I stood at the top of a ladder, holding a banner across the top of the doorway to Sugarcube Corner. “Does this look okay?” I called down to Pinkie Pie, who shook her head.
“A little more to the right!” she called back, and I reached out just a little farther.
“Here?” I said, barely on the edge of my balancing capabilities.
“A liiiiitle more… there!” she called, and I quickly tacked it in place and climbed down before my luck finally ran out.

“This place looks pretty good!” I said proudly, looking around at the balloons and decorations that littered the front of the building.
Pinkie smiled, her face hardly able to contain her excitement. “Just wait till you see inside!” she said happily, and bounced away, disappearing inside.

I looked around and gasped as I entered the room. Pinkie had moved all the furniture out of the way, clearing the space and turning it into a dance floor. There was a DJ booth in the corner, and there were several huge speakers scattered around. Streamers and ribbons lined the walls, and a few chairs and tables were set up on the edges of the dance floor.

I smiled appreciatively. “Wow, it looks great in here!” I exclaimed, “I can’t wait for tonight!”
Pinkie nodded happily. “Speaking of which, you had better go get ready!” she said, ushering me to the door. I ran off to Rarity’s, laughing excitedly the whole way there.

The moon hung in the night sky, and small puffs of black clouds covered the stars here and there. Three figures ran silently across the rooftops toward Sugarcube Corner, coldly calculating their attack. Bright lights flooded through the windows, and if anypony had looked up, they would have seen the three silent predators leaping onto the roof of the huge building.
{Get into position, and wait for further commands,} one of the creatures whispered to its partners, holding up a bladed hand and sliding it in a circle on the window, creating a clean, rounded hole, and lightly placed the removed glass off to the side. Then, like spiders, they crawled inside the building and across the ceiling carefully, watching the festivities below and waiting for the opportunity to strike their prey.

The night of the party was finally here. I was pretty nervous at first, but I couldn't wait to just let go and hang out with my friends one last time before I had to leave. I looked around and saw several lights hanging from the ceiling, swing wildly and illuminating the dance floor all sorts of crazy colors. Off to the side, I also saw Vinyl Scratch sitting behind the DJ’s booth, banging her head up and down to the beat of the music. At that particular moment, I was sitting in a chair near the edge of the dance floor, glancing around quickly and looking rather awkward. I turned around quickly when I felt something tap my shoulder.

“Come on, Allen, dance!” Twilight Sparkle said, laughing as I blushed.
“I’m not a really good dancer,” I said, straining my voice over the sounds of the party. She rolled her eyes, smiling as she pushed me out of my seat and out into the crowd, where Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy were all waiting for me.
Oh, why the hell not? I thought to myself, suddenly laughing and joining my friends in a circle as we danced around happily, all of us trying to make this the best night we possibly could.

That’s when I saw it. There wasn’t much to see, but I still noticed it: a flash of movement where there was nothing, like something that was camouflaged had passed through my peripheral vision. I stopped and stared at the source in confusion, when Pinkie bumped into me.

“Hey, Allen, something wrong?” she asked in her perpetual happy tone.
I kept staring and replied in a voice just loud enough for her to hear me, “I don’t know. I get the feeling something is here. Something that shouldn’t be.”
Pinkie followed my gaze, twisting her head around to get a better view. “I’m not seeing anything. “Maybe you drank too much punch?” she suggested, giggling.
I shook my head. “No, just water,” I said, then got an idea. “Wait, punch... that’s it! Pinkie, can you get me a drink?” I asked, turning to the bouncy pink earth pony. She smiled and ran off, returning a few seconds later with a glass of pink fruit punch.

“But isn’t the… oh, whatever,” I said, looking over to see the punch bowl was way on the other side of the room. I turned back to where I had seen the impossible movement and tossed the drink in that direction. I watched as it flew through the air, splashing all over some sort of invisible figure.

That’s when all hell broke loose.

{Cover has been compromised! Attack now!} I heard a cold, calculating voice shout. The air shimmered to reveal what had been watching me: another Crystal Guardian. This one, however, looked a lot like a human, but each of its limbs were completely made of thin pieces of crystal. Its hands and feet were pointed like knives, and its limbs connected at sharp joints; they looked kind of like circus acrobats, the way they moved and carried themselves. I looked up to see two more falling from the ceiling, shimmering into view before they hit the ground, and advanced on me. I pulled out my crystal, which immediately changed into its bladed form, and charged into battle as everypony cleared the floor.

The new enemies were tough; whenever I swung at them, they dodged as if I had moved in slow motion, flipping away just as another took its place. One of them scaled a wall, digging its hand in for a good anchor, and I noticed what it was trying to do just before it threw a crystal knife at me, missing my neck by mere millimeters. After a few minutes, they had me cornered and exhausted, while they were in perfect shape, arms pulled back in preparation for finishing me off.

That’s when I heard a high pitched voice shouting angrily behind them. “NO ONE CRASHES PINKIE’S PARTIES!” I heard Pinkie shout, and just before my foes turned, the one to my right was suddenly blasted out of the way, and I saw Pinkie Pie standing behind her party cannon, her eyes filled with rage. Taking advantage of the distraction, I quickly ran at the downed creature and swung my sword hard, creating a perfect cut at the torso as it fell limply. The other two started to jump and dive around like parkour experts, both dodging Pinkie’s attacks and trying to get a good hit against me. I saw a series of black discs flying at them, and saw that Vinyl Scratch had used her magic to throw her records at them.

“NO ONE KILLS MY BEAT AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!” she shouted as several of the discs smashed into one of the attackers, and I finished him off by jumping off a table, swinging downward as I descended, and slicing the creature in half.

The last one saw what had happened to its allies, and quickly vanished from view. I looked around, trying to see where my enemy was, when I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. I fell over, grimacing, and looked behind to see a shard of ice-blue crystal sticking out of me.

How can I fight what I can’t see? I thought, making sure to constantly move to give my enemy a more difficult target. I ran by some speakers, feeling the heavy beat pounding on my eardrums, and got an idea.
“VINYL! CRANK UP THE VOLUME!” I called to the DJ pony, and she quickly bent over at the controls. Just then, the beat got what felt like a million time heavier, and I looked around, struggling to ignore the massive headache I had just developed. I narrowed my eyes when I saw one of the new Guardians standing in the center of the dance floor, the loud music making it vibrate violently and rendering its camouflage useless. I smiled through my cranial pain, and ran over to Pinkie Pie.

“Mind if I borrow this?” I shouted as I threw my sword into the party cannon, took aim at my now-exposed enemy, and then fired. There was a loud shattering sound as several crystal shards suddenly flashed into view and fell to the ground out of nowhere, and I saw my sword was embedded in the opposite wall. I jumped into the air happily, and heard a loud crashing sound as the music stopped. I turned to see Vinyl pressing buttons on the console wildly.

“Aw, the bass was too much for the poor thing,” she cried sadly, "now we don’t have any music!”
The remainder of the crowd let out a collective “awww”, and I reached into my pocket and pulled out my MP3 player, smiling.
This party isn’t over yet! I thought as I ran over to the booth. “Hey, Vinyl, would your speakers plug into this?” I asked, pointing at the primary jack that connected the sound system to the speakers.
She unplugged the cord and gave it to me, and I found it fit snugly in the AUX outlet. "I think I have exactly what we need,” I said, hitting the play button.

We all danced the night away, many of the ponies who had fled the party returned when they heard the music pick back up, and Twilight healed my shoulder as I sat in a chair, the others all gathered around me.
“I guess it’s a good thing I’m leaving tomorrow,” I said jokingly, “because these guys are finally learning how to hurt me!”
I smiled at my friends, but they just looked down sadly. Even Pinkie, the happiest pony around, hung her head low, her usually poofy mane was now straight. I frowned sadly.
Oh, right, I thought, they aren’t as good at letting go.
I jumped up, deciding to pick up the mood. “Come on, you guys; if this is my last night in Equestria, let’s make it a night to remember!” I said, and then turned my gaze to the DJ booth. “VINYL SCRATCH! PLAY TRACK SEVENTEEN!”

Later that night, long after Sugarcube Corner had been cleared out, my friends and I had cleaned up most of the mess from the party, and sat down to fondly remember our week together.
“Remember when I had you tied down to the bed?” Twilight said, laughing loudly, and I nodded.
“Twilight, I thought you would be a little more private about your personal time with Allen!” Rarity scolded, and Twilight glared at her.
“I told you, nothing like that happened!” the purple alicorn shouted, but the look Rarity gave her said she was joking, and they both laughed.

“Allen, I must say,” Rarity added, “it was rather interesting making that outfit for you. It’s a shame those ruffians ruined it,” she said, looking sadly at the tear in my jacket.
I shrugged. "It was a nice suit while it lasted," I said nonchalantly.

Speech time, I thought, standing up suddenly and clearing my throat. The six ponies leaned forward as I spoke. “Girls, I have to say that my time in Ponyville has been great. You have treated me better in this one week than many people I’ve met on Earth have treated me their entire lives. Thank you, so much, for accepting me and giving me a chance,” I said, fighting to hold back my tears. I looked at my friends, obviously in the same situation, and we all suddenly got together in a massive pony-human group hug, all of us laughing and crying tears of joy.
“I’m gonna miss you guys,” I said between sobs, and they all nodded in agreement.
We all sat there, holding one another tightly until we all fell asleep.