A Promise Not Forgotten

Dan and Luna sat in silence as the carriage flew over Equestria. The first stop was Twilight Sparkle’s residence in Ponyville. From there Dan and Luna would meet the other Elements of Harmony and get them on his side.

“Dan, we’re nearing Ponyville,” Luna said with a gentle nudge to wake Dan from his nap. “Time to wake up!” She said with a smile.

Dan groaned as he peeled his eyes open, “Meh.” The human sat up from his reclined position and looked out the window to the night-shrouded ground below. He had flown before back on Earth, but something about being pulled by pegasi made the whole experience new. Of course, the covered carriage was nowhere near as large as a plane, but it had the same feeling. Dan watched as the ground rapidly approached before the carriage touched down on the field. The land wasn’t flat, not in the least, so the landing tossed the passengers about. Finally the nightmare of a ride stopped and Dan flung the door open and fell out. “Oh man, I’ve never loved the ground more!” He said as he rolled around in the green grass. His comment gained a few offended looks from the pilot ponies.

Luna chuckled at the sight of a grown man rolling around on the ground like a little filly. “Come on, Dan; let’s get moving, shall we?” Luna asked as Dan smiled up at her.

“Oh, fine, ruin ALL of my fun why don’t you?” Dan asked sarcastically.

Luna smirked at his antics and the duo walked on toward the town. “So, Dan, what did you do back on Earth?” She asked.

“Well, I was a security guard for various places. Nothing too impressive, but it paid well,” Dan said, smiling at the ponies he recognized as they passed.

“What was Earth like, before the whole big war thing?” Luna asked.

“It was nice. Sometimes, even comparable to Equestria,” Dan said. The subject of his home was slightly touchy, and he immediately chose to leave out a lot of details, including My Little Pony.

“What did you do for fun?” Luna asked. Her interest slightly annoyed Dan, but he went along with it anyway. Luna –was- his favorite pony, after all.

“Everything from watching movies to shooting guns,” Dan said.

Luna’s face contorted in confusion, “What’s a movie, and what’s a gun?”

“Humans are technologically advanced far past Equestria. We have things like movies – pictures that cycle on a screen really fast to make it look like they are moving, and guns – which are like crossbows but don’t use tension, instead they use combustion to propel a little piece of metal.” Dan said thinking back to the horrors that guns have caused.

“What would one use a ‘gun’ for?” Luna asked.

‘Shit’ Dan thought. That was the last thing he wanted to explain to somepony like Luna. “Um, they were created to kill people.” Dan said bracing for another surprised glare.

As expected Luna showed Dan that confused face, “That’s horrible! Why would anypony want to kill?”

“If only I knew the answer,” Dan said, wondering himself why people insisted on doing things to warrant killing.

“D- did you ever kill?” Luna asked hesitantly, not entirely sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Dan shifted a little bit as he walked, “Can we talk about something else, please?” He didn’t like killing, but had to sometimes, especially in the poor state of his world.

Luna looked away, feeling guilty that she made Dan think of something like that. The princess could tell by the evasion of the question that he had killed, and also could tell that he didn’t like it. “Oh, sorry, I just…”

“No, it’s fine, just a bit of a sensitive subject,” Dan said flatly, hoping to cheer up Luna.

“What was your family like?” She asked, instead.

Dan cringed to think of them, but in doing so he was happy. Something about remembering the good old times made him realize how far they had come. “Heh, before all the crap started, I lived with my grandma and grandpa, taking care of them. They couldn’t live alone, and nobody else opted to stay, so I did,” Dan said.

As they approached Twilight’s library, Luna asked, “Where were your parents?”

“My dad wasn’t much of one. Let me tell you, frequent police visits and drug issues don’t do well for a kid growing up. Lucky for us, he bailed before anything really bad happened,” Dan said.

Luna’s face fell, “That’s horrible! How could he do that to you?” She asked.

“Pretty easy actually; some people just don’t think straight. It wasn’t an uncommon thing on Earth, for a kid to be alone,” Dan said. By now, the lack of a father didn’t bother him. His grandpa was always there to fill the space, be the father figure that Dan lacked.

Dan walked forward and knocked on the door, thinking how odd it was to need permission like that to get into a library, but it –did- double as Twilight’s home. Spike opened the door and smiled at Dan before his eyes grew wide when he saw Luna. “P- Pr- Princess Luna!” Spike sputtered as he bowed deeply. “Come in, please!”

The duo walked into the tree house-library and were greeted by Twilight walking down the stairs. “Princess Luna! What are you doing here?” The unicorn asked in a half-panic while bowing.

Dan looked to Luna who returned a nod, “Aidan’s in jail,” Dan said flatly.

“What? What did he do? Is he okay? Can we see him?” Twilight asked without letting Dan get a word in edgewise.

“Calm down, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said calmly. “That’s why we’re here. Aidan has been wrongly accused and is in the dungeon because of it. We are trying to gather a group of supporters to show my sister that there is good in him.”

At the mention of Princess Celestia keeping Aidan imprisoned, Twilight’s face contorted in confusion. “Why would she put him in jail?”

“She thinks the public would be happier if he was detained after the whole gryphon incident,” Dan said while crossing his arms. The idea that Celestia would betray them still made him angry. ‘Even after all we went through for her and these ponies, she still doesn’t trust us,’ Dan thought.

Twilight gave a determined smile, “Ok, I’ll get the others!” She said enthusiastically.

“There will be no need for that,” Luna said. “Just get as many supporters as you can and meet in Canterlot tomorrow morning, we will handle the other Elements,”

“Okay, good luck Princess,” She said with a smile. “Oh, and by the way, Rainbow Dash is visiting Cloudsdale.”

“Thank you, Twilight,” Dan said. “Now we gotta get goin’ if we’re going to get the others in time.” With that Dan and Luna left the tree house.

“Cloudsdale eh?” Dan said. He was fond of the city of clouds but that only presented another obstacle to gathering the others. “This is going to be all kinds of fun…”

“We’ll deal with that later,” Luna said, picking up on what he meant. “In the meantime let’s go see the others.”

“Yeah…” Dan said as he walked down the street to Sugarcube Corner. “Well, better get back to work anyway.”

“Pinkie Pie should be more than happy to help us, she would never let her friends down,” Luna said. “Hey, how did you know Aidan?” She asked to break the awkward silence.

“Heh, how don’t I know Aidan… We’ve been friends since he was born, little guy’s like a brother to me,” Dan said. This was a topic he could talk about. “We always had each other’s backs, nothing could split us up.”

“Was it just you and Aidan?” Luna asked.

“Nah, it was me, my brother Matt, Aidan, and his two brother’s John, and Taylor,” Dan said smiling at the memories. “When we got older it was just me, John, and Aidan.”

Luna remembered the unfortunate fate that Dan’s world had suffered, “What became of them… when…” Luna couldn’t muster the words to finish her sentence.

Dan had already picked up on what she was going to say, lucky for her. Dan sighed, not because he was sad, but because the series of events that followed were quite indescribable, and he couldn’t find his own words. “I’ll start at the beginning, right after Aidan left. His disappearance was one many, actually, both he and Colin were the first, a few people we knew followed close behind. I’m a little surprised that I’m the only other one who made it here, actually. But anyway, the changes came slowly at first. People either didn’t notice or didn’t care, there were few that actually did anything. Those that did disappeared, with no trace, nothing, as if they never existed. Then our governments pushed the big red button and the world was plunged into a nuclear war, even if it was seen as a war crime. Oh, and by the way, ‘nuclear war’ means we dropped bombs on each other, big ones at that.” Luna merely walked in silence as she listened to the horrors that she could never dream of. “After that society and government vanished, it was just every man for himself. Our two families and a few others, being as close as we were, teamed up and made a little home for ourselves on a piece of land that Aidan’s family owned. We lived like that for a few months, surviving any way we could. It was tough, but when the looters came, that was the last straw. We lost a few in the firefight, the rest of us fled, and scattered. I never saw anybody after that,” Dan said.

Luna, as per norm, felt terrible for Dan. The horrors unfathomable to her were just another part of Dan’s life. ‘Maybe that’s why the murdering of a nation didn’t bother him as much,’ Luna thought. “I’m sorry…” She said.

“Don’t be,” Dan said with a smile, while on the inside he wished there was something he could do to help his family and friends back on Earth. “What’s happened has happened, there’s nothing any of us can do to change it.”

‘Well, maybe there’s one…’ Dan thought idly remembering a certain background pony of the show that he had yet to see.

“Enough about me and my sad life, how ‘bout you?” Dan asked. “The life of a Princess has to be exciting, no?”

Luna giggled, “And so it is.” With a sigh of her own for the same reason as Dan’s she started, “As long as I have remembered it was just me and my sister, the two of us, against everything.”

“Didn’t you two have parents?” Dan asked.

“I don’t even remember,” Luna admitted. “In the beginning when harmony had yet to be brought to Equestria we were thought to be abominations. Ponies had never seen an alicorn before, and acted harshly. I don’t know, but I think they might have been killed,” Luna said, looking sad.

“Sorry… I didn’t meant to-” Dan started.

“Don’t, ‘what has happened has happened’ remember?” Luna said smiling at Dan.

Dan smiled back, “Yeah.”

“We basically went about a long drawn-out process of showing that we are normal. After generations passed we found out we were immortal. We decided that it would be best if we made the world a better place, to we established Equestria and united the kingdoms,” Luna said. “We ran into some kinks along the way: Prophet, Nightmare Moon, Discord, Changelings, and now Prophet again.”

The thoughts played back in Dan’s mind that Prophet wasn’t actually bad. Sure his method of doing things was a mite immoral, but it did get results. He couldn’t help but thing that Equestria probably wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for him. There was another question bothering him though, “Hey, you’re immortal and all that, does it ever get old? Watching everyone pass as you are stuck here must be lonely, right?” Dan asked.

Luna sighed and closed her eyes. ‘Maybe that’s not the best thing to ask’ Dan thought as a tear slid down her face. “It is,” Luna said as her voice shook. “You don’t understand, seeing everypony you’ve ever known, ever loved die before you, and all you can do is watch. But, after all that, just knowing that I make this world a better place makes me want to stay.”

Luna stopped walking, “Hey, you’re doing a damn fine job of it, too,” Dan said with a smile that Luna returned. “Listen, I know it may be tough, and you’ll want to quit, but Luna, what you’re doing here is something amazing. You’re taking care of these ponies, making sure they have a place to call home. If it weren’t for you, Equestria would have fallen just like Earth. Think of all the lives you saved, and all the ones that can live because of you.” Dan chuckled a bit, “Heh, never thought I’d be here now, actually HERE in Equestria. I still can’t believe it sometimes.” Luna looked at Dan with a bright smile, “But I’m glad I am.”