A sudden gasp echoed through Princess Luna’s bedroom, moments later Dominic sat upright and began looking around. The room was brighter than he last remembered, forcing him to cover his eyes. With the curtains open, it was clear with his adjusting vision, that something about Luna’s bedroom was different. The normal order if it all was gone, replaced by disorganized looking machinary and two very stunned ponies. Dominic slowly blinked his eyes, running a hand over his face and feeling he had accumulated at least a month’s worth of stubble.

He felt the aching in his muscles a few moments later, most likely due to a month or so of disuse. The ponies seemed to be staring at him, one of them seemed to say something. A rush of thoughts and emotions drowned out whatever it was that they were saying, he found himself panting for breath. One of the ponies came towards him but he weakly held up a shaking hand, the other hand moving to run over his hair. After a few more blinks he saw a grey bespectacled unicorn in a labcoat, the one that had made a move towards him was a white mare in nurses garb.

“M-Mister President?” Asked the nurse in a concerned voice, Dominic continued looking at her. “A-Are you alright?” The man held up a single finger, his gaze shifting to the floor. For the first time in a long time, it felt as if he’d woken up in his own bed. The familiar warmth of sleep had settled over him like a cape on his shoulders rather than a shroud. There were worries and concerns, but they all seemed miles away. It was at this moment he noticed that he was wearing a hospital gown, not that he minded. Instead, he let out a slight chuckle.

“Never been better…” He said in a rather raspy voice, he looked around the room for a moment. He took in the odd color the wallpaper was with the sun on it, the odd haze that seemed to linger in the air, and an odd smell of disinfectant.

“You’ve been unconscious for forty days.” The doctor said in an accented voice, Dominic looked towards him. He recognized the unicorn from other dealings, Doctor Von Crop, he’d been the one that helped Twilight Sparkle after her gunshot wound and his riot injuries. “Good to see you haven’t atrophied much.”

“Uh huh…” Dominic waved him off and looked towards the bed, he heard an echoing voice in his mind as he did so. It sounded familiar, but far away. ’You really love him… Don’t you?’. He shrugged and plopped down on the bed between two sleeping alicorns, he scooted up a bit and laid back. Luna rolled over and wrapped a leg over him, cuddling up against him. Dominic smiled at this, unsure of why, but again, not really caring.

“Perhaps you should try walking-” The doctor began.

“I’ll stay right here for now, thanks…” Dominic cut him off, the doctor and nurse seemed surprised by his statement. “Could you have someone bring in some real food, my stomach feels like I ate a cinder block.”

“Right… Nurse, would you mind retrieving something from the cafeteria?” The doctor asked as Dominic put his own arm under Luna’s neck, the man let out a content sigh. The nurse looked a bit miffed at the request before nodding and walking to the door, after she’d left Doctor Von Crop adjusted his glasses and silently levitated up a clipboard. He took a pen from the same clipboard and began jotting down notes, Dominic just let out a sigh as he prepared for the inevitable barrage of questions. Thankfully salvation came in the form of a surprised gasp, followed by another as the two alicorns suddenly woke up.

They each sat up, flapping their wings and looking around with wide eyes. Doctor Von Crop let his pen drop out of his magical grasp, his brow furrowing as the two ponies flailed about. Dominic continued leaning back on the bed watching the two of them and putting his hands behind his head.

“Huh! What!? Ah!?” Luna sputtered for a moment before realizing where she was, both princesses blinked and looked between Dominic and Doctor Von Crop. The unicorn in question gave a somewhat sheepish wave, his horn still levitating the clipboard.

“Take it easy, your highness. You’ve been unconscious for a little over a month.” The doctor said, getting the attention of the two princesses. Luna and Celesita looked towards him with somewhat surprised expressions.

“A m-month?” Celestia asked in a groggy voice, the Doctor simply nodded. “The country must be in anarchy! Without us-”

“You’re panicking, your highness.” Von Crop cut her off as he watched her vitals, the solar princess’ let out a soft sigh as she was scolded. “Your highness, please, you must rest a bit. We don’t know what the effects of the spell could be if you move around too much.” Celestia slowly nodded and leaned back down in the bed, noticing that at that point Dominic seemed to be taking up the majority of the middle of the bed.

Luna had a similar reaction, leaning back in the bed herself. Dominic adjusted his position so that she could lay down comfortably while the Doctor took down a few more notes. He appeared to be fascinated by all of this, then again, Von Crop was always looking for the next big thing. Mind Magic was probably just another stepping stone on his path to full fledged mad scientist.

“Now, I’ll get out of your manes. I’m sure you wish to have privacy.” The Doctor smiled and left his clipboard on a nearby medical machine, then turned and trotted towards the door. He opened it and left, for a moment it sounded as if there was hushed whispering before silence returned. Dominic sighed and looked at the two mares, they in turn looked at him.

“I had a dream like this once.” He said in a deadpanned tone, turning his gaze up to the ceiling. “Long time ago.” Luna and Celestia looked a bit confused by the revelation, each continuing to stare at the man. Luna was most worried, she feared that her tampering had somehow messed with his mind. For some odd reason he seemed happier than usual, it was honestly a bit odd.

“How art thou feeling, Dominic?” Luna asked, Dominic shrugged and gave a slight smile. He looked over to her and gave a sincere grin.

“I feel great. Better than I have in a long time…” He trailed off and gave a yawn, Celestia shot Luna a hopeful smile from the other side of the bed. “What did you do in there? I’m remembering flashes, but it’s all kinda fuzzy.”

Luna paused for a moment, she wasn’t sure how to explain what she’d done. Honestly she’d just gone in and talked to him, but there was something more to it. Seeing what she’d seen, the screaming faces and horribly mean voices, it was as if she’d seen his emotions in their rawest form.

“We… Went into thine mind.” Luna began. “Thou had a breakdown in the courtyard and we couldn’t snap thou out of it… When we were inside we had to work our way around to find thou, but when we did thou and us just… talked.” Luna felt Dominic’s arm come up and wrap around her in a hug, she returned it in kind.

“Thank’s, Luna…” The man said in a somewhat tired tone. “Not a lot of people would go to bat like that for me.” Celestia looked at the two of them with an inquiring expression, internally she was torn by what she was seeing. On one hoof, she didn’t think Luna could handle losing Dominic to the seas of time, on the other she saw just how much her sister cared for the man. She could also see inklings in Dominic that he felt similarly, though perhaps he didn’t realize it.

“We would do it again if need be.” Luna said quietly, nuzzling up against Dominic’s side. “We saw things in your mind that scared us, were thou really exposed to such things at a young age?” Dominic shrugged in response, not really minding the nuzzle.

“It’s not important now, it’s not like you use nuclear weapons here.” The man replied, he began to scratch behind Luna’s ear. The mare smiled at the odd sensation and pushed her head closer to his hand, meanwhile, Celestia was curious about what was happening. She watched from her side of the bed, surprised that such a small action could reduce her sister to practically a housecat.

“Dominic, that feels divine.” Luna said with a sigh, the man shrugged in response. After a few more minutes he stopped, causing the Lunar princess to let out an annoyed groan. “Why’d you stop?”

“What if someone comes in and sees that, do you really want that to be in the news?” Dominic asked, Luna gave him a quizzical expression. “Headline today. Princess and President spotted cuddling in bed. Sign of romance or corruption?” Luna thought for a moment, then sighed and pouted. Not moments later the door to the room did open and a familiar Nurse pony entered with a covered tray. “Thanks for this.”

“No problem.” The mare replied simply, setting the tray down on a nearby table. She gave a slight bow to the princesses and left, Dominic began to stand to go for his food but a golden aura enveloped it and floated it towards him. The man looked surprised and turned to face Celestia, her horn was glowing and she seemed to have a concentrated expression. The man took his tray of food and removed the cover, it wasn’t anything special, but to his empty stomach it may as well have been. He began eating almost as soon as he’d removed the cover, barely restraining himself to use the fork and knife that’d come with the meal.

“Dominic, I helped Luna go into your mind.” Celestia said quietly, the man paused and looked at her. “I didn’t venture far, Luna made sure of that… That’s not to say I didn’t see things.” Celestia was referring the screen that had appeared in the gateway between his mind and theirs. She’d seen what Luna had seen for the most part, as well as other things she hadn’t mentioned to Luna. Fields of dead bodies shrouded by clouds of flies, scorched and burnt out houses. Things she doubted she would ever forget and would most likely haunt her dreams for eons to come. “I’m sorry I made you relive those things when you first came here…”

Dominic set down his fork, his hand trembling somewhat.

“Y-You saw?” He asked, Celestia nodded. The man moved his tray somewhat, Luna put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “I…” He knew what images she’d spoke of only because they’d come from his own mind, at that moment they flashed before him in vivid detail. After a few moments they faded into the background, it felt as if the weight had been lifted once again. Dominic found it easier to move past them as he looked at Celestia. “I forgive you.”

Celestia looked at him in surprise, she hadn’t expected him to forgive her so easily. Perhaps it was what he’d just gone through or maybe it was something else, nonetheless she was happy that she’d earned his forgiveness. Dominic quietly went back to his meal as the room lapsed into an awkward silence. Dominic stared down at his plate in deep thought. He’d been unconscious for forty days, who’d been running things while he was gone? Had anyone stepped in? Had he let down his people? These thoughts rattled around for a few moments before he took a deep breath. With that they seemed to vanish, something his thoughts rarely did.

There was a knock on the door and before anyone could answer it was nearly kicked off it’s hinges. Dominic gripped the knife that’d come with his meal tightly in anticipation, however, it was quickly dropped as he spotted the reason behind the sudden entrance. It seemed a small crowd of familiar ponies had pushed their way past the doctors and guards and were now flooding into the room.

Dominic watched as Twilight entered, accompanied by her Ponyville friends, all of whom looked extremely excited. Sonar entered next, she was clothed in a professional looking suit. Last to enter was Cadence, she appeared more stressed than ever, but nonetheless happy to see her aunts were awake. All those in the bed sat up at the sight, somewhat surprised by the sudden entrance of their visitors. The newcomers were all yammering away at the same time, obviously voicing how concerned they’d been over the past month. Pinkie Pie commenced jumping up and down on the bed, somehow bouncing the food tray off of it without a single broken item.

“Girls.” Celestia tried to cut through the chaotic cacophony, but it seemed that it had no effect. “Girls!” Dominic quietly began reaching to cover his ears, he was glad he did moments later. A loud whistle drowned out all the other noise, all eyes turned to the source which happened to be Sonar. The thestral awkwardly coughed, adjusting the tie on her suit.

“Thank you, Sonar.” Dominic said as he took his hands away from his ears, the mare simply nodded and smiled widely. Celestia and Luna looked to the other ponies with wide eyes, deep down they wished that they’d tell them what had happened in their absence.

“Twilight, Cadence, all of you…” Celestia began. “We are very glad to see you again, but, perhaps not all at once? I, for one, am very tired.”

“We’re sorry, Princess.” Applejack chimed in, now that Celestia looked at her she could see that something was a bit different. Her mane was shorter and her hat looked worse for wear.

“It’s just, since you’ve been gone things haven’t been going as well as we’d like.” Cadence said, she looked towards the floor. All three bedmates sat up as they heard this, the ponies behind them also looked somewhat tired.

“What happened?” Dominic asked, he looked directly towards Sonar. She was his go to intelligence mare, if it was worth knowing she knew it. The thestral took a few deep breaths before speaking.

“For the first ten days after the incident things were going fine, but after that…” The mare looked somewhat torn. “It’s a long story…”

[♦]

Thirty Days Earlier.
New Liberty, U.S.A.
Formerly known as The Badlands...

The first ten days of reconstruction had gone according to plan, even without the President there the new American’s worked hard to set up their future lives. When they had first arrived in New Liberty it had been less than stellar, the buildings were old and outdated. Some had been torn down for use as firewood or in tools. The thestrals were quick to adapt, however. In the first four days they’d sured up the buildings and made them look presentable, the rest of that time was spent digging an expansive tunnel network beneath the buildings.

One of the defectors had come up with the idea and pitched it to Sonar, she’d been put in charge due to her closeness to Dominic. They’d decided that an underground system would be good because underground had a constant temperature that was ideal for Thestrals. After ten days it was starting to look like New Liberty would be up and running in no time. The western styled buildings were repainted and freshened up, a new well had been dug, a teacher for the schoolhouse had been found.

The main street was still dirt, but it would work for what was needed. Each side was lined with four buildings from it’s heyday as a mining town, a saloon, a general store, a doctor's office and a few others. On the outskirts were ranch style homes that had been rapidly converted into barracks for the military element stationed in New Liberty. A small American town was starting to take shape, something that filled the hearts of the American people with pride.

On the eleventh day, however, problems made themselves known. Tremors could be felt in the tunnels, nothing major or dangerous, but enough to get the attention of ponies there. They would continue on and off for the next few days, until they faded into the background. There was still much work to be done after all, so the thestrals added supports to their tunnels to keep them stable and went back to work.

On the twentieth day, ponies noticed stolen supplies and missing tools, as well as odd tracks in the dirt floors of the tunnels. This lead to more guards being posted, and thus, slowed the work on the town. Still, Sonar and the rest maintained their course, the town was well ahead of schedule at this point. On the surface, classes for the foals that’d come with their parents started, it was a nice distraction to a growing nuisance.

On the twenty ninth day, Twilight Sparkle and her entourage had arrived to look over the town and see how everyone was doing. They planned on staying a couple days to relax, as they had been running the country in the absence of Celestia and Luna. Cadence had taken the reigns for their time off as she knew just worked up Twilight had been getting over the work load and the fact that her mentor was seemingly brain dead.

On the thirtieth day, all hell broke loose.

“Move! Move! Move!” Shouted one of the soldiers on the surface as he and his squad ran towards outskirts of New Liberty, columns of dust and rock had suddenly exploded up from the ground. The tremors had returned in full force and it had been reported that things were attempting to dig through the now fully reinforced walls of the tunnels. It was an attack if ever there had been one.

Sonar watched from the tallest building as she sent forth the American military to deal with the situation, her heart was pounding heavily as she, Twilight Sparkle, and the rest of the elements of harmony watched in awe. Twilight had no idea what she was looking at, animals of the badlands were a subject she rarely studied.

“What do you think is going on over there?” Asked Rarity as she watched the soldiers disappear into the dust, the jingle of their armor was all that told her that they were still out there. “Could it be diamond dogs?”

“I doubt it.” Applejack chimed in, she ignored the hairs that were starting to stand up on the back of her neck. “Diamond dogs are dumb, but they’re not stupid. They wouldn’t attack an entire town, especially without gems to steal. Right, Twi?”

“Right…” Twilight echoed back, a few moments passed in silence. Then suddenly they heard more yelling, this time from within the dust shroud that seemed to be rolling towards New Liberty. Pinkie Pie, being Pinkie Pie, leaned out and held up her ear. It somehow grew larger as she listened. Her eyes widened and she started to shake, bouncing up and down. Sonar looked at her with mild horror while the others recognized the shaking as just her Pinkie Sense.

“What is it, Pinkie...?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know! I’ve never felt it before! But I’ll tell you one thing!” Pinkie said as the convulsions came to an end, moments later the distant shouting became even louder.

“OPEN FIRE!”

“It’s a doozy…”

Author's Notes:

Well, here it is! Sorry it took so long to get out, but moving is a real difficult thing.

Please, remember to rate, comment, and favorite if you want to. Have a good one!