The train car shook violently as it was dropped into the throne room of Castle Canterlot, knocking me and Luna off our feet. As I got back up, the door of the car slid open, and I cautiously stepped out, sword drawn, and surveyed the room around me.

Not much had changed since the last time I was here, except for the giant hole made by our drop, and one of the stained glass windows had been smashed. I turned towards the throne, and what I saw terrified me: standing off to the side, frozen in crystal with a look of horror on her face, was Celestia.

I rushed forward, but was stopped by the sound of the throne room doors slamming shut, and an all-too-familiar voice.

“Allen! What’s up, buddy? Glad you could make it!” Drayke called in a suspiciously cheerful tone, his arms spread wide. I glared at him.

“This doesn’t have to go any further, Drayke; we can end this now, and nobody else will get hurt,” I said slowly. Apparently this was funny, because Drayke let out a loud laugh.

“You… you think that you can make me stop like that, with the whole "I'll give you a chance to give in" speech? Oh, no; this is far from over. From the first day I was stuck in this place, I’ve learned of the awesome power hidden away, just waiting for somebody to find it. Back on Earth, I was nobody; I had a crappy day job, no family, and hated pretty much everyone. But here,” he said, suddenly becoming shrouded in smoke as a suit of crystal armor formed on his body, and his voice deepened in tone so it sounded almost demonic, “I’m a king.”

He stepped towards me, standing only a few feet away, and extended a hand. “You and me? We work together, and we can make both Earth and Equestria tremble before us! You can have everything you ever wanted! What do you say?” he asked gently, his voice suddenly losing that dark overtone.

I looked at his visor, just barely able to see his eyes behind it, then looked over at Luna, who was giving me a look that told me she was afraid of my answer. I smiled at her, and then turned back to Drayke as I tightened my grip on my sword.

“I already have everything I want,” I said quietly, and then thrust my sword forward in an attempt to stab Drayke through his chest. Instead, in a flash of movement, he grabbed the blade and redirected my attack, throwing me to the side in the process.

“Wrong answer,” he growled, taking on the voice of the legion once again, and pointed to Luna with a black finger, which fired a beam that struck her in the chest. In an instant, she was frozen in a crystalline state, just like Celestia was.

“NO!” I shouted, suddenly jumping up and swinging wildly at my armored opponent, who simply ducked and dodged every one of my strikes. Eventually he got bored of this, and swung an armored punch that threw me to the floor. I looked up to watch him hold out his arm and conjure a huge crystal scythe. It was about as tall as he was, and curved backward on the head, so it doubled as a battleaxe. At the opposite end, there was a wicked-looking spearhead.

He stood over me, gripping the scythe in both hands, and raised it over his head. “Such a shame,” he said mockingly, “you had so much potential.”

Just as he was about to bring his weapon down, something struck him from behind and knocked him to the side. I looked up and saw Discord, smiling crazily and holding a yellow balloon sword.

“You go save the others! I’ll keep this guy busy!” he cried, charging at Drayke, and they began to slash and parry at each other with their weapons. I ran out of the throne room as quickly as I could, my always-reliable adrenaline rush powering me all the way to the dungeons.

“Discord, Discord, Discord,” Drayke said in a mock-scolding tone, “you really should watch who you cross!” As he said this, he jumped back and held out his arms, five Sentinels appearing at his sides as he did. They advanced on the god of chaos, who grinned at the sight of the approaching resistance.

“And you should learn who to pick fights with!” he shouted as he grew to nearly ten times his own size, becoming more beast-like and terrifying. Then, he swiped a massive lion’s paw at one group of sentinels, while the other was thrown through the wall by a sweep of his tail.

Drayke laughed. “Finally, a challenge!” he shouted, running towards the draconequus at full speed. He jumped up at its leg, digging his scythe in, and flipped up onto Discord’s back. Discord screeched in pain, and leaped into the air, soaring through the massive hole in the wall. Drayke held on to his weapon as tight as he could, and waved his hand in the air as black sparks crackled at his fingertips.

“See if you can handle this!” he screamed angrily, and slammed his hand down on the draconequus’s back. A violent spasm rushed through Discord’s body, and he suddenly lost control of his wings and fell back to earth. Drayke stood on top of him, jumping off just a few feet before impact, and rolled to safety as the master of chaos slammed into the marble floor, forming a crater when he landed.

Discord struggled to his feet, collapsing as his arms and legs failed him, and looked up at the armored human that stood at the lip of the crater, charging some kind of spell in his hands.
“This ought to teach you to not invoke the wrath of the Obsidian King,” he said, his voice shaking with anger, as he hurled the attack at the now-defenseless Discord.
I just hope that kid can save everyone else, he thought sadly as the world went black.

Twilight Sparkle sat near the crystalline door of the cell, her horn surrounded in a magical glow as she tried to rip the door off its hinges. The Obsidian King had placed a powerful enchantment on it that was supposed to make it unopenable, but she wasn’t going to give up.
“Twilight, I admire your enthusiasm,” Applejack said sadly, “but it’s hopeless.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “She’s right, Twilight. There’s no way we’re getting through that door.”
Twilight turned to her friends, glaring. “I am not giving up! I won’t stand here and do nothing while that maniac turns ponies to crystal and destroys our home!”
Rarity spoke up now. “Twilight, darling, how do you expect do anything? There is no getting out of here, except for a miracle.”
Just as the word “miracle” left Rarity’s mouth, two cracks suddenly appeared in the door, and it shattered, revealing a familiar smiling face on the other side.

“Allen!” the girls cried as they rushed to hug me.
“We’re so glad to see you!” Twilight cried. I chuckled.
“And I’m glad to see you all, too. I’m sorry for how I acted when Celestia said she couldn’t send me back,” I said sadly.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Considering the circumstances, I don’t think that’s an issue right now. We’ve got a crazy human determined to capture everypony in Equestria, and it’s up to us to stop him!” she cried triumphantly. I nodded, and noticed a very large pair of doors at the end of the hall. “Twilight, tell me, would that happen to be…?”

Twilight looked at the doors. “The Canterlot Royal Archives? Yes, why?” she asked, confused.
I smiled and looked at my friends one by one. I had a good feeling about whatever was waiting behind those doors, but had to ask anyways. “Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, what else is in there, besides dusty old tomes?”

She smiled, suddenly catching on to my plan. “Experimental, untested weapons, many of them magical in nature,” she said craftily, “but the door to the innermost room is sealed so only Luna and Celestia can get in.”

I held up my sword, smiling as I said “Oh, if only someone had a really big lockpick.”

Several Sentinels rushed down to the dungeon level where they knew the rebellious human had gone to. The searched the cells, finding nothing, and saw that the largest set of doors at the end of the corridor were slightly ajar. One of them pulled them open to peek inside, and was met by a sight that made even the Sentinels fear for their safety.

Standing there were six armored ponies and one human. The ponies with wings, two pegusi and one alicorn, had blades on their wings, and the unicorn’s and alicorn’s horns were reinforced with diamond. They all had diamond horseshoes, one of the earth ponies having significantly larger ones, and the other earth pony looked like it had some sort of cannon on her back. The human stepped forward, twirling a sword in each hand: one of them his signature crystal sword, and the other a titanium katana. They also saw that a pair of goggles rested on his forehead.

“Now, we can do this the easy way,” it said, suddenly taking a battle-ready stance, “or the hard way. And as pissed as I am right now, I really hope you take the hard way.”

We charged into battle, screaming, and tore through the Sentinels. The girls’ armor and reinforced wings, horns, and hooves gave them a huge upper hand, and I quickly found my katana had been enchanted in a similar fashion as my sword.

Finally, I get one of these! I thought happily as I ran past two Sentinels, disarming them as I did, and turned to see Pinkie blast them with the cannon attached to her suit.
“WOO!” she cried as it rained glittery shards all around us for a few seconds before they vanished, disintegrating before even touching the marble floors.

We met strong resistance on our way back to the throne room; Sentinels, Assassins, and Valkyries alike impeded our progress, but every obstacle was crushed by a hoof, wing, horn, or sword with little effort. Eventually, we stood before the throne room doors, ready to face Drayke.

“He’s sealed the doors!” Rainbow Dash cried out, tapping the transparent coating that covered the massive doors. I shrugged and began to chip away at the barrier, when I heard something approaching from behind us. I turned to see three creatures that looked like what I had fought in the cave before Drayke had sent me back to earth, but without the pillar on top. They vanished from view, and I smiled as I pulled down the goggles, which gave me a unicorn’s gem-detecting abilities; their camouflage may as well have been fluorescent paint. I charged at the challengers, who were thoroughly surprised that they were completely visible to me. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew past, clipping the enemies wings, while Rarity and Twilight charged at them headfirst, their powerful horns shattering the grounded foes. I turned to the remaining one, who now seemed uncertain about this fight, and looked like he wanted to call it quits.

“Should’ve thought of that before!” I shouted as I jumped at it, swords pointed down, and drove my blades into its chest and dragged them down, cutting the creature into three separate pieces.
“Now that that’s over,” I said, turning my attention back to the door, “let’s bust this open!”
The six armored ponies began to kick rapidly at the crystal that covered the door, forming a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. Finally, I swung my swords at it in an X-motion, and that was the end of it. I recoiled as it rained glass-like crystal for a few moments, and the doors slowly creaked open. We entered the room slowly, ready to face whatever Drayke had waiting for us.

As Allen entered the throne room, his crystal sword suddenly sensed an impending danger. It knew that whatever lay ahead, it was too powerful for Allen to take on alone. It silently sent out a call, reaching across all of Equestria, desperately hoping that there was some ancient magical force that would answer that call.
Deep in the Everfree Forest, that call was heard by an ancient tree, its branches adorned with several magical gemstones. They could not answer this call just yet, however, until their rightful bearers needed them most.

I quickly entered the throne room, and heard my friends cry out behind me. I turned and saw the doors had suddenly slammed shut and re-sealed on their own, preventing them from assisting me. I slowly stepped further into the throne room, noticing things had changed since I had last seen it earlier. All of the stained glass windows had been smashed,revealing a treacherous thunderstorm outside, and the walls had turned black and shades of grey. I looked ahead at the throne, and saw it was surrounded by three statues: Celestia, still frozen in horror; Discord, a pained look on his face; and, most depressing of all, Luna, with an unchanging look of sorrow.

I stepped forward. “Drayke!” I shouted angrily at the armored figure that lounged in the throne, “this is over.”
The Obsidian King stood slowly, conjuring his scythe as he did, and I saw two bat-like crystal wings slowly materializing on his back.

“No,” he said quietly, his voice quivering in anticipation, and suddenly erupting into a scream, “It’s only just beginning!”

We charged at each other, weapons out to the side, and the final battle for Equestria began.