Princess Luna sat beside her sister’s throne, staring sadly at the ground. It had been nearly a week since Allen had left, and she couldn’t stop thinking about him. The day he had run away, a loud buzzing noise came from off in the distance, and a beam of pink light shot into the sky from where the ancient archway was located. She had cried herself to sleep that night, for she knew that it meant Allen was gone.

Celestia gave her younger sister a comforting look. “Luna, cheer up. Allen may be gone, but I'm sure things will get better for us soon,” she said just as the throne room door burst open. A group of twelve Crystal Sentinels marched in. Something about them wasn’t right, though; rather than their usual ice-blue, these ones were black, and their eyes glowed a wicked red. They stood in a circle, and stepped aside to reveal what they were concealing: a lone human. He stood a little taller than Allen did, and had shoulder-length blonde hair. He smiled and looked around, addressing everypony in the room.

“Hello, all! My name is Drayke,” he said in a very polite tone, “and I am here to announce my evil takeover of your kingdom.”
The guards scattered across the room murmured amongst themselves, confused, until Celestia spoke up. “And how are you going to do that?” she asked suspiciously.
The human smiled and pulled a black crystal out of his pocket. “With this,” he said, snapping his fingers, and the Sentinels suddenly marched away, organizing themselves into a four-by-three group near the back of the room, blocking any escape.
Celestia gritted her teeth angrily. “Guards! Seize him!” she shouted, and the royal guard charged at the human. The human scowled and held out an arm, which became shrouded in black smoke. Suddenly, a massive crystal scythe formed in his hand, and he swung it towards the oncoming ponies.

“DO NOT FUCK WITH ME!” he roared as he slashed, and instead of the guards being killed by the attack, they were frozen in a crystallized, statuesque form. Celestia widened her eyes as the human then dropped his weapon, which vanished before it hit the ground, and pointed at her.

“I’m in charge now,” he said, and the crystal he held in his other hand suddenly glowed red as beam of energy shot from his finger to the solar princess. Then, she felt a strange sensation traveling up her legs, and saw she was slowly turning to crystal.
Luna gasped and looked at her sister, unsure of what to do. Celestia gave her a panicked look.
“Luna, run!” she cried just before the infectious crystal froze her completely. Luna quickly ran from the attacking human, narrowly dodging the beams he shot at her, and crashed into one of the stained-glass windows, disappearing from view.

Drayke shrugged when he saw the darker pony had escaped. After all, she couldn’t interfere anymore, could she? He turned around to address the few intelligent guards that had not attacked him. “Now, it looks like you’re in need of a change in leadership, and I am looking for a throne. Any objections?” he smiled at them as they looked amongst themselves, unsure of how to respond. “Good, then I guess I’m calling the shots around here.”
Drayke marched towards the throne, and waved his hand, causing the statue to levitate off to the side. “You’ll make a nice decoration,” he told himself. As he drew closer to his throne, his body became shrouded in black smoke, which eventually solidified and took on the form of a suit of jagged, black crystal armor. He sat down just as the suit was finished, and called to his Sentinels in a commanding tone, “now, make your preparations. We move to attack Earth.”

I sat in my desk at school, with my head pressed down as I pushed my pencil away with my finger, then watching it roll back down. The teacher was going on about some chemistry equation or something, and I couldn’t get the events of the previous week out of my head. On top of all of that, I had no reminders of my time, except for the crystal that Celestia had given me; the cut from my final battle had healed on the way home somehow.

I failed them, I thought sadly, I failed them, and now they’re all at the mercy of that maniac.
“Allen!” the teacher called, and I bolted up in my desk.
“Yes, Mister Lance?” I asked, sounding like a soldier who had been addressed by his commanding officer. He gave me a slightly disappointed look through his wire-framed glasses.
“See me after school. We need to talk,” he said, giving the class a dismissive wave as the bell rang. I sighed and nodded.
Great, another lecture, I thought. Ever since I had returned from my "vacation", everyone had been worried about my well-being. My mother, of all people, was the only one who somewhat understood that I had “run away” because I was upset, and my only punishment ended up being cleaning the house, which I had finished a few days ago. Everyone else, however, kept saying they thought it would be best to have me see a counselor, or even worse, be shipped off to military school.

“Allen, what happened to you?” my teacher asked when I re-entered the classroom later that same day. “How did you go from being one of the smartest and most enthusiastic students in class to suddenly spacing out during my lessons?” he gave me a concerned look, and something about it told me he didn’t want to tell me what I should do to fix it, like everybody else was doing; he was just a guy that wanted to know what was the matter. I trusted him, for he was probably the only teacher at my school who acted like an actual human being.

I sighed. “Well, while I was gone, I made some friends, and ended up looking like a monster in front of them. Now, there’s some maniac who is dead-set on hurting them, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it,” I said sadly. This was the closest I had come to telling anyone about my week in Equestria. If I had said anything about talking ponies, I would have been hauled away in a straitjacket.

He nodded, understanding where I was coming from. “Allen, I know what it’s like to feel powerless. Hell, we all do at some point in our lives. All you need to ask yourself is, if the opportunity presented itself, would you be willing to take the chance to make everything right again?”
I nodded, and glanced over to see one of his desk drawers was slightly ajar. Inside it, I saw a small My Little Pony figurine; it was Doctor Whooves.

I smiled. “Are you a brony, too?” I asked, pointing at the drawer. He looked at it and widened his eyes.
“Huh? No, no, that’s… my daughter’s,” he said, quickly closing the drawer. “...Wait, did you say ‘too’?” he asked, my question fully clicking in his mind.
I nodded. “Great show, huh?” I asked, grinning.
He smiled. “Yeah, but don’t tell anyone, or I’ll have to give you a week of detention!” he said jokingly, and we both burst out laughing.
“Hey, thanks for the talk, Mister Lance; I really needed it,” I said, holding out a fist.
He completed the brohoof, smiling. “Glad to help, Allen,” he said as I walked out the door.

A group of Sentinels marched towards the swirling vortex, eager to carry out their new master’s commands. They moved forward one at a time in a single file line, unflinching as the portal sucked them in to this unknown world. Princess Luna watched from afar, a plan slowly forming in her mind.
I have to go warn Allen, she thought, he is the only one who can save us.
She charged at the black creatures, her horn swirling with magic, and blasted one that was about to enter the portal to the side, jumping in herself.

I sat on my couch later that day. My mother and sister had gone out shopping, so I was left alone with very little to do. I thought about playing video games, but I wasn’t in the mood to put my mind into strategy. So, I just clicked the TV on and started scrolling through the channels. ABC, TBS, SyFy; hundreds of channels and nothing worth watching. That is, until I switched over to Hub Network.

They were playing the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season 2 finale, and I had tuned in at the point when Twilight was reading all the letters Celestia had sent her, and slowly realizing she couldn't give up on her friends.
The message of the scene struck me, along with the words I had heard my teacher say earlier that day, and I rose to my feet slowly. I can’t give up! I have to do whatever I can to save them! I thought triumphantly, but suddenly realized, but what can I do? I’m stuck on Earth.

I looked over at the end table next to the couch, where I had placed my crystal a few days ago, thinking it would make a good decoration. I found shortly after returning to Earth that it held no power here, and couldn’t turn into its sword form. Now, however, it sat there in its full bladed glory, shining in the late afternoon sunlight that filtered through the window.

If it can become a sword now, I thought, wouldn’t that mean…?
My thoughts were interrupted by a loud crashing sound from behind me. I turned quickly to see that one of Drayke’s Black Sentinels had crashed through the wall of my house, and charged when it saw me. I grabbed my sword and leaped over the couch, keeping a good amount of distance between myself and the creature.
We sparred for a few minutes, exchanging blows and blocks, when I heard a phone ringing. I quickly broke away and grabbed the spare phone from off the counter.

“Hello?” I said breathlessly as I led my attacker throughout the house.
“Allen? It’s mom,” my mother said on the other end, “something really weird is going on here. These huge, black statues attacked the store, and everyone has been evacuated.”
I widened my eyes. “Mom, listen to me very carefully. Remember that show I watch, My Little Pony?” I asked, dead seriousness in my voice.

There was a moment of silence. “Yes…” she said slowly, unsure of where I was going with this. I slid under the kitchen table and ran outside, hoping the open spaces would let me get more distance from my enemy.
“Well, last week, when I disappeared? I went to their world, and found these same things. Now, they must have found a way to get here, so I have to go back and stop the guy that sent them,” I explained. The line went quiet for a moment, and suddenly my mom started laughing.
“Okay, Allen, whatever you say. You went to a world of talking miniature horses, and now monsters from that world are attacking us. Yeah, sure,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

I was not in the mood for any of this. “Mom!” I snapped, “listen to me NOW. I am fighting one of these assholes right now, probably about to die, with a magical fucking sword that I got from that world, and do NOT have time for any arguing! Take Lisa and get somewhere safe, away from populated areas, and wait for this all to blow over,” I shouted, suddenly turning around and slicing at my enemy. Unfortunately, these things must have become smarter since I last fought them in Equestria, because this one dodged to the side, my blade catching nothing but open air, and the Sentinel swung down, just barely cutting through my other arm, the subsequent shock causing me to drop the phone.
I screamed as a fire-like feeling shot throughout my upper arm as I quickly stabbed at the Sentinel, getting a lucky hit dead-center, and it turned to dust.
“Allen? Are you okay?” I heard my mom’s voice call over the receiver. I quickly picked up the phone, pressing it between my head and my shoulder as I wrapped my sweatshirt around my wound. “Yes, I’m fine," I lied through gritted teeth, "don’t worry about me. Just get yourselves somewhere safe. I love you,” I said, not giving her a chance to argue as I hung up.
I started back to the house when I saw something staggering into my backyard. It was hard to make out at first, but I saw it was midnight blue, stood on four legs, and had a purple, shroud-like mane flowing from its head.

“Luna!” I called excitedly, suddenly forgetting the pain that flowed through my arm. I quickly ran over to her, and saw she looked extremely tired.
“I had to fight my way to the portal,” she gasped, “there was a human commanding the Sentinels, and he-” she suddenly broke off, collapsing to the ground. I wasted no time in helping her up and leading her into the house.

I had led Luna up to my room and had lain her down in my bed so she could rest for a while. Since she was in no condition to heal my wound with magic, I had to make do with my extensive knowledge gained from movies and the internet. I quickly grabbed a bag of ice and a clothes iron, and then placed the iron on the stove burner. I pressed down on my makeshift bandage, trying to keep the cut from bleeding out, until I figured I had let the iron heat for long enough.
I grabbed the handle of the iron and stared at it. This is gonna hurt, I told myself.
So what if it hurts? the strong part of my mind told me, if you don’t do this, you’ll bleed out, and then all of Equestria is doomed because you couldn’t handle a little burn. NOW DO IT!
I pulled the sweater off my arm, bunched it up and bit down on it angrily, and pressed the hot metal against the cut, my pained screams muffled by the fabric. Tears streamed down my face, and I was sweating heavily. After a few seconds, I threw the burner aside and pressed the ice against the now-sealed gash, and suddenly fell to the floor, passing out from the incredible pain.

I woke up later that night to find the ice had completely melted and done its job, as I couldn’t feel the burn anymore. I stared at my self-cauterized wound with satisfaction, and remembered the alicorn princess up in my room.
I had better check on her, I thought as I slowly walked to the stairs.
I entered my room to find the princess of the night sleeping soundly in my bed. I smiled and walked over the the open window, and looked outside. There weren’t any signs of other attacks, so I figured the Sentinel must have just come for me alone.
I smiled as I slid the window shut, and heard the blankets behind me shift. I turned and saw Luna was blinking sleepily at me.

“You alright?” I asked gently. She nodded, widening her eyes when she saw what I had done to my arm.
“Allen, what happened?” she asked, staring in shock at the red spot and healed cut on my arm.
I smiled sheepishly. “You seemed too tired to use your magic, so I used a human method of speed-healing,” I said gently. “It was no big deal,” I added, lying.
Luna looked around at the walls of my room, where I had taped a bunch of random My Little Pony sketches.

You’ll never guess which character caught her attention.

“Is that… me?” she asked slowly, staring at a picture I had drawn of myself standing at her side.
I nodded, smiling nervously. “Before I came to Equestria, I was a huge fan of the show I told you and Celestia about. Even when I didn’t know that you were real, you were my favorite char- I mean, pony,” I said quietly, trying to not use the word “character”. It didn't feel right referring to her as a work of fiction, especially when she was right in front of me.
She looked down, blushing, and I looked over at the clock on my nightstand. “Um, do you mind if I lie down next to you? It’s kinda late, and I’ll need my rest if I’m going back to Equestria tomorrow.”
The midnight blue alicorn nodded slightly, and I climbed on top of my bed and lay with my back towards her. As I slowly closed my eyes, I felt something touch my palm. I glanced down to see that Luna had rested her hoof in my hand, and when I turned around, I saw she was smiling, her eyes closed, but not yet asleep.

I smiled. “Um, Luna?” I asked quietly. She opened her eyes, surprised, and quickly moved her hoof away.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” she began, flustered, but I shushed her gently.
“I was going to say, if you wanted to...” I started, searching for a word, until I found one that sounded weird coming out of my mouth, but fit the situation, “...cuddle, all you had to do was ask.”
Luna stared at me for a moment, blushing intensely, until she finally smiled. “That would be nice,” she said, and I turned myself over and hugged her warmly. She seemed a little tense about it at first, but she wrapped her forelegs around me, resting her head on my shoulder. The last thing I heard before I fell asleep was the light breathing of the night-sky blue alicorn that lay next to me.