Drayke looked out the window at the scenery that lie below. He saw his Sentinels marching on Canterlot, rounding up the citizens and hauling them away to the castle dungeon.
He smiled wickedly behind his crystal visor as a Crystal Valkyrie flew in through the open window.
{My lord,} it began, {the human you banished last week has returned! He and the lunar princess were seen exiting the portal, and they destroyed the Sentinels that were guarding it. They are heading in the direction of Ponyville, where they are no doubt seeking reinforcements!}

Drayke frowned. “I know how this is going to go: I’m going to send my weakest troops out first, following them up with stronger and stronger ones, until he finally reaches me and eventually defeats me in a one-on-one fight. Well, I’m not going down that road!” he shouted, rushing out to the balcony. He held his hands high above his head, forming a giant, black crystal between them, and threw it over the edge, using his telekinesis to push it farther away from the castle. When it landed, it started to grow and change, slowly forming a gigantic Crystal Guardian.

“Now, my Crystal Titan,” he said commandingly to his new monolithic servant, “make sure Allen does not reach the castle alive!”
He turned back to the room as the Titan lumbered off in search of its target.
“That’ll keep him busy,” Drayke muttered, and the Valkyrie spoke up once again.
{Also, my lord, you have a visitor. He demands that he speak to you at once,} it said uncertainly.
Drayke glared down at the eagle-like creature. “Then let him in, you moron. It’s terrible manners to keep a guest waiting!” he boomed, and it flew off, spinning horizontally as it soared through the doors.

It returned a few minutes later, followed by a curious looking creature that appeared to have limbs belonging to all sorts of animals.
“Ah, you must be the Obsidian King I've heard all about! Pleasure to meet you,” it said, bowing dramatically, “I am Discord, master of chaos. It’s quite a pleasure to meet you.”
Drayke stared at the strange creature that stood before him. “Obsidian King, huh? That’s what they’re calling me? I like it,” he said thoughtfully, then suddenly got to the point. “What brings you here?”

Discord smiled craftily. “I just wanted to come and check out the scenery from a different angle. You see, I’m not usually allowed in the castle, being ‘untrustworthy’ and all that, but since old sun-butt over here,” he said, teleporting to the crystallized alicorn that sat beside the throne and tapped a lion’s knuckle on her head, “is out of commission, I thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of this rare opportunity. Tell me, are you, perhaps, looking for a second in command?” he asked, drumming his fingers together mischievously.

Drayke nodded thoughtfully. “You know, I could always use an extra head around here. After all, controlling the world is not an easy job for one man, and I plan on taking over two,” he said as he extended a hand, “I accept your proposal, Discord. Welcome aboard!”
The draconequus firmly shook the human’s hand, smiling wickedly, and glanced at the statue. “No hard feelings, Celestia; you know I can’t resist an opportunity to stir up a little chaos,” he said, laughing maniacally.
Drayke grinned. “I think I’m going to like working with you, Discord. Now, please excuse me; I have some things I have to go check on. Ciao!” he said as he swiftly exited the throne room.
Discord smiled as the human walked away, but suddenly scowled when the massive double-doors slammed shut behind him. He turned to the crystallized Celestia.

“You’d better thank me when this is all over,” he said in a low voice, “because I doubt this is going to end well in my favor.”

You know how when you wake up in the morning, you don’t properly process what is going on around you right away, even when you knew exactly what was going on when you fell asleep? As you might guess, waking up next to an alicorn from a children's cartoon is definitely not exempt from that.

I opened my eyes slowly to see Princess Luna staring back at me, inches from my face, smiling dreamily. I smiled back and closed my eyes, and then snapped them open again, suddenly fully aware of what was happening.
I have a girl, sleeping next to me, in my bed, I thought, my mom is going to kill me if she finds out.

Like most mothers, mine had a tendency to overreact when it came to me being with girls.

“Good morning,” I said quietly, running through the previous night in my head. Did we… no, we just hugged and laid here, I thought, noticing the alicorn’s forelegs were still wrapped around me, and my my arm was resting lightly on her side.
“Did you sleep well?” she asked as we slowly stood up. I nodded, smiling, and leaned backward, my spine popping in four distinct places..
“Yeah,” I said, surprised; I hadn’t gotten that good of a rest in a long time. I wanted to chalk it up to the lunar princess’s fond embrace, but then again, I did cauterize my own shoulder the previous day, which ended up being a pretty draining experience.
“Well, we had better get going,” I said after a long pause, “the world won’t save itself.”

We ran out into the forest towards the portal, which was guarded by a group of Sentinels. I whooped as Luna and I ran out to attack them, catching them by surprise. All but one of them was either cut down by my sword or disintegrated by magic; the lone survivor had jumped into the swirling vortex. I could see through to the other side like an open doorway, where several more of the creatures were waiting for us.
“Let’s go!” I shouted, leaping into the portal without a second thought. When I emerged on the other side, I wasted no time in cutting down yet another Sentinel. I assumed this one was the survivor from the fight moments ago, but I couldn’t be sure; these things all looked the same.
I turned around to see Luna bravely fighting off a few of them, but my eyes widened when I saw one was trying to sneak up and strike her from behind.

“Oh, no you don’t!” I shouted, flipping my sword around so I was holding it by the blade, and threw it throwing-knife style. The blade stuck in the Sentinel’s leg, and I quickly ran and pulled it the rest of the way through, severing the limb and knocking it to the ground, and then ran my sword through it.
Nobody is touching her while I’m around, I thought angrily as I tore through the creature’s back, turning it to dust.
Luna gave me a grateful look. “Let’s go!” she said quickly, and we rushed off towards Ponyville.

When we reached the small town we were shocked at the sight that awaited us. There were Sentinels carrying the citizens out of their homes and rounding them up in the center of town, and then shoving them towards the train station, where they would no doubt be brought to Canterlot. I smiled dangerously at Luna.

“I think they could use a hand,” I said, charging forward. Luna stayed close behind, but didn’t exactly agree with my plan.
“How exactly are you going to win this? It looks like there’s at least fifty of them and one of you,” she said darkly.
I laughed. “Everyone knows that it only takes a little bit of hope to get the people to fight back. Let’s give them some!” I shouted, and ran out into the town square.

“Citizens of Ponyville!” I shouted as the Sentinels noticed me and began their assault, “I’m here to help you!” I ducked under an incoming blade arm, holding my sword straight up and cutting the hazard in half, and then jumped over a low sweep from another, this time slicing low to cut that arm in half. Then, I quickly placed my sword between the legs of the first one, and did a full overhead swing, completely tearing through both attackers. Luna quickly joined the fray right behind me, blasting at more and more of the Sentinels as they advanced.

After they saw the Sentinels starting to fall, the citizens joined in on the attack. The earth ponies threw furniture and other random objects at them, the pegasi zipped around them as a distraction, and the unicorns barraged them with bolts of magic. With all of us working together, eventually the last Sentinel fell at my feet, and all the ponies let out a cheer. The celebration was quickly cut short, however, when the ground trembled, and we heard an earth-shaking roar.

“What was that?!” Luna cried, and I turned around to see a massive creature approaching the edge of town. It looked just like a Sentinel, but had a normal arm in place of where there was normally a bladed one, and stood what looked like one hundred feet tall. It approached the edge of Ponyville, crushing a few of the houses underneath its gigantic feet.

That’s when everypony started to panic again.

I looked around wildly, desperate for a way to beat this new threat before it caused too much damage, and saw Vinyl Scratch out of the corner of my eyes, standing next to a very familiar looking device.
I thought that thing only existed in the fandom, I thought, an incredibly stupid plan already forming in my head, but I’m not gonna argue!

I grabbed the front of the bass cannon and angled it upward, aiming it right at the titanic block of black crystal that was advancing on the town, and gave Vinyl Scratch crazy smile.
“DROP THE BASS!” I yelled giddily, and she wasted no time in slamming a hoof down on the button. I felt a massive force slam into my back and launch me high into the air, high above the head of the attacking monster. I flailed my arms wildly as I soared among the clouds, and saw my target approaching fast.

Let’s hope this works! I thought, angling myself and holding my sword out to the side. As I passed the creature, I rammed my sword into it, slicing through it all the way down as its body made a nice break to my otherwise deadly fall. I heard it scream in a low, enraged voice as the massive crack I was creating got bigger and bigger from the stress my foe’s weight was putting on it. By the time I reached the ground, my fall was slowed enough so I could jump off and roll to safety, just as the gargantuan Crystal Guardian fell with a low groan, disintegrating just a few feet above the roofs of the buildings.

“DID I JUST DO THAT?!” I shouted to no one in particular, “did I just do that?!” I continued to marvel at the fact that I had just taken down a Godzilla-sized hunk of diamond as I ran back to the center of town, where I hoped to find a way to get to Canterlot.

“Are you FUCKING SERIOUS?!” Drayke shouted, punching a dent in one of the throne room’s pillars angrily, “I just sent that damn Titan out there this morning, and you’re telling me that Allen has already beaten it? With nothing but a SWORD?” he screamed at the lone Valkyrie.

“Yes, my lord, but-” it began, but Drayke raised his hand dismissively and sighed.
“Forget it. I can see that I’ll have to take care of him myself. Unless…” he said, suddenly remembering the deal he had made with a certain draconequus earlier. “Oh, Discord!” he called, and suddenly the master of chaos appeared in front of him, sitting back in a lounge chair, wearing a pair of sunglasses and holding a tanning mirror. He raised the shades with one talon and gave Drayke a confused look.

“Can I help you? I’m kind of busy here,” he said grouchily.
Drayke scowled. “I’ll ignore that tone in your voice for now, because I need you to do something for me. There’s a human boy in Ponyville disrupting my plans, and I need you to go take care of him,” he said, annoyed by the draconequss’s nerve to speak to him in that manner.

Discord rolled his eyes. “A human boy? Child's play. What do you need me to do?” he asked, yawning. Drayke smiled wickedly.
“I would prefer to teach him a lesson myself, so bring him here if you can. If that proves to be too difficult, however, you may simply kill him,” he said dismissively.

Discord bowed dramatically. “Your wish is my command, my king,” he said with a hint of sarcasm, and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Drayke rolled his eyes and sat heavily in his throne, mentally exhausted.

“I thought being a tyrannical overlord would be a lot easier,” he muttered.

I sat back on the plush seat of the passenger car of the train, while Princess Luna paced up and down the aisle, glancing outside nervously.
“What are we going to do?” she asked, “I mean, when we get there?”

I narrowed my eyes, staring straight ahead. “We have to rescue Twilight and her friends. None of the ponies in Ponyville had seen them, so they must already be in the dungeon at Castle Canterlot. We’ll need all the help we can get if we want to defeat Drayke,” I said darkly.

Luna looked down sadly. “Yes, we will; not even my sister could do anything to stop him,” she said softly. I got up and sat down next to her, hugging her as she started to weep softly.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I said gently, “We’re going to win this. I’m sure of it,” I said confidently. Even though it sounded convincing, I still had a nagging doubt eating away at me: What if I failed? What if I didn’t win, and Drayke was free to continue his onslaught against Equestria and Earth?

I pushed these thoughts as far off to the side as I could.

Just then, the top of the train car was suddenly torn off. I looked up and saw Discord flying above us, laughing maniacally.
I should have known he’d side with Drayke! I thought angrily, drawing my sword. “Why don’t you come down here and fight me yourself?” I challenged.

The draconequus stared at me, confused. “You really think I’m here to fight you? No, no, I’m just the delivery boy!” he cackled, and with a wave of his hand, the train car was suddenly wrenched off the tracks, and began to float towards Canterlot.
Looks like I’ll have to forget about backup, I thought helplessly as the half-destroyed car levitated towards its destination.