I quietly stepped through the crystal archway that led to the training grounds, and was impressed by the sight that lay before me. It was a large clearing, about the size of a highschool football field, and was covered in all sorts of training equipment. Obstacle courses and practice dummies of all shapes and sizes dotted the area, and there was even a large track encircling the grounds.
I whistled appreciatively, and looked to my right at the sound of my name.

“Allen!” Shining Armor called as he ran over to me, “You’re just in time! Could you help us with something over here?” he asked as he led me over to a group of soldiers.
“Uh, actually I needed to…” I started to say, but I trailed off when it was obvious he couldn’t hear me. I jogged over to see what was going on.

“You see, Allen, we have this new weapon we’ve been keeping under wraps, but with the threat of that warlord, I think it’s time to pull it out for a test-drive,” he explained.

I looked around, not seeing any fancy weapons; just the ten or so guards that stood around us expectantly. “Uh… what exactly are we looking at here?” I asked, confused.

Shining Armor widened his eyes. “Oh, of course!” he exclaimed, and nodded to one of the guards. “Tell Flash everything’s all ready,” he said, and the guard saluted and ran off.

“It’ll be just a moment,” Shining said, slightly embarrassed, and suddenly the ground shook a little as the ground a few yards away from us suddenly slid away, and some strange, metallic-grey object rose from beneath the training grounds. My mouth fell open as I stared at Shining Armor’s “weapon”.

It stood nearly ten feet tall, with legs and arms as thick as tree trunks, and in the center was a large metal cube that looked like it could hold a pony inside. Its right arm was cut off at the wrist, ending in a blade rather than a hand. It let out a loud, siren-like sound as the two floodlights on the front lit up a light blue, and the monstrosity started to move.
“Everything seems operational, Captain!” I heard Flash Sentry call from a speaker on the behemoth’s cockpit. I turned to Shining Armor, my eyes as big as saucers.

“You have a mech?!” I asked, bewildered.

The captain of the royal guard nodded. “We had it designed shortly after you defeated the Obsidian King, but we never found any reason to use it until now. We were actually hoping you could see how it maneuvers for us, so we get an idea of its combat capabilities,” he explained.

My face lit up. I get to drive a mech? I thought excitedly. “Yeah, let’s go!” I said, unable to wait.

Shining looked relieved. “Okay, great! Just wait for the rest of us to get out of the way, and you can start,” he said, and started to walk away, but stopped after three steps to fire a spell at me. My body had a blue glow for a moment, and then it was gone.
“What was that?” I asked, suddenly unsure of what was going on.

He gave me a slightly apologetic look. “It’s a spell that will temporarily improve your resistance to injury. We don’t want you getting hurt in a practice fight, do we?” he asked rhetorically.
I suddenly got a panicked look, which only worsened when I heard the mech start to shift behind me.

They don’t want me to test-drive that thing, I said, pulling out my sword and holding it defensively, they want me to test-fight it!

~-~-~-~-~

Robert Greathouse sat in his room, unsure of what to do. His son had gone out for the day, so he was unable to try and connect with him again, and he felt a little uncomfortable around the ponies. It wasn’t because he thought they were terrible creatures or anything, just that he was always uncomfortable around others. He tried passing his time by writing some notes on the inhabitants of this “Equestria”, but that could only occupy him for so long. Then he remembered something.

“The General!” he cried, pulling an earpiece from his pocket, “I should give him a status report!”
There was a long, static-filled pause, before the other line picked up. General Warrens's gruff, slightly annoyed voice spoke up on the other end.

“Go for Warrens,” he said expectantly, his voice slightly muffled; he must have been eating one of those god-awful M.R.E.s.
“General, this is Doctor Robert Greathouse with a status report,” he said in a professional tone.

The General suddenly brightened his mood a little. “Ah, Robert! Good to hear from you. What’s the status?”
Robert sighed. “We arrived at the “Crystal Empire” my son had been sent to yesterday. We were attacked by some sort of armored, zombie-like creature. He killed all of the men you sent with, and almost killed my son,” he said sadly. He was upset he didn’t feel much remorse for the lost soldiers, but he did not know any of them well enough to be impacted by their loss. He mostly kept to himself during his time in this world.

The General let out a surprised noise. “A zombie? Are you… never mind; after learning about the normal creatures living here, that’s the last thing I should be questioning. You say my men are dead? How?” he demanded, “How did some armored zombie kill off five professional soldiers?”

Robert shrugged involuntarily. “He just walked right up to them, as if their gunfire wasn't affecting him. On top of that, it seemed that killing them restored his life force. After some of the inhabitants finally chased him off, he looked like half of his body had been returned to a much younger state,” he explained.

The General stayed silent for a while, probably confused by the whole ordeal. “Well, if he only gets stronger the more he kills, it would be stupid to send any more men over there. But if I don’t, there won’t be anything stopping him…” he said uncertainly. “What am I going to do, Doctor?”

Robert smiled. “Don’t worry about it; the inhabitants of this world are quite resilient, and handled themselves well yesterday. On top of that, they have my son, who is quite the hero, as it turns out,” he said proudly.
Warrens laughed. “Speaking of which, how are things going between you two?” he asked casually.

Robert sighed sadly. “Well, he hasn’t hit me, which is a start. I’m pretty sure he still hates me, though,” he said quietly.
“Hmm,” Warrens said, unsure of what to say to comfort Robert. “I’ve never had kids, so I don’t know what advice to give you in this situation. Just give him some time to think this over. He’s your son, for God’s sake! He’s gotta have some love for you in there somewhere,” he said cheerfully.

Robert chuckled a little. “Thanks, I needed that. I’ll contact you if anything else comes up,” Robert said thankfully, then switched the communicator off and slid it back into his pocket as he sat down on the bed, and noticed he had sat on something. He stood up and found it to be his personal Smith and Wesson Model 500 handgun. He had tinkered with it during his time here after it was given to him “just in case something happened”. Although he didn’t plan on using it, taking it apart and reassembling it gave him something to do.

He set the sidearm down on a nightstand next to the bed, and looked out the window at the beautiful city below.
“I can only fear what will happen when more of us come to this place,” he said darkly to himself as he watched the ponies go about their business, unaware of the human that quietly observed them from above.

~-~-~-~-~

I leaped over a couple of guards doing crunches as I ran away from the mechanical monstrosity that chased me around the Crystal Empire training grounds. It appeared that my desire to not get pummeled by a giant, metal fist wasn’t going over well with my audience.

“Come on!”
“Fight, you cowardly foal!”
“I thought you were some kind of hero!”

These less-than-inspiring shouts were silenced by a commanding whistle by Shining Armor, who then called out to me as well. “Don’t worry about getting hurt, Allen; the suit is on safety mode, so it can’t seriously injure you! On top of that, the spell I used on you will protect you in case something goes wrong!” he shouted comfortingly.
I narrowed my eyes and slowed my sprint.

Well, as long as I can’t get hurt, I thought as I turned around to face my pursuer, and if only to make these asshole guards suck it!

I pulled my sword from my back and held it as best as I could with my non-dominant human hand, and braced myself.

My bravery was immediately responded with a massive metal fist that sent me flying, and slammed my back against the wall surrounding the training grounds.

Whatever spell Shining had used, it sure as hell worked; I looked down at my body in disbelief to find not a single bone was broken, and not a single bit of skin was cut. I looked back up to see the mech’s bladed arm was inches from my face.

“So much for a piece of cake,” I muttered, and quickly dove forward between my opponent’s legs, swiping at the plated pillars as I passed. It didn’t do much, but I gave myself credit for trying.

The mech turned around and charged at me once again, but I was ready this time. We ran at each other head-on, and I jumped as it swung its huge, bladed arm at me, missing by millimeters, and I buried my sword in the center of the cockpit. The hole I made sparked violently, and the mech staggered around for a few seconds before collapsing. I jumped off and rolled away just before it hit the ground, and gave Shining Armor, who looked very impressed, a thumbs up.

“How’d I do?” I asked nonchalantly as I pulled my sword from my fallen opponent, giving the guards who had teased me a smug look.

Shining nodded appreciatively. “That was great! It’s too bad we’ll have to do some more work on the mech, but it was great seeing how well you fight!” He looked passed me at the crippled mech. “You okay in there, Flash?” he called out.
I froze. Flash was actually in that thing? I thought suddenly, I could have killed him!

There was a pneumatic hiss as the cover of the cockpit slid open, and Flash Sentry leaped out looking completely unharmed.
“Yeah, I’m alright,” he said modestly, “but that was insane! What were you thinking?”
I shrugged. “It just came to me, I guess,” I said honestly. I remembered the last time I fought an enemy much bigger than I was, I had beaten it using that same move; I guess it’s my go-to attack when it comes to big opponents.

I jogged over to Flash. “You sure you’re alright?” I asked, still worried.
Flash nodded, smiling. “I’m fine, but I gotta admit I was worried for a moment; your sword stabbed through just inches away from me!” he said, and laughed.

I let out a relieved sigh, and then remembered why I came here in the first place. “Oh, by the way, I had something I wanted to ask you,” I said, and the orange pegasus nodded intently. “How do you feel about Princess Twilight?” I asked seriously.
Flash froze for a moment. “Twilight? Oh, she seems pretty cool,” he said nervously. “Why do you ask?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, just the way you two were talking earlier made me think you’d make a good couple, I guess. But, it’s none of my business,” I said, and gave him a friendly wave as I headed back to the castle.
Flash, however, wasn’t done talking yet. “Why? Did she say something about me?” he asked excitedly.
I chuckled. “Sorry, but I’m sworn to secrecy,” I said mischievously.

Flash looked kind of dejected, so I added, “but, I can say I have a feeling she likes you.”
This brightened his spirits. “You do?” he said happily.
I nodded. “Yeah, just look at the way she gets all flustered when you’re around! I may be wrong, but that’s a sure sign of her liking you,” I explained.
Flash nodded. “Thanks, Allen!” he called as he ran back to the other soldiers.

I smiled as I continued to walk back to the castle. It was getting pretty late, I was dead tired, and I was supposed to help Fluttershy with her job setting up for the Fair tomorrow.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t get as complicated as today did,” I said wistfully as I strolled down the street.