it was the strangest thing in the world, what with the talking ponies and dragons and magic and whatnot.  The first portal opened up right in the throne room in Canterlot castle.  We thought it was just a window at first, and my team and I talked with Celestia and Equestrian scientists for hours and hours about pretty much everything.  We learned that Equestria was such a peaceful world full of wonder and things we had never seen before.  Creatures like griffons and manticores were just myths and legends in our world, but there they were very real.  My team wanted to protect it at all costs, even if we could only see into the place.”

“So you lied to your superiors about the progress you were making to keep them from finding out about Equestria?” Argent asked.  Carl nodded,

“Sure did.  Then, one day I decided to see if I could go through the portal.  My colleagues were against it, but I had to see Equestria with my own eyes.  Little did I know that going through the portal would mean it would close right behind me and I wouldn’t be able to go back to my own universe for a while.  When I made the jump, I wasn’t the only thing that came through, though.” Carl pulled the tarp off of the machine behind him.

“Do you know what this is, Argent?” he asked.  Argent had seen this before—or at least something like it.

“It looks like a tank, but it doesn’t have a gun.” Argent guessed.

“You know what the M1 Abrams is?” Carl smirked.

“It’s the modern battle tank of the United States military, right?”

“Yep, but it used to be this.  The tank is just a by-product of the dimensional transport machine, or DTM’s development.”

“Wait,” Argent narrowed his eyes, “How the hell do you get a tank from a project about tearing a hole in space and time?”

“Lying, that’s how!  Remember how I said my team and I lied about our progress on object transport devices?  Well, we didn’t say we were getting nowhere.  To keep the generals off our backs, we slapped a gun and turret on to the transport platform we had already developed for the DTM and named it after an old dead guy to have it sound patriotic.  Then, we hid the real thing and gave the military our plans for the tank.  It was just our luck that they happened to need a new one of those at the time we did!”

“All that to keep your people from Equestria?  Why hide us in the first place?” Twilight spoke up.  The smile that Carl had put on when reminiscing about deceiving the military faded.  He walked up to Twilight and put his face in hers.

“I don’t know what Argent’s told you all about our world, but away from any apparent peace you see is not a pretty sight.  Humans are creatures capable of some of the greatest acts of kindness, compassion, and friendship in existence.  They are also, however, capable of committing the vilest, most disgusting, and destructive acts as well.  In order to keep that from you ponies, who are the good side of humans times one hundred, we had to keep you secret in order to keep you safe,” Carl finally pulled away.  Twilight gulped.

“What about the computers?” Argent asked quickly to diffuse tension, “How did they get here?”

“I had them built,” Carl responded, “They don’t put idiots on top-secret research teams, y’know.  I told Equestrians how to build computers and other inventions in exchange for being able to work on this until it was finished.  I didn’t expect a few things, though: One, I underestimated how long building a DTM alone with limited resources would take, especially with just hooves and my mouth.  What I expected to take no more than a couple months ended up being three decades.  Two, I never thought anyone—or anypony, as it were, to do what I’ve been working at for years independently with magic.  Three, I couldn’t have guessed that it would be done twice.”

“Twice?” Rainbow Dash echoed, “You mean somepony else has a dimension spell like Twilight?”

“That’s my guess, yes.  It’s the only thing that could explain the Diamond Dogs gaining access to guns and rockets.  It still doesn’t explain their sudden organization, but that’s going to have to be a bridge we’ll cross when we come to it.”

“If you being here, the Diamond Dogs’ sudden attacks, and my being here are all independent events, why am I the one who can help save Equestria?  This whole situation is becoming more convoluted by the second.” Argent shook his head.  Celestia put her hoof on his shoulder,

“Carl thinks it’s because of the way you reacted to the Elements of Harmony.  He’s been watching your presence here just as I have.  You would have been called here eventually, but with events developing the way they are, things had to be rushed a bit.  So, to make it short, his theory is that there may be more than six Elements, and you are resonant with one of them.”

“What do you mean by resonant?” Argent asked.  Carl chimed in,

“One of the first machines I built when I came here was a device to measure energy of all kinds to make sure nothing here was slowly killing me or anything.  After I made sure the environment was relatively safe, I began zeroing in on some strange frequencies lying outside of the electromagnetic spectrum we know from our world.  There were dozens that I could make out, and I’m thinking there are likely hundreds beyond them.  As waves, most of them were erratic and had nothing in common at all, but were interesting to study nonetheless.  Six of them, however, were in perfect sync.  They were distinctly different frequencies, but they were harmonic.

“I only knew they were the Elements of Harmony when Celestia showed them to me and the machine I made blew up from energy overload.  I built a new one later and monitored the wave-forms of the Elements’ energy while I wasn’t working on the DTM.  When you came into this world, though, Argent, something changed.  A seventh frequency began to line up with the other six that were already in sync.  I don’t know which one you may be, but if my theory checks out, kid, you’re one of them.”

“I’m an Element of Harmony?  Which one?” Argent asked.

“I don’t know, kid,” Carl shrugged, “Do you know of anything that makes you special?”

“I turned into a pony once,” the brown unicorn joked.  Carl rolled his eyes,

“I mean your personality, kid.  Like that apple one; she’s honest, right?  That’s why she’s the Element of Honesty.  If we can figure out what stands out with you, we’ll figure out what Element of Harmony you are, and we’ll be one step closer to moving on with this war.”  Argent thought back to when he first came through the portal to Equestria.  He remembered that as he was meeting the Mane 6 he was acting out of character, bowing and doling out compliments when he greeted each of the ponies.  Perhaps he was the Element of Kindness?

No, that was Fluttershy’s thing.  He jumped ahead to the suits of armor he had inadvertently summoned during the battle to protect Sweet Apple Acres.  What was he thinking back then?  He wanted to protect the other ponies.  They needed help, and he wanted to be there for them.  It was a noble endeavor.  Noble.  Was he the Element of Nobility?  There’s a better word for that, though.

Being kind and courteous, wanting to protect others… it wasn’t nobility, but, Argent knew it was along those lines.  Only one term came to mind,

“It’s chivalry,” Argent said, “I’m the Element of Chivalry.”