Author's Notes:

Before this starts, a few things. Currently this chapter is not Edited properly as my editor is busy. Please point out any mistakes you see for me to fix.

This chapter is also laid out differently. Tell me if you like this way or the other way more. (It's mostly just more spacing between what's getting said)

The chapter with Discord might take a long time to make. I want to get a lot of things done on that chapter. I am thinking of perhaps making it into 4 parts.

Also i have made personalities and roles for Daniel's kids.

Freddy-The Leader (Friendly)

Selene-The badass one (Serious but kind when not)

Barry-The bad Joker (Lazy)

Victoria-The mechanic (Cheerful)

Elizabeth-The Explosive expert (Happy and a bit Insane around things that go boom)

Orion- Creative thinker (Cheerful but serious when needed)

Abbey-Clumzy (Free-spritied)

Greg- Sneaky (Strong Silent type)

Caroline- Assisstant (Shy) (A jack in all traits)

Robert (Grumpy) (Like Biology)

Sorry to and Pari (Pink) and Mike (Maroon) but they will be removed. This will still stay here to remember them by.

As Daniel was lying on the couch he was thinking over what he was currently doing with his life. He knew he had a sister to look after and children but as he continued to think over his life there were a few things that surprised him. He questioned himself if he had the strength to kill King N if he should get the chance to or if he should leave him to the ones he has let suffer. He also never thought he would actually have a strong urge to ever want to kill someone and he himself still felt guilt over a few silly things back on earth so he started to question if he could live with himself if he did kill someone.

"No, I don't think I could live with that. I guess I could leave him to the fate of others if I beat him." Daniel got up from the couch and looked outside, amazed it was already dawn. "Dawn already? Time sure does go by fast." Daniel walked to the kitchen and made Annabelle’s breakfast appear on the table for her. As he continued to think he got a idea and decided that perhaps some training would help him take his mind off of the worry of killing someone and he was eager to have some more fun but as he reached for the doorknob he felt all care leave his body.

He lost the feeling to even bother training and sat back down, not wanting to do anything. After a while he heard Freddy’s voice as he ran in shouting.

“Daddy!” Daniel jumped in surprise.

“What? Is something wrong?” He asked

"We hit a gold mine. When the bot's were digging they hit a large amount of iron ore." Daniel picked Freddy up and headed to Aperture. As he and Freddy entered Aperture he saw a bunch of rocks over in a corner of the lab but these rocks looked somewhat like metal as they had a shine to them. Daniel looked around and saw Alpha who was watching over the bot's that were taking them away so he put Freddy down and approached him.

"Hey Alpha." Alpha turned around to face Daniel.

"Hello boss. It's been quite some time since you were last here." Daniel chuckled nervously.

"Sorry about that. I tend to mostly be outside now." Daniel decided to ask about the ore that was found. "Alpha, Will this find have any effect on production?"

"Yes it will. With these extra materials we won’t have to stop and wait till the machine has cooled down. So things should now move along 8.4% faster than previously expected. I should hopefully have a new body or two for your kids in the next few weeks." Daniel jumped in realisation as he remembered something.

"Hey Alpha, Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing is wrong." Daniel decided to be more specific.

"No, I mean is anything wrong with you. I heard Freddy mention not long ago that you’re being quite distant from them. Is there a reason?"

"You built me to run this place while you were gone. I chose to be alone so I can make calculations more quickly." Daniel thought about that for a moment and it made sense to him.

"Well...Alright, But if there’s any problem you need help with just ask, I mean, you are part of this family too." When Daniel finished saying that Alpha's holographic avatar glitched for a moment which caught Daniel by surprise. "What was that?"

"Just finishing some calculations. By the way, Brago wanted to talk to you. He asked me to tell you that next time I saw you. Which was yesterday." Daniel looked over to the doors that lead to the homes of both the Timberwolves and the Diamond dogs and then turned back to Alpha.

"Ok then. If Annabelle asks where I am, tell her just to wait and if she’s still hungry after her breakfast then she can get some chocolate from the kitchen. Hopefully whatever Brago wants to talk about won’t be long." Daniel started to walk over to the door that lead to the Diamond dog's home and entered it. As it closed Alpha thought about what Daniel said and looked over at his kids who were playing with each other and both his eyebrows and eyes dropped to look at the ground.

"Family." He glitched again before shaking his head and moving away to deal with the iron ore. "How does he deal with these? I've been running scans over and over but still nothing. Perhaps they can't be explained." With that thought over, Alpha focused on the task at hand. Using the iron ore to speed up production but Alpha soon turned to Freddy who was hiding behind a cart that was being pushed.

"Is Daddy away?" Alpha nodded to his question. "Brago and Thag know too?"

"Yes Freddy. They're aware of the plan that you and the others have. They'll keep your dad distracted. But there was something Brago wanted to speak to him about."
"Well I’m certain Daddy can handle it. ALL RIGHT GUYS! HE'S AWAY!" When Freddy shouted that the rest of Daniel's kids came out of hiding and Freddy was approached by Selene.

"So he’ll be away for a while? We can make it?"

"Yes. But not here. We need to hide in the lab." They all took off to the factory but Freddy turned to Alpha. "Keep Daddy distracted."

"I will. You just don't get seen." Freddy went with the others.

As Daniel entered the Diamond dog tunnels he was greeted by quite a lot of the dogs, and some of the Timberwolves that were hanging out with them. But what caught his attention was that there was some dogs that stood beside tunnels and they had armour on, not the kind that Rusty wore but it looked so clean, shiny and some parts were different in colour, like it was made from ruby's and other gems. It was mostly arm and leg guards and to a lesser extent helmets too.

Daniel looked around from where he stood in the main hall and it didn’t take him long to find Brago. He was wearing a blue gauntlet in his right arm and his left leg had armour on it too but it was green instead of blue. Daniel started to walk up to him and as he did he saw 3 of his bot's around the place. One seemed to be training a group of dogs while the other two were chipping away at gems, forging armour out of them as the gems were welded together and carved.

"Daniel, It good to...it's good...to see you again." Daniel chuckled.

"Still having a little language trouble?"

"Every now and then, yes." Daniel cut the small talk and got down to business.

"Alpha mentioned you wanted to see me." Brago seemed to jump in remembrance.

"Yes, I did. Recently we have gotten reports about some creatures moving through the everfree. Not a few dozen but more like a few hundred. There was even a report of them attacking one of the dogs I sent. However she was not majorly injured and easily recovered." Daniel sighed.

"Let me guess. You want me to go and deal with them?" Brago's ears fell backwards.

"If that be ok...will be ok...with you. You will not be alone. I send some dogs with you, and my best leader." Brago looked behind Daniel and when he turned around he saw Rusty.

"Well Daniel, it seems I be going with you." It was just now that Daniel remembered he hasn’t asked what Rusty's true name was so better do it now.

"I know this may seem wierd but what is your true name. I just realised I never asked." He just chuckled.

"My real name is Furig." Brago cleared his throat to get Daniel's attention.

"Now that that's out of the way, I have something I wish to ask you in private." Daniel said 'fine' and they both walked to an empty tunnel where Brago said what he wanted to ask. "Listen, I really appreciate everything you have done and still are doing for my subjects. So if it's ok with you I wish to make you my second in command." Daniel almost jumped in surprise at this.

"You want me to be a leader?" He asked.

"Yes, when I'm not here I would like it if you could watch over my subjects. Other than that nothing much will change." Daniel took some time to think it over.

"Well...I'm a dad; I already somewhat have leadership skills so...i guess I’ll try." Brago smiled at his answer.

"Thanks. Now onto the matter of task. The creatures I want you to check on for us. They are called changelings. You heard of them?" Daniel thought back over everything he could remember since coming to Equestria and he remembered about being informed about changelings sometime around Nightmare moon.

"I know the name and that they eat…emotions I think it was. But nothing else."

"Then we are same. That's all we know of them too. I wish for you to find out why they are here. They have never come this far into our lands before."

"And you what me too...what...scare them off?" Brago didn’t give a clear answer.

"If you have no other solution. Yes." Daniel sighed.

"I'll see what I can do." Daniel and Brago walked back to Furig who was patiently waiting. "It's time to go." Both Daniel and Furig started to walk off to the exit.

"Good luck you two. There are others waiting on surface...on the surface." Brago corrected himself. Furig looked behind him to see Brago had gone down one of the many tunnels before he decided to speak to Daniel.

"Brago almost never bothers with others outside this base unless they were more dogs. Much less speak to them personally. It's nice to see you've made him come out of his shell quite a bit." Daniel mostly didn’t care what Brago was like before, only what he's like now.

"I am just doing what I think is right. Nothing more." Furig didn’t seem to be convicted.

"Well if that’s true then why did you help us? You could have just left us alone. You first arrived here at Thag's request and you could have run away when the Timberwolves first met you but you didn’t." Daniel corrected him.

"I just wanted to make sure they meant no harm to Annabelle."

"But with what you can do you could have easily kept her safe. You didn’t need to reveal yourself." Daniel froze in his tracks. Furig was right, he could have just flown away when he first met the wolves but he didn’t.

"I was going through a lot at the time, ok."

"Ok." Furig and Daniel just kept walking to the exit but Daniel couldn’t get what Mother Nature said about him helping only to ease his own pain out of his head and he remembered that his subconscious plays a part in his powers so it made him wonder. " Is my own mind changing me or am I still me? I know I've helped them but would I have even offered to do that if I wasn’t merged with this thing." Daniel was starting to question himself.

"Now Luna. Are you certain you want to ask Cosmos to be your student ?" Celestia asked with a voice that was implying she’s wasn't joking around.

"I'm certain sister. If what Twilight's reports say are true then he has quite powerful magic and he seems to know a good bit about friendship." Luna replied. "That, and I have a feeling he's who I am looking for but if not then Cosmos still does seem like a good choice for a student." Celestia giggled.

"I have a feeling Twilight will be delighted to know one of her friends will be studying friendship with her." A question just popped into Luna's mind.

"Has Twilight gotten any more information on that Mew creature or the Shadow?" Celestia looked at her with a face of confusion.

"Mew?"

"It's what the creature keeps saying; I think that's what it's called." Celestia was lost in thought for a moment before she nodded in agreement.

"I think I agree with that name and you can read her report on it. Now Luna, what are you going to be teaching Cosmos?" Celestia asked.

"He seems to have exceptionally good magic, as I have said, so I wish to help him in perfecting it and he could also help us in other ways. Remember Starswirl?" Celestia looked at the ground with sadness in her eyes.

"I remember. He was our dearest friend. He understood us as mares instead of princesses. It's a shame he didn’t let friendship into his life." Luna nodded in agreement.

"Cosmos has allowed friendship into his life. I feel like, with the right kind of training, he could do what Starswirl couldn’t. Just like what you have planned for Twilight and with him being the element of forgiveness he could teach what is required for a friendship to stay together. Friendships can break and while Twilight will teach the joys of it, Cosmos can teach what is required to keep it together." Celestia smiled at Luna.

"You do know what it means if he does do what Starswirl couldn’t?"

"That’s a very big 'if' sister. Cosmos has shown to be quite smart and observant and with him having a little sister he might refuse." Celestia sighed and started to write a letter but soon stopped and turned to Luna.

"I’m going to inform Twilight about it. If he accepts then the letter will come right back." Celestia went back to writing after she said that.

As Celestia wrote the letter Luna looked out the window and her mind started to wonder.

"Daniel. Where are you? I know what I did in our first encounter was wrong but I know better now. When I meet him I should keep his existence quiet. The last thing I need is science nerds trying to study him. But still. When I met him in the dreamscape he killed himself in it just to get away from me.

I guess he want's nothing to do with us. But that resistance my sister was talking about, it sounds like what I felt when I tried to enter their dreams. So Daniel was likely among them, he must have been Mew or Cosmos...Wait. Daniel very might be Cosmos.

I can't find Daniel's dreams and I have never seen any of Cosmos dreams and the reports of how strong and fast Cosmo is. It’s just like the shadow which might also be Daniel. Cosmos must be Daniel! HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT SOONER!?" Luna felt angry at herself for overlook such a clue but then something else entered her mind." I haven’t seen the dreams of his sister too. They might be from a different land but never before has my dream magic been blockable. Sure some well trained minds can resist it but they can't fully block it. So how is he doing it? Tia did say there is a first time for everything but...this is just a mess. I swear if Cosmos is somehow not Daniel then I feel like I might just give up.

Now if I plan on making him my student and he is Daniel then I should take some time, perhaps a few weeks, to get to know him and develop trust between us. Then I will see if he’s Daniel. If not then he'll still make a good student." Luna was cut out of her thoughts by Celestia.

"LUNA!" Luna jumped in surprise at the volume of her sisters voice.

"Sister. Why are you shouting at us?"

"Your mind was wondering. I called your name 5 times." Celestia cleared her throat and continued. "I have informed Twilight about what you've considered. The next time she sees Cosmos she will inform him."

Twilight had been reading and practicing spells from a spell book for most of the morning. She had recently received a letter from Celestia and was currently reading it.

"- and so Luna had decided to ask Cosmos if he...want's to be her student!?" Twilight almost jumped in surprise when she read that part. "Luna wants to take Cosmos under her wing? This is...amazing. We could study together, I could show him some of my best spells and we can hang out more...This is great." Spike looked at Twilight with a grin.

"You really like Cosmos don't you Twilight?" Twilight just turned around with a smile.

"What kind of pony would I be if I didn’t like my friends? I like all my friends Spike." Spike shook his head.

"No Twilight, I mean you seem to have a crash on him." Twilight turned red in the face when Spike said that and he fell over laughing.

"It's not like that Spike. I don't like him like that." Spike calmed down and spoke.

"Really Twilight? Well I see it differently. Like at the race, you and he were walking together. He helped you try to understand Pinkie, he prevented you from getting injured and you let him study in your library. Also that time he was studying humans, I saw how you checked him out. You two seem very alike, you are both good at magic and very caring." Twilight was about to tell Spike off but she stopped to consider how she truly felt about Cosmos.

She chose to forget about the time she looked him over as she wanted to see if there were any physical signs he was as strong as he was. She thought back to the race and she realised she felt a bit more happy with his company and while he had his own thoughts about Pinkie he didn’t try and change her mind and instead helped her till she accepted it.

Not only that but he acted very differently than most stallions, like that time he dealt with the Timberwolves when they were looking for the elements and how he has always been there for her and the others and at times gave them some good advice on friendship. That's not to say there wasn’t any stallion like him but he seemed different to Twilight. When she looked down to see Spike she saw he was grinning at her.

"What?"

"Your eyes were half close when you were thinking. Was it about Cosmos? If so, it seems like I was right." Twilight sighed.

"Spike. I don't have a crush on him, and even if I did I have friendship and magic to study." Spike walked over to the bookshelf.

"Denial is the sign. You can say you don't but it seems like you do."

"Whatever Spike. But we should go and tell Cosmos about Luna's request as soon as we can." Twilight put Spike on her back and rushed out of her house and towards Cosmos house. As she got to the door she chapped it quickly. "Cosmos! You home?" She waited for about two minutes and got no answer. "Where could he be?"

"Perhaps he’s in town?" Spike said and Twilight seemed to perk up.

"You might be right. Let's see if we can find him. We don't want to keep the princesses waiting for a reply." Twilight took off to the town to look for Cosmos or his sister.

"-but it gets better. When he woke up, his skeleton was missing and the doctor was never heard from again." Furig burst out laughing but Daniel only chuckled at his joke. They've been walking for a good while and were now deeper in the everfree.

The strange thing about the part they were in was the fact that Daniel couldn’t hear any animals. He has often heard some whenever he headed into it before but now besides the sounds of his and the dog's footsteps and talking, it was total silence and it was making him a little unsettled.

As Daniel walked he felt like something was nagging at the back of his mind, to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything he thought over what he did this morning. " I made Annabelle her breakfast, my kids are fine and everything between the Timberwolves and Diamond dogs is going smoothly. So what...Crap! I forgot to take Annabelle to school. I guess it can be put off until tomorrow."

Daniel stopped walking when he felt himself step on something and when he looked down he saw he stepped on some green slime. Furig walked over to Daniel and looked at what he stepped in.

"What is that?" Daniel wiped whatever it was off on the grass.

"I don't know and this forest is too quiet. Be on your guard." Daniel and Furig started to walk further in for a few moments until they stopped when they saw giant green pods hanging from some trees. As Daniel looked at them more closely he saw that there were some dogs inside them. "Wait." Daniel flew up to the branch of the tree and tried to rip the pod open, only to find it was very sticky. He focused on his hands and raised the temperature of them before he put them back on the pod and tried to rip it open.

His hands easily gripped the pod as the slime was removed on contact and the pod was torn apart, causing the dog fell out but was caught by Furig as he fell.

"There's some more of them. I will deal with them, you just be ready to catch them." Daniel flew over to the other two pods and did the same to the second one but as he was starting to rip that one apart he felt a light tap on his back and turned around.

"DANIEL...wait, you're ok?" He heard Furig shout.

"Yes, why wouldn’t be?" Daniel then realised. He is flying and something tapped his back.

"You were just blasted by magic, and we have company." Daniel looked to where Furig pointed and what he saw was like a black bug versions of ponies with wings, a horn and empty eyes. They landed a few feet away from them and one of them was a much bigger build than the others.

"Look who it is, more food. You diamond dogs come here to try and save your friends? Dream on." The bigger one looked up to Daniel who was still flying next to the pod and he looked a bit surprised. "You...You're not a diamond dog. What are you?" It shouted at Daniel who just narrowed his eyes at it.

"I don't have to listen to you." Daniel said grimly.

"You're going to regret that." The large one shot a bolt of magic at Daniel and he just stood there at the bolt disappeared when it got close to him but a slight spark was left as it tapped him in the nose. The result caused the large changeling to back up a bit. Daniel lowered down from the tree and turned to look at Furig.

"Get him out of that pod. I got this." He looked back at the changelings who all looked ready to fight.

"Who are you and what are you?" The large one asked and Daniel chuckled before he turned into his shadow form. The dog's temporarily stopped what they were doing and looked at Daniel before they continued trying to free their trapped friend.

"My name's the shadow and your worst nightmare." Daniel got into a fighting stance and the big changeling turned back to two smaller ones.

"You two drones, alert the hive." The two changelings zoomed off into the distance. When they were away the big changeling and 3 others looked at Daniel, ready to fight.

"I don't want to fight you so why not just let me free them and be on our way."

"You think we'll just let you take our food away? Not likely." The large one rushed forward and tried to kick but Daniel just casually grabbed its leg as Daniel saw the changeling move in slow motion. After he grabbed it by the leg he threw it.

"Soldier!" One of the little ones cried and Daniel looked at them.

"Take him away and leave. I don't want to fight." Daniel felt a small tap from his back and turned around.

"I’m not done with you." Daniel realised it was the voice of the large changeling so he turned to face it again.

"You’re tougher than I thought. But that still won’t stop me." The soldier charged at Daniel but he just stood there and took it then lightly smacked the soldier as it was send into a tree. The soldier got up but it was uneasy on its legs and had a mark on its face. "I just smacked and you are already about to fall. Please don't try it anymore."

The Soldier's horn started to glow brightly and it kept getting a brighter until it died down and a blast was launched at Daniel. The blast knocked Daniel back a good few feet and it felt like he got hit by a pillow sheet in a strong gust of wind as the blast didn’t hurt him. He looked back at the soldier and saw it was breathing heavily from exhaustion and after a few seconds it collapsed down to the ground.

"Please don't hurt us." The drones looked at Daniel with fear in their eyes and one actually started to cry.

"I don't have any intentions on doing so. Just go home and pretend we never met." Daniel looked back at the dogs and saw they had managed to free their friend from the pod.

"We got him." Furig told Daniel. Daniel turned back to the drones.

"When you go back home tell your leader that if they plan on doing this to anymore diamond dogs or Timberwolves in the future, I will be there for them." Daniel turned around and started too walked back to the dogs.

"WATCH OUT!" Furig shouted but it was too late. Daniel felt himself get pushed forwards again and heard an explosion, the next thing he knew he was in a tree.

"Stay away from my children!" Daniel felt a bit of rage build from the attack but mostly from annoyance. He turned around and was a little surprised when he saw a horde of changelings in the air and a much bigger one ahead of them and by the sound of the voice, she was female.

She landed close to Daniel and he managed to get a good look at her. She was just like the others but had long hair that looked like it was made out of the same material as her wings, she taller than the others, she had a larger horn and she actually had pupils in her eyes rather than empty eyes like the rest.

"Mother, Queen." The drones next to Daniel called out.

"Let them go." Daniel looked back at the drones and indicated for them to go to her and they did as fast as they could, carrying the injured soldier. "So, you're the shadow?"

"You know of me?" Daniel asked.

"Yes I do. I've had some changelings among the ponies for some time. But I'm surprised to see you with the diamond dogs." Daniel looked back at the diamond dogs who were just watching what was happening.

"Well if all you know about me is my name and how I've acted before then that is to be expected." The Queen seemed to let her guard down for a second.

"So you're not a mindless brute? I was not expecting that." Daniel decided to cut the small talk and get to the reason he was here.

"Enough small talk. Queen...Eh"

"Chrysalis."

"Queen Chrysalis. I'm here on behalf of the Diamond dog leader Brago. He thinks you're a threat as you've been moving close to his territory." She sighed.

"We have no almost interest in the diamond dogs. We're after the ponies." This got Daniel confused. Why would they be after them?

"Why? What did they do?" She got a look of anger and looked at the ground.

"What did they do? What did they not do!? I will tell you, a long time ago we used to live in some of the land where they now occupy and what did the ponies do? They chased us out of our home and used it for themselves! Anyling who stayed to fight was slaughtered or used for experiments and even my own great grandmother gave her life to save my own mother! The drove us to the badlands and labelled us as monsters or parasites."

This surprised Daniel as he has never seen them do that to him. Until he remembered he was always in a pony form. They acted differently to Zecora, because she was different. They labled the Timberwolves and diamond dogs as monsters and brutes, because they were different. Daniel thought back to what Thag and Brago told him and both of their stories involved being hurt and driven out of their home because of the ponies. Daniel started to wonder if he should trust them based on what 3 different sources say. But he needed to know how long ago this was.

"Your kind is not the only one. Also how long ago was this? Who was the ruler of the ponies at the time?" Needless to say, this got a surprise look from Chrysalis.

"The ruler?" She went silent for a moment. "I don't think there was a singular ruler at the time like they have now. They were in different tribes but they all saw us as bad. Also what do you mean by ‘not the only one?" She asked.

"I'm friends with both Diamond dogs and Timberwolves, both of them lived in chaos and misery and when I asked them how they were like that it was because of something the ponies did to them long ago." A image of his friends flashed in his minds and he felt a little pinch of guilt in his heart when he said that. “She said the ponies did this when they were still rivals. When each pony kind was for its own so with them not even trusting their own race like that they were likely primitive and dumb. And my race was no different in it's primitive time."

"How do I know you are telling the truth?" She asked.

"You don't but you could trust me and I'll show you that it's not a lie." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Why should I trust you? You attacked my kids."

"They attacked me first. Ask the soldier who’s exhausted." Chrysalis looked back at the soldier who just looked down at the ground with guilt. "If you would just have a talk with Brago about your reason for moving into his territory then the both of you might come to an agreement."

"How do I know you’re not just suggesting that to trap me?" Daniel folded his arms.

"What reason would I have to trick you. I came here to free the trapped dogs and try to reason with you. Speaking of which, why did you trap them in those pods?"

"It's a food source." Daniel got raised a eyebrow at this. Why would they need to trap something in a pod like that to make it food?

"Can't you just eat fruit or other things?"

"Yes, but we also need emotional food too. We can eat fruit and other things but if we go to long without emotional food we will both lose our magic and collapse from exhaustion. If one keeps going without emotional feeding they will become so weak their heart will give out." Daniel felt sorry for them when he heard this, they needed to do this to survive and he sees no shame in doing what's needed to survive. They were born like this; they had no say in the matter.

"Well...I don't know but we’ll think of something. I mean think about it, I was sent here to reason with you if I could. Brago doesn’t want to fight and by the way you've talked with me rather than an outright attack…besides that first blast, you seem to want the same thing. So why not talk with him and Thag, it could turn out nicely?" Chrysalis looked a bit unsure about what Daniel was suggesting. "Your choice." She looked back to her kids who were all looking at her for her answer and she sighed.

"I guess I could. But don't try anything or I won’t hold back." She said in a threating manner.

"Wouldn’t dream of it. As long as you don't do anything stupid too." Daniel looked back at the Diamond dogs and nodded. "Alright guys. We’re going back. One of you run ahead and tell Brago he’ll have some company."

"Ahh." Daniel looked back at Chrysalis to see her shaking her head in what looked like disgust.

"What's wrong?"

"What's with you? I tried to read your emotions to see if you're lying and you’re not. At the same time your emotions are so full with sweet joy and love, they are also empty and tasteless and full with misery and rage making them bitter." Daniel didn’t break his gaze on Chrysalis.

"I'm still trying to understand myself." He answered her. "If you want to meet Brago just follow Furig." Daniel pointed to Furig.

"Wait, you’re not coming along?" Furig asked.

"No I’m not. I need to get back, I have things to do. I'll be at the Diamond dog home later today, perhaps." Daniel looked back at Chrysalis. "I hope everything turns out for the better. When you meet Brago try and see what you have in common as leaders or parents and how much you both care about your subjects or children." The next thing got Daniel’s attention, Chrysalis smiled at him. Not a grin a traitor would have but a honest, genuine smile. Even if it was a small one.

"Thanks Shadow." Daniel smiled but he didn’t think she could see it.

"You're welcome Chrysalis, Oh and the name isn’t Shadow, its Daniel." Daniel let the mist from his Shadow form fade to show her what he really looked like.

"Thanks. Daniel. By the way, what are you?" She asked.

"I’m a human." As he said this, Chrysalis and the other changelings took a few steps back, and Daniel had a feeling he knew why. "Worried because I am a living legend?" She nodded. "Don't be. The dogs and wolfs had the same reaction." Daniel turned back to Furig and both of them started their return journey.

Daniel wanted to get back to check on Annabelle and to head out and meet his friends so he retraced the steps he took to get here and after a while he was back at the home of the diamond dogs. He walked into it and back through the door to Aperture then went to his house to find Annabelle watching TV in the living room.

"Where were you?" She asked without looking away.

"I was doing something for Brago, something important." Annabelle looked over to Daniel.

"I was hoping to go to school today." He sighed.

"I'm sorry Annabelle. I'll remember tomorrow." She folded her arm.

"Tomorrow is the weekend." Daniel groaned in annoyance.

"On Monday then. Anyway want to head out today?" Annabelle got off of the couch to show Daniel she was already in clean outdoor clothes. "I take it that’s a yes. Ok then." Daniel transformed them into their pony forms and put on his fake flank tattoo before they headed to their ponyville house.

"So, Where to first?" She asked.

"Twilight's house. Or sugarcube corner. Your choice." Annabelle looked at the ground while she thought. As she thought about where she wanted to go, Daniel's mind started to wonder back to his talk with Chrysalis. How she sounded like she was planning on getting revenge against the ponies even after all this time for what they did to her and her children and his mind hit an important question.

"What if they don't accept me for being different?" Daniel thought on it a bit more and felt some more sadness when he had another thought. "They might lie to me to keep me as a friend because I'm an element of harmony or try to find a replacement." What Daniel had said just registered in his mind. "Harmony. HARMONY!? the way I saw those elements get used and the way I heard of them getting used on...Discord, think his name was, show me that those elements are nothing but weapons."

Daniel calmed himself down and remembered why he shouldn’t hold it against them. This was so long ago, before Celestia and Luna. Back when the ponies even hated others of their own kind. The them back then is gone and the them that is now are different. Any species that is intelligent, from these ponies and even his own have a dark past and that needs to be accepted and learned from in order to keep on moving.

His mind wondered and another realisation hit him. The chance of war happening if he was found out. If being friends with the diamond dogs would be enough to cause fear which could cause war to be thought of then with Timberwolves and perhaps soon, changelings too. The ponies will likely see them as a major threat that needs to dealt with and if they are allies with the griffins then it could turn out much worse than he previously thought. This is fear, a very powerful emotion that can lead to rage and cause those who are angry or fearful to not think straight. All of this piled down to one question that he hated to think about. Who would he side with?

He closed his eyes and an image of his kids flashed in his mind along with others of what the diamond dogs were like before he had helped them. He has known Brago and Thag longer than Twilight and the others and he has kids who see them as friends too.

"I'm sorry Twilight, Dash, Rarity, all of you. But if war happens I will be siding with my alliance. Unless you also join me."If this did happen then there would likely be ponies that go against the idea of war and hopefully his friends would be those ones.

"Cosmos!" Daniel shook his head clear of thoughts and opened his eyes to see Annabelle looking back at him.

"What?"

"You were daydreaming again. I said I want to go and see Twilight."

"Ok then. Why Twilight?" She raised a hoof way that showed she was unsure why.

"Something entertaining always happens to her or the others." Daniel chuckled, knowing that was true. They both started to walk to Twilight's house but stopped when they saw Rainbow Dash zoom passed them and crash into Twilight's home.

"You seem to be right, something almost always happens. Like fate is playing around with her or something." They both ran towards the library. When they both reached the it Daniel chapped the door and waited for an answer.

When the door opened he was greeted by Twilight who looked surprised to see him.

"Cosmos! Where were you? I was looking all over for you." Annabelle looked at her with an eyebrow raised and her head tilted.

"You were looking for my Bro? Why?" She asked and Twilight now had a huge smile on her face.

"You're not going to believe this but...Princess Luna, with your permission, wishes for you to become her student." Daniel was very shocked by this in a terrified way. Why would Luna wish to make him her student?

"WHAT?!" He heard 5 other voices behind Twilight and looked to see all of his other friends who had their jaws wide open in shock and Pinkie's jaw was on the floor.

"That was the surprise girls." Twilight said looking at her friends and then back at Daniel. "Cosmos. Will you accept her request? We could be study buddies." Twilight didn’t lose her smile and Daniel didn’t know what to answer with.

"Let me think on it for a while."

"Alright then. But this is a very big honour, I hope you understand that." She turned back to her friends. "This day is going great. First Cosmos get's asked to be Luna's student and now I hear that Rainbow Dash is getting to compete in the best young fliers completion."

"Yeah, and Rainbow is going to blow the completion away. Oh I would love to see you make a sonic rainboom. It's like, the coolest thing ever. Even though I have never really seen it but I mean come ‘on, it's a sonic rainboom. How not cool could it possibly not be?" Pinkie rambled on.

"What's a sonic rainboom?" Daniel had to agree with Twilight. Even he was curious.

"You need to get out more." Pinkie said to Twilight up closely. "The sonic rainboom is legendary. When a Pegasus like Rainbow Dash is going so fast-" She jumped up and into a pile of books. "-Boom! A sonic boom and a rainbow can happen all at once."

"An Rainbow Dash here is the only pony ta ever pull'et aff." Applejack added.

"It was a long time ago. I was just a filly." Rainbow informed Pinkie. Daniel wondered why she didn’t keep on trying to do it if it was legendary like Pinkie said, or perhaps she has and just not noticed.

"Yeah but you’re going to do it again right?" She looked unsure about the answer to that question.

A-Are you kidding? I'm the greatest flyer to ever come out of Cloudsdail. I could do sonic rainbooms in my sleep." Daniel did’t miss the stutter at the start of her sentence so he was unsure if she meant what she said.

"If you pull that off, you'll win the crown for sure." Twilight commented.

"'If' she pulls it off. By the sound of her stutter she seems nervous because she might feel like she can't do it." Daniel thought. He looked to Annabelle who was looking at the door. Probably tired of all the talking but she then spoke.

"Bro, Can I talk to you outside for a second?" All the others turned to her.

"Sure Strawberry." They went outside and when the door closed Annabelle spoke.

"What are you going to do with the request from Luna?" Daniel didn’t want to tell her in public. He searched his mind until her remembered he talked telepathically with Mother Nature a few weeks ago when they were in public. He decided to try it again.

"Annabelle? Can you hear me?" Annabelle held her head as she felt a sting in it. "Sorry Annabelle. But I can't say it out loudly in public."

"Well what are you going to do?" She asked back. Daniel was surprised she wasn’t freaking out.

"I don't fully know. If I agree then it could help me. I could get her to trust me and perhaps get information on them if it’s needed. But I’m more worried about the fact she asked me out of the blue. If I refuse, I don't have a good excuse to. So I risk getting caught." Daniel mentally sighed in his mind. "I guess I’ll accept. It could be a great help. But I’ll need to remove the radiation within me as soon as possible. So...I guess I’ll have to deal with a side effect. I hope it’s not too bad." Daniel finished. "Now I’ll say something normally. In case someone is listening in or can hear us. I would look weird if I don't answer you." Daniel spoke normally next. "I think I'll accept."

Annabelle smiled at his answer. She felt like she might not need to hide for much longer. They both entered the library again to see that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had left.

"Please. I’ve put on enough fashion shows to recognize stage fright when I see it. We've got to find a way to be there for her. Now go on." Rarity finished saying and used her flank to hit Twilight into a bunch of books.

"That was uncalled for." Daniel thought. Twilight popped her head out of the pile of books.

"How am I supposed to find a flight spell in this mess?"

"A flight spell? One sec." Pinkie rushed into the book pile and came back with a book and tossed it to Twilight. "Page 27."

"Howd ya do that?" Applejack asked Pinkie.

"It fell on my face when Rainbow Dash knocked me into the book case." She answered.

"Here it is. The spell that will allow an earth pony to fly for 3 days. It looks really difficult. I'm not sure I can do it."

"You have got to try." Rarity told her.

"Ok, well who's going to volunteer for the test subject?" Daniel knew he couldn’t do it thanks to the magic resistance he currently had. After a few more seconds Rarity spoke.

"I will. For Rainbow Dash I will go first." Rarity stepped forward.

"Here goes." Twilight powered up her horn and magic started to wrap itself around Rarity completely before there was a flash. Everyone stood back up after being knocked to the floor and when they all looked at Rarity she had wings, but they looked like fairy wings and were also see through.

"Wow. They look nice." Daniel commented.

"Why thank you Cosmos. I agree, they look divine." Rarity squealed in joy.

"Well. Now we know the spell works. But I don't think I could do it to all of us. I’ll try and find an alternative." Twilight started to go through her books again and there was then a knock at the door. "Come in!" Twilight shouted. The door opened up and Daniel saw it was Mother Nature in her Daisy form. "Daisy? What are you doing here?"

"Sorry if I am intruding Twilight but..." She went silent when she saw Daniel. "Oh Cosmos. I’ve been looking for you. I need to speak to you about something." Daniel was a little surprised that she was looking for him but he chose to forget about it.

"Ok. What is it?"

"I would prefer to say outside." She walked outside and Daniel turned to Annabelle.

"Want to come along Strawberry." She nodded and they both walked outside. As he walked out he didn’t notice that Twilight looked at him suspiciously.

When he was outside he closed the door and turned to Mother Nature to hear what she had to say.

"Not here. Let's take a walk." Daniel raised an eyebrow at her but he decided to go along with it. As they started to walk she spoke to him telepathically.

"Sorry if you were busy but I forgot to mention this to you. Remember how I said you were technically an entity now and there was others out there?" Daniel nodded at her as they both continued to walk. "Well, how would you like to meet them?" Daniel was unsure about her offer.

"But, won't I have to travel to a different universe? I don't really feel like I'm ready for that." She giggled at that.

"They’re not always in another universe. We have a get together location in a pocket realm that’s nestled between different realities. Where we can all be ourselves. We also study, train and just have a good time." It sounded like a tempting offer. He decided to think about it.

"I'll think about it and give you my answer tomorrow. Anyway how are the others?"

Daniel and Mother Nature spent a while talking about how the other entities were doing. Apparently they were unchanged and still doing their duties. When Daniel asked if he supposedly had any duties to preform she said that, from what she knows, his duty as the heart bearer is just to do good and not abuse it. That was mostly what she made up on the spot however so his true duties, if Daniel has any, are still unknown. As he continued to chat he mentioned about the letter that had been sent that was asking him if he would accept Luna's request to be her student and she mentioned about how it seemed to be a bit strange and while Daniel knew it to be strange he decided to go along with it.

Their conversations started to be about random things but they were still talking telepathically about the stuff they wanted to keep a secret, that way it wouldn’t look awkward that two ponies are walking and looking at each other but not talking.

They were currently sitting in the park and were still talking with their minds.

"So what do you guys study? You mentioned the place where you all gather together is a place you could study, but what could you guys possibly need to study?"

"Just because we are entities and have important roles doesn’t mean we know everything. We share our knowledge and wisdom with each other." She then jumped as a thought entered her head. "If you chose to come along and meet them, you might be a bit swarmed when they find out you’re the heart bearer."

"Why would I be?"

" Well there's not been many heart bearers. In total there have only been 2 if you don’t count you. So that makes you the third bearer." Daniel didn't see what she meant about how he would be swarmed by just that fact.

"So I'm the third one. What's the big deal?"

"Well, Firstly, you’re human and it seems like the pervious one was too. Secondly, the fact that the heart chose you as it's bearer when no others have been chosen is a bit strange and lastly others, as I have said before, have become keepers of power or entities by finding objects of power of through lots of study and training. But not with a cosmic object. Also, I found out something you might find a little shocking. The first bearer was King N." Daniel could now see her points and he sighed but when what she said registered in his mind he jumped in surprise.

"WHAT?!" He shouted at her mentally.

"Calm down and listen. Yes, King N was the very first heart bearer of the one you have merged with, the second heart not the first, but the heart unbended with him itself when he somehow turned evil. None of us know why. It’s like a space in our memory is blank. A timezone where something happened but we can’t remember." Daniel was still recovering from the shock. The one who destroyed his world was apparently the one who was merged with what he is merged with now."If you're worried the others will see you like him, don't worry, they know not to judge instantly."

"You make it sound like I am important. But...why did the 2nd bearer keep her face hidden? Did she take different forms?" He ask.

"Well firstly. We're all important with no one more or less than the other. You don't need power or a title to be important. Just look at the rest of the elements of harmony. A student of a Princess, a hardworking farmer, a party lover, a loyal and energetic athlete. A great clothes maker and a shy animal lover." Daniel chuckled at the names. "Secondly. Why are you complaining about her possibly taking different forms? You have your human, shadow, mew and pony forms. You also act differently in them. Why do you do it?" He didn’t reply as he understood her point.

"I suppose you have a point. Still, did none of you know who the previous bearer, the one before me, truly was?" She shook her head.

"She always kept to herself so we never really got to know her." Daniel was disappointed with this answer but chose to drop this conversation. Nature looked at him when he turned his gaze away from her. A little hurt but she couldn’t let Daniel know who the previous bearer was, out of the previous bearers request as a friend.

"Well...I think we should be going back home. The sun is starting to set. I guess I'll see you around." Daniel started to leave until he heard her speak to him.

"Were you feeling alright?" He turned back to her.

"Yes. Why?" She looked around to make sure they were alone before she continued. Annabelle was swimming in the lake but just got out when she heard Daniel mention they were leaving.

"No. I mean were you feeling any negativity a while ago?" Daniel thought back over what happened today and he remembered how he felt this morning.

"Yes. I felt like I couldn't be bothered with much this morning." She sighed.

"Daniel. I’m sure I mentioned that you need to let the past go and your emotions out. If you hold them in, it will turn out worse for you." He rolled his eyes.

"Nature. I'm fine. It was just a feeling from the realisation of what I might have to do in the future. About King N and how...I might have to kill him." She put her hoof on his chest.

"Remember, if he comes to this universe to get you we'll help you too." She saw Daniel was about to protest but she silenced him. "It’s our duty to stop things like that and as such we will defend this universe to the death." Daniel didn’t argue with her because he knew what she said was true.

"Well...Thanks. I’ll think about your offer to meet the rest of them. Come by in a few days and I’ll have the answer. By the way, how can you understand me so easily?" He was always curious to know how she knew how he felt or was currently feeling.

"I'm the entity of life. I can understand any living creature just by looking at them. By the way, Have you been training often?" Daniel froze. He hadn’t been training a lot, and she sighed as a result. "I’ll be around tonight. I want to see what you can do and what you’ve learned." He looked at her and he could tell she was serious about this.

"Fine. I’ll meet you outside the house around...say 10?" She nodded and Daniel started to walk back to his house. "See you at 10 tonight then. Bye."

"Bye." She said before she vanished in a flash of light.

Daniel started to walk home with Annabelle and she quiet the whole time so when Daniel asked her what was wrong she mentioned that she can't shake the feeling that Luna's request was suspicious, but she soon felt a bit better when Daniel mentioned he had fought and beaten her before and he would do it again if it was needed.

When they arrived home they removed their disguises and while Annabelle went over to the PC, Daniel went into Aperture and headed through the door to the Diamond dog home. When he arrived he was surprised to see Brago and Chrysalis still talking but it looked like Brago was struggling to answer something. Daniel walked over to them and made his presence known.

"What's wrong Brago. You looked stressed." He looked over at Daniel after he jumped.

"Oh, Daniel. Great timing, we have run into an obstacle."

"And that would be?" Daniel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It turns out the changelings need emotional food and none of can provide that, well we can but...you must have seen what they do." Daniel recalled the dogs he seen that had been sealed in green pods shortly before he met Chrysalis.

"Is there another way?" He shook his head.

"I am afraid not. We were hoping you might have an answer." Daniel thought over it for a moment until he came to the conclusion that he needed to know more on how they feed emotionally so he looked over to Chrysalis who was sitting over at the other side.

"Chrysalis, would you please tell me what your emotional feeding is like. Is it on the emotions themselves of something else?" She sighed.

"As much as I hate to say this. Emotional feeding for us temporarily weakens the meals emotions. Most of the time the subject will feel like their life energy is being sapped and feel empty later which can lead to either out of control emotions or none at all. This is only temporary but if the feeding was large, like many changelings on one poor creature, the loss of emotion might become permanent." Daniel remembered that the heart enhanced almost everything about him so he thought it might be the same for what changelings feed on. He was curious to know if it would have the same effect on him.

"This is stupid. But sometimes stupidity is needed." He took a deep breath before speaking. " Chrysalis...Try it on me." Everyone in the room gasped and looked at him like he just danced with the grim reaper.

"Are...are you sure?" She asked and Daniel just nodded.

"I want to test something so have one of the changelings try it on me...preferably without the slimy pod thing." Chrysalis lit up her horn and some slime appeared on the table.

"You will have to put this around you. Arm, leg, it doesn’t matter." Daniel grabbed the slime and felt it, it was like some kind of dry and bumpy skin that was only recently dried from moisture. He looked back to Chrysalis who was looking uneasy. "You don't have to do this."

"I will deal with any side effects myself." Daniel told her. "Also if this enhancement I got is enough to feed some of her children then that will be something to start off on. I will have to talk to Alpha about their main food source after this." He thought to himself and he saw Chrysalis look over to one of the changelings that was beside her and told her or him to try it.

The changelings horn lit up and Daniel felt a strange tingling feeling where the slime was, it felt similar to that pins and needles feeling you sometimes get. A few moments later it stopped and he looked over to the changeling only to see it collapse on the ground with a smile on its face. Daniel looked back over to Chrysalis who seemed shocked and she then looked back at Daniel.

"How do you feel?"

"No difference." He simply replied.

"Wait. You don't feel empty...not even a little?" Daniel shook his head. Chrysalis horn lit up and Daniel felt the pins and needles again and a few seconds later he saw Chrysalis struggling to keep her balance. He got up and helped her remain standing and after a few seconds she looked back at him. "Feel any different?" She shook his head again. "Wow. I...I'm speechless."

"If you don't mind. What happened?" Daniel asked her.

"Well...When we eat emotions its taste varies depending on the emotions. Yours tasted sweet, sour and a little stale. Like a chicken and lemon sandwich. But it was...almost perfectly done together in a strange way." Daniel rolled his eyes at what she compared him too. "Do you mind if I take a larger amount to feed the rest of my kids?" She asked nervously.

"I don't see why not." She smile and Daniel felt the pins again only this time it was much stronger. By the time it was over he felt like he ran at full speed for a few moments and felt he slightly winded. The green slime turned blue and grew to almost 5 times its size. It had a steam of colours in it that swirled around.

"That should do for my kids for the next few days." She took the slime and wrapped it around one of her legs. "Thank you Daniel. But...How were you able to handle that?" Daniel looked to the ground.

"Let’s just say , for now, there is some secrets I want to keep hidden. Hopefully not for much longer."

"I won't complain. You've already helped quite a bit." She looked down at the changeling who just started to wake up. "We’re going home." She then looked behind her only to see the second changeling she had with her was gone. After looking around a little she was looking at something close to Daniel and when he looked in the direction she was looking he saw a changeling looking at him with but unlike the other, this one had green eyes. "Aromura?"

"Your aura is red and blue." She said, not taking her gaze off Daniel.

"Aromura." She looked back at Chrysalis when the 2nd time her name was called caught her attention. "It's time to go." She nodded and the two started to walk out of the Diamond dog home. "I hope to see you again Daniel, and both Brago and this Thag guy soon." She started to leave but Daniel had one more thing to ask.

"Green eyes? Aromura? Why that name and why is she different?" Chrysalis stopped and looked back at Daniel.

"She was born with a strange ability. She could see auras and smell emotions much better that any other changeling. Aromura is a combination of Aroma and aura, that's where she got her name, and the green eyes symbolize changeling royalty." Daniel was a bit surprised.

"You brought your child?"

"They’re all my children; I was also able to know if Brago and the dogs really meant no harm by letting her read their auras and emotions. She has, so far, not been wrong in her judgment and I brought her along to show her how to be a leader for when she takes my place."

"I guess that makes sense." Chrysalis just smile before her horn lit up and they vanished. Brago walked over to Daniel with a little look of worry on his face.

"You feeling fine?"

"I’m fine Brago, just feeling a little fatigued." Daniel looked back to where Chrysalis left using teleportation. "I hope the rest of the alliance accepts them. They were planning to attack the ponies so this will hopefully put an end to that."

"Why you trust the ponies? Everything they did. Now with another race say so in it." Daniel sighed and told Brago the reason.

"I think I have already told you this but I will say it. If you attack them then you are just as guilty as them. They think their version of harmony should be everything's version of it. So if you wait and let them attack first, then with a good few words will break their spirit. By not harming them you are showing you want harmony. If they attack it will show they are doing the total opposite of what they say they are and that will break their spirit. Also because the ponies of today might not be like the ones of yesterday so they deserve a chance to show it." Daniel heard Brago laugh when he finished what he was saying.

"Nice plan." Daniel decided to get back home. It was likely late in the night so he had to get Annabelle to sleep.

" I don’t think the ponies are bad anymore. They were probably leaderless and scared, or their leader was a total power hungry moron. So now that this is out of the way I need to remember to take Annabelle to school in the morning. He reminded himself. "Well I hope it doesn’t come to that. I don't want any blood on my hands. Anyway. If there’s a problem let me know, I’ll be back home."

"Bye Daniel." Brago said before heading off down another tunnel while Daniel went back through the door to his laboratory.

When Daniel arrived back home he felt like something was wrong and after a few moments of thinking he realised it was because he’s not seen his kids around which is unusual as they usually played with each other quite a lot and are about the place often. He looked around Aperture quickly and saw they weren’t in the factory or the main floor and also weren’t helping the other bots dig so he decided to check his house.

"So you’ll help?" Daniel heard a voice and it was clear that it belonged to Freddy.

"Sure, why not." He heard the rest of them cheer after Annabelle said that. Daniel was looking at the side but Selene saw him and nudged Freddy and pointed at him when she got his attention.

"Oh, Daddy. Nice to see you. Where’ve you been?" Freddy asked curiously.

"Just helping some ,hopefully new, friends with a food problem. What about you?" Freddy sighed.

"Nothing much. Should Auntie Annabelle not be going to bed soon?" Daniel chuckled.

"Yes. In fact I was just going to tell her it was her bed time." Annabelle groaned in disappointment. "Now Annabelle. You have pony school tomorrow." When he said that he started to wonder if she needed it. She was quite well educated for her age and with this being a different world would she need it? He then remembered that if she did go it could help her fit in and get out more often so he let it drop.

"Fine." She turned the computer off and got her Pjs which were on the arm of the couch and headed to Terabithia and turned in for the night.

"You're sending her to school?" Freddy asked.

"Yes. It might help her fit in and will also get her out more." With Annabelle going to sleep and everything done that needs to be for the day, Daniel had no idea what he should do for the night. He didn’t want to sleep and experience those nightmares again and he had nothing to do to keep his mind busy. "What are you all doing?" Daniel asked his kids.

"We are...busy cleaning Aperture." Freddy stuttered a little which Daniel noticed.

"Freddy. Are you feeling ok?" He chuckled nervously.

"Am I ok? I'm part machine. I'm fine. Better than ever." He said with a little panic and Daniel raised an eyebrow.

"We got to go." Selene said and started pulling Freddy away and the others followed. Daniel just stood there looking at the door to Aperture as it closed after they entered.

"What's with them?" He asked himself as they disappeared into Aperture. "Great. Another night with nothing to do." Daniel realised what he just said and slapped himself. "It's like a full fridge but the only reason you say there's 'noting to eat' is only because there's nothing there that you want." Daniel walked out the front door to start some more training but as he left he didn’t notice Annabelle coming back out of Terabithia and Freddy coming out of Aperture.

"Is it almost ready?" She asked.

"With your help we can get most of it done before midnight." Freddy told her and she smiled.

"Alright, let's do it." Annabelle followed Freddy into Aperture.

While Daniel stood outside he waited on Mother Nature to arrive. He almost jumped out of his shoes and latched onto a tree branch when he felt a touch from behind and found out it was Mother Nature who had been waiting there for a while.

"Sorry if I scared you. I thought you would’ve heard me." She said with a giggle as Daniel flew down from the tree.

"You give me quite a scare." Daniel said as he reached the ground. "So what did you mean by seeing what I could do?"

"I want you to battle me." He froze up when he heard that. He still remembered the time he fought Tractus and how it went, horribly. He looked at her to see if she was joking but all his hopes were drained when she changed her form. She now looked like a Human but she was also a collection of roots that all gripped together to give a human like figure, her eyes changed from water like blue she had in her pony form to a green and her hands looked like talons.

"Do we honestly have to do this?" He asked. He didn’t like having to fight and tried to avoid it as much as possible.

"I can heal all our injuries when we’re done so no need to worry." She took a fighting stance. Daniel gulped and took a stance too. She lunged at him at blinding speed but he just managed to block her downward slash only for him to jump back when she used her other hand to try and hit him.

Daniel did his best to avoid all of her attacks and for the most part it worked, a lucky hit every now and them but the majority of her hits either were blocked or missed him. This continued for about 2 full minutes until she stopped and looked at him and sighed.

"Daniel. You need to fight back. The training I’ve had can keep me going for thousands of years before I even start to feel tired. And that's not a saying. I timed myself." He stuttered before speaking.

"You’re my friend. I will not hurt you." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"What happens here will not affect our friendship. If you want to protect those you care about, your sister, you kids and your friends then you need to stop restraining yourself. If you’re restraining yourself because I’m a women then don't. As entities we normally train like this, the thing that entities shame is hurting a none entity life form for no good reason. That to us is the equivalent of someone hitting an infant for fun to you." She lunged at him again and managed to cut the left side of his face, drawing blood.

Daniel went ahead with what she said and went as fast as he could to throw a punch but she easily stopped it and kicked him back. He made a quick recovery and launched an energy blast at her only for her to back hand slap it back at him and for it to send him through two trees. Mother Nature walked up to where he got blasted and saw he was gone when the dust cleared. She then felt a force push her forward into a large bolder, which was actually a punch from Daniel and turned around to she saw Daniel in his shadow form.

Daniel quickly backed into the darkness around him and flew around to avoid making a noise. Mother Nature closed her eyes and after a few seconds she turned around and looked straight at Daniel, he was worried that she saw him and he was proven right as some vines grabbed his leg and threw him back over to her.

"You have a lot to learn. But the night is still young. Let's continue." As she said that he teleported away and she looked around again. When she couldn’t see him she closed her eyes again only for them to open in shock after a moment. She walked forward and felt a strange barrier that was around her. Daniel tried using his power of space to trap her. "Not good enough." She flicked her hand and Daniel was thrown towards her by some vines again and as he hit his barrier it broke and the impact also caused Daniel to bleed from his nose and the mist of his shadow form started to fade.

"You are somewhat creative in your battle tactics but you won't last long against King N like this. Perhaps a few of his soldiers but not against him." Daniel remained unmoving and she heard him starting to breath heavily in anger. "Hey, Don't feel bad, you’ll get stronger with the training I have planned for you." She said trying to calm him down as she rubbed the back of his head but Daniel heard none of it as he was having a battle in his mind.

"I can't even knock the wind out of her a little. I can't call myself an entity if I can't battle or a father if I can't keep my kids safe. No, I need to get stronger. It's no surprise I couldn’t beat her. I need her training. I need to take things more seriously from now on." Daniel was starting to get the hiccups from his anger but he also felt a fire building in his chest. A fire that felt very familiar, thinking back he remembered the only other time he felt this was... "Oh No. Tractus." Daniel tried to speak to Mother Nature but he couldn’t move his mouth. He tried greatly but couldn’t move one bit. Then, as if looking through the eyes of someone else, his body started to move by itself. He tried to speak to her with a telepathic message but he got no response. He soon felt like time itself was slowing down for him and he felt like closing his eyes and going to sleep but his vision just became blurry before fading and he felt like he just got dropping into a dark and cold pit.

"Daniel let's get you healed up and..." She stopped and her eyes went wide with surprise when she saw his blue eyes were now red. "Daniel?" She asked while tilting her head to the side. Daniel lifted up his arm and pointed at her with his index finger and energy started to flow into it. A white ball of power was at the tip of his finger and ready to fire. "Still want to keep going? Fine." She got into a stance again and Daniel fired his blast at her. She tried to punch it back at him again but it just stopped it for a moment as it grinded against her hand before it continued moving forward and hit her in the chest sending her back a good distance.

"What the..." She said in surprise. As she got up and looked back to where Daniel was only to find he was gone. She looked around and found him right next to her, his face void of emotion. He quickly move in for a punch but she saw it and moved out of the way just in time. As his fist hit the ground it felt like an earthquake was happening and the world was starting to literally split apart but she quickly fixed it. By the time she looked back at Daniel she got hit in the face with another blast of energy and got knocked backwards again.

"I will keep them safe. Nothing will hurt them." Daniel said and as she looked at him she though he was crying until she saw he wasn't crying tears, but blood instead.

"His emotions are out of control again. I need to be careful. This state he's in could harm this world and him. But up until now I've been using no power at all. Let’s try using 0.01% of my power." She said to herself. She launched forwards and Daniel tried to block but she hit him before he could and it caused him to smash through a tree. As he got up she saw he had a red aura around him and it grew slightly and the injuries he had sustained were now healed. Even the injury he got from the kick she just did was almost gone.

Daniel lunged at her again and he was slightly faster that before but she just grabbed him with vines and smashed him on the ground many times. After the 10th time he hit the ground he grabbed her vine and crushed it in his hand which caused him to drop to the ground face first.

One of the injuries he sustained was a brutal one. His left eye hit a rock on the 8th smash to the ground and it was in his eye socket but Daniel ripped the rock out and stood up as he stared to heal. What caught her attention was his aura. It was larger and a slightly more bloody shade of red.

Daniel charged at her and the charge was so fast with so much force that just the first step that pushed him forward cracked the ground and caused a strong wind gust.

Nature changed up her tactic by side stepped him and tripping him up. He got up within a moment and managed to lands a hit on her back. While it didn’t hurt her she did realise something.

“He’s faster than before. He's getting faster as he fights. ” She lunged forwards and kicked him in the jaw but his feet remained on the ground and he remained standing. As he turned to look at her again she saw the injury he received was smaller and almost fully healed. “ He’s tougher too, attacks are doing less damage to him and the speed of his healing has sped up. It seems that when he's angry everything about him becomes stronger, but at the cost of control. This might be interesting.”

Daniels Aura started to shaft and now it was moving, resulting in an aura that looked like a blood fire. The ground started to crack and split where he was standing and even Daniels skin started to rip as he muscles grew with the power his body was producing. This resulted in bleeding and since it was injuries from cosmic energy they were healing very slowly, but the injury he received on his left eyes was now gone and his left eye was fully healed.

“ Interesting. Yes. But later. I need to end this now. He's body is at it's power limit and it's starting to damage him.” She used her vines to hold him down but they were soon burned as he grabbed one and increased his body temperature which caused him to break free but the time they provided was enough for her as she touched his forehead with her hand and he dropped onto the ground, sound asleep.

When that was done she healed his injuries before picking him up and taking him into his house and laying him on the couch. As she looked at him sleeping she smile when she felt a bit of happiness go through her.

"He has a lot to learn but with a kind spirit like his, and that fiery determination. I know he’ll make a good entity. He has lost control twice now but both times were to do with his family and friends. Not himself." She placed her hand to his forehead and closed her eyes as she entered his dream. She did feel a mental barrier protecting his mind but she knew how to get around it as it was a weak one. She only wanted to talk to him in his dream, nothing else.

When she entered his dream she saw him sitting on a couch happily watching TV with what she assumed to be his family as Annabelle was also there with him. She approached him and touched his forehead again which made him consciously aware that he was dreaming and he looked at her nervously.

"I...I am sorry about what happened."

"Don't be. It's not your fault you lost control. But I think when your training begins we should make emotional control the first thing that needs to be done. You need to control your emotions and the power you use when you’re put under emotional pressure. I will try and make that part as painless as possible." He smile at her kindness.

"Thanks. I...also think I might go and meet all the other entities at that place you mentioned. It might turn out to be good. I'm still unsure but I will have a true answer soon. By the looks of it so far it seems like a yes." She giggled and smiled at him.

"I honestly think you'll like it there. There’s-" She stopped talking, looked to the side and narrowed her eyes before pointing and firing a beam in that direction. "Nosey." She then made a bubble appear in her hand and it expanded but as it did it disappeared.

"What did you do?" He asked.

"Don't worry about it."

As Luna flew through the dreamscape she made a mental list of those who were dreaming. She wanted to be sure that she hadn’t seen Cosmos dream rather than just miss it and make an embarrassing choice when she chose to confront him about it after a while of getting to know him. Even if he wasn’t Daniel then she still would get a good student as all the things that she has heard about his personality and behaviour is largely positive.

She had just finished writing the name of pony number 285 from her notepad but she still hadn’t seen any dream that belonged to Cosmos. As she continued searching she heard a familiar voice from a dream that was close by and when she approached it she felt the same strange resistance as before. She knew this was Daniel's or his sisters dream.

She pushed forward with her magic and entered the dream. She found herself in a black and grey environment and there was statues of others that looked just like Daniel. She thought those must be his parents based on the previous dream she had seen. But there was another figure and this one had colour on it and was talking to Daniel. Upon further inspection she saw this wasn’t one of his own imagination but instead someone who was in his dream besides her. It had the same body structure as Daniel did but it looked like it was a tree with eyes that were green.

"How? How can there be another who can enter dreams without magical training since that’s kept a secret?"

She chose to let it slip and listened into what they were talking about.

"I honestly think you'll like it there. There’s-" The figure stopped talking and looked in Luna's direction and narrowed it's eyes. Luna was a little scared that this thing was looking right at her.

"I’m not making my presence known to it or the dreamer. It can't see me." She said trying to calm herself down but the creature then fired a blast right at her and when it impacted with her it forced her out of Daniel's dream. She looked back at his dream only for her to see the creature looking at her through it.

"Nosey." It said and a bubble appeared in its hand before expanding and started to cover Daniel's dream. The clouds also blocked out the view of his dream so she couldn’t see into it. She approached his dream and tried to enter it but the bubble wouldn't allow her to, she even tried using almost all of her magic but still couldn’t get through.

Luna stood there and continued to look at the bubble covered dream with a confused expression. She had no idea what that thing was but judging by the voice she assumed it to be female.

"How did she do that. That...that has...what?" Luna's mind was trying to make sense of what just happened.

"So…this is your family?" She asked while looking at the frozen grey figures.

"Yeah. That’s them." He said with a smile which quickly turned into a look of curiosity when he saw Nature staring at them and nodding like she knew that’s what they looked like already. Daniel then realised something and asked her a question. "How did you stop me? Tractus couldn’t when I lost it before."

"Remember, I represent life so I can control things related to the living more easily than any other entity, like emotions. However for more powerful lifeforms like you, I need to touch their forehead to calm their mind directly. But there are some who are so resistant, I couldn’t change their emotions if I wanted too." Daniel smiled at her.

"Well...Again, sorry if I hurt you." She rubbed where his first blast impacted her.

"You didn’t hurt me. It felt like a gust of wind but it was quite impressive for one who is still new to this entity stuff like you. I was only using 100th of 1% of my power." She then looked at him with an evil grin. "But I expect that will change soon." He just sighed as he knew what she was referring to. "You should get up. It's almost sunrise."

"Already?"

"Time moves fast when you sleep. Come on, wake up." She touched his forehead and his dream became brighter and brighter. He then found himself fully awake on the couch of his house. "So when will my training start?"

"Tomorrow. You should rest today." Daniel got up off the couch; he had no intention on staying in his house today. He needed to get Annabelle to school and then go and see Rainbow's performance.

"Sorry, but I have things to do today." She helped his to his feet, still a little unsteady.

"Well. If you’re going out today try and not use a lot of your energy. Save it for my training, you will likely need it. I'll also let the others know about this too." She told him and he intended to listen to her advice.

"Fine. Oh, Nature. Can you help me with something?" He said the first part with a groan of annoyance.

"What might it be?"

"I need you to help remove the radiation in me. Do you think you could do that?" She looked at him from top to bottom a few times before she smiled.

"Yes, I can." She said and he was quickly enveloped in a green mist. He felt like it was almost the same as steam from a hot shower but a little thicker. After a moment and a load of Goosebumps later the mist disappeared.

"That should do it." Daniel was happy to hear that but he was also annoyed with himself as he cursed himself for not asking her or the others for help in removing it before. "Now I need to get going. See you later Daniel." She disappeared in a flash of light again and left him standing alone in the centre of the living room.

Daniel walked to Terabithia to wake up Annabelle and he found her fast asleep on the tree bed. He started to wake her up by shaking her gently.

"Annabelle. Time to get up." She lifted her head with a groan.

"Morning already? Why can't night time last longer." She felt back down to the bed and pulled the covers over her.

"Now Annabelle. Don't make me get you out of the bed." She didn’t move so he pulled the covers off her and levitated her off the bed and into the living room. When Annabelle was dropped on the couch she almost screamed in annoyance.

"Fine, I'm up. I'm up."

"Good. Now go and get changed. You have school to go to." She walked off up the stairs and Daniel transformed into his pony form and then put on his fake mark before waiting at the basement door for her. She returned a few moments later and he turned her into her pony form before they both walked through the basement, out of their other house and towards the school.

When they got to the entrance of the school he found Cheerilee waiting at the entrance and checking off a list. As he got closer he heard her speak after ticking another box.

"Strawberry is still off." She placed the notepad in a bag she had before turning and starting to head in.

"Not today." This stopped Cheerilee in her tracks and she turned around to see Daniel and Annabelle both waiting.

"Cosmos? You're here?"

"I know I’ve been away for a while but things are sorted out now. Strawberry will start coming here more often." Cheerilee looked at Annabelle and smiled.

"Well it's nice to see you're here, let me introduce you to the rest of the class." She looked back at Daniel and he just nudged her forward, Annabelle sighed and went into the school.

"I’ll be here to pick her up at 3. If I’m not here then wait for me at our house ok, and remember what we discussed?" She nodded at Daniel with a smile; she knew what he was talking about. "Good. Have a nice day."

With Annabelle now in school Daniel headed to Twilight's house to see how they would get to cloudsdale but knowing her she would already have a plan for that.

As he approached the library he chapped the door and a few seconds later it Spike answered it.

"Morning Cosmo. You're just in time." He greeted him with a smile.

"Does Twilight have a solution to the cloud problem yet?" He just chuckled.

"Yup. She was up late last night trying to figure it out. She wouldn’t rest until she found an answer." That sounded just like the Twilight he knew.

"Great. Are the others here yet?" Spike pointed to them, they were around Twilight who was currently casting a spell on Pinkie.

"Well. Time to see if it worked." Daniel said to himself as he stepped into the library and walked up to his friends.

"Cosmos. You're here." Twilight said with a smile.

"Did you think I wouldn’t be there to support Dash? That isn't happening. Where is..." He was about to ask where Fluttershy was until he remembered she is a Pegasus and could also walk on clouds.

"Where is...?" Twilight was waiting on him finishing.

"Forget it, I just remembered Fluttershy is also a Pegasus. What’s your plan for us to get to cloudsdale?" Twilight levitated a book over to Daniel and he read it. "Cloud walking spell?"

"Yes. The one I used on Rarity was too hard to do again. So I decided to go along with this one." Rarity cleared her throat to catch their attention.

"Twilight. The performance will start soon. We should get going." Twilight put the book away and turned to Daniel.

"Ok, I am going to cast it on you too. Ready?" He simply nodded and her horn lit up, Daniel felt the same feeling he felt when Mother Nature shrouded him in that green mist and after a few seconds the magic stopped. "That should do it. Spike, would you please watch over the library while we’re away?" Spike gave a salute like a soldier would do before picking up some books and finding their places on the shelves.

"Alright. Let's go." Twilight picked up a suitcase and walked outside.

A few moments later Daniel was left puzzled as they were flying up to cloudsdale in a balloon. He was wondering why Twilight had it in a suitcase she kept in her library but he didn’t ask her, he was too focused on getting to cloudsdale to see this performance. Rarity chose to fly there rather than ride in the balloon, mostly she seemed to be showing off and it was a little annoying. As he got closer to the clouds he heard Dash's voice through them.

"We?" A few moments later they got up to the clouds and the balloon seemed to stop in its tracks as if it knew not to go higher. "I-I can't believe it."

"It's incredible." Fluttershy added.

"This is so cool, you guys made it." Pinkie jumped out of the balloon when it stopped.

"Sure did."

"WAIT!" Dash panicked as Pinkie jumped out but when she remained standing on the clouds and the rest soon did the same which left Dash both thrilled and confused. "How did you do that? Only Pegasus ponies can walk on clouds." Pinkie decided to do cartwheels across the cloud at that moment.

"Pretty cool huh?"

"I found a spell that makes temporary wings but it was too difficult to do more than once. So I found an easier spell that lets the rest of us walk on clouds." Twilight explained to them.

"And we came ta cheer you to victory." Daniel started to wonder if he should have some fun and appear in his mew form for a bit but then he remembered that Nature said he should rest so he decided to listen to her.

"To be honest, I was starting to get just the teeniest, tiniest bit nervous. But I feel a lot better now that you guys are here." Daniel chuckled inwardly at how she was acting, trying to be all fearless and tough. "Hey. We've got some time before the competition, why don't Fluttershy and I show you around cloudsdale?" Needless to say they all cheered and walked off, following Dash.

A few moments later they walked to the edge of a cloud and saw what cloudsdale truly looked like. It more or less looked like a roman city in the sky. It had the same kind of architectural build to its buildings and even a coliseum.

"Here it is. The greatest city in the sky." While the others were all looking at cloudsdale in aww, Rarity was overly admiring her wings in a mirror close to them. "Some of the greatest pegusi in history came from cloudsdale." Rarity called on them to wait for her when she realised they were moving on. As they moved along through the city Rarity's wings seem to attract a lot of attention.

"Be careful with those wings Rarity. They’re made from gossamer and morning dew, and they’re incredibly delicate." Despite the warning Twilight gave, Rarity didn't seem to be bothered following it.

"Don't worry Twilight, I'm sure they can't get worn out from too much attention." Daniel had a bad feeling in his gut, he didn’t know why but he felt there would be some bad moments with those wings. Perhaps he was worried it might hurt Dash's ego as others seem to be more attracted to those wings. Whatever it was he felt his guy tighten.

"Since we're up here, I'd sure like ta get a look at where the weather's made."

"Great idea. Come 'on everyone. To the weather factory." Daniel started to follow them but as he was sightseeing he ran into another pony when he wasn’t looking ahead of him.

"Sorry about that." He apologized to whoever he dumped into.

"Cosmos? What are you doing here?" Daniel realized that voice, it belonged to Ditzy.

"Ditzy? Nice to see you again." Daniel greeted her.

"You're not a Pegasus. How are you here?"

"Walk on clouds spell. Twilight did it."

"Are the rest of the elements here too?"

"Yes they are. We all came to cheer on Rainbow Dash at the competition." When he said that her face changed from a smile to a sad frown and this didn’t go unnoticed by him. "Ditzy? Are you ok?"

"Y-Yes. I am." She put on a smile but Daniel could easily tell it was a fake one.

"Why did you get sad when I mentioned about the competition." Daniel looked at the bag pack she had with her and saw a piece of paper with a number on it. "You’re in it too?" She nodded. "Well that's great. Don't you think so?" Daniel was surprised by what she did next, she started to cry. "D-Ditzy?"

"I won't be...be in the competition. I'm turning it in." She said while whipping tears from her face.

"What...Why? What reason would you have to do that?" She looked away from him when he asked that.

"I can't say." Daniel placed his hoof on her back.

"Ditzy. We might not know each other that well but we’re still friends. You don't have to tell me but if you do I won't tell anypony." Her eyes focused on him. They were no longer looking in different directions but right at him.

"Promise?"

"Swear it." When Daniel said that she looked from side to side and then back at him.

"I don't want others to laugh at me. I don't want them to think I’m stupid." Daniel thought she was referring to her eyes.

"Do you mean your eyes?" She nodded.

"It's not my fault I was born with it." She was starting to cry more than before.

"Hey, Hey. I don't think you are stupid." This didn’t seem to stop her crying much.

"Thanks but...others don't see me the way you do." Daniel was about to continue but he was cut off by another voice.

"Hey look. It's the stupid derp eyed rat." Daniel turned around to see three Pegasus's, one grey, one brown and the other an orange colour, all of them wearing white uniforms with hats to go with it.

"I’m not stupid!" Ditzy cried out at them.

"Who is this? Your coltfriend? Why would he want to be friends with a stupid Pegasus who can't even fly straight?" Daniel looked back at Ditzy and she looked like she was about to break down. Daniel remembered that Annabelle got bullied in her school for a while until he went with her and confronted the bullies. The leader got his older sibling to come with him the next day and one thing lead to another and both of them ended up fighting.

Daniel won but not without a few bruises and a fractured nose. He barely remembered how it ended, the end of it was like a dream. He saw the younger one hit his sister and from that moment on he didn't think straight. He went right for the older one who punched him many times before and kicked the back of his leg before grabbing his head and using all his strength, he threw him into the ground head first before grabbing him by the neck and punching as hard as he could.

As he looked at Ditzy he saw her as Annabelle who just came back from school, crying. He almost snapped completely when that image flashed in his mind.

"What did you morons just call her?" He said to them eerily.

"Hey, we’re not morons."

"Well your voices say otherwise. You literally sound like the idiots from a stage play. What grades did you get at school to get the work you do? Or did you get it from being pea brained brutes. Someone who takes orders like a dog?" Ditzy stopped crying and was just watching Daniel, almost a little scared by his sudden voice tone change.

"Yeah well...your-" The one beside him nudged him and whispered something but Daniel heard it clearly.

"That's Cosmos. An element of harmony and the one who went up against Nightmare Moon." The other two were shocked and with an audible gulp, took a few steps back.

"Hey look. We don’t want any trouble." Daniel used his speed and ran up beside them but they didn't look until he stopped and a strong gust of wind blew in the direction he came from. Even Ditzy looked around when he moves cause she lost track of his movements.

"Oh sure. Now you cower when you know who I am." He was not going to let them get off easily.

"We...I..." The Pegasus stuttered. Not knowing what to say.

"Say sorry to her, and leave her alone." Ditzy couldn’t take her eyes off of what Daniel was doing for her. Other's have been somewhat her friends before, they were there to help her but when she got bullied they backed out. Fearing what others would say about them if they heard about them hanging out with her. But here Daniel was and he wasn’t backing down.

"What...but-" Daniel narrowed his eyes at them and that shut them up. "Sorry Miss Ditzy. We won't do it again." They said together quickly before flying off. Daniel scoffed when they few off.

"Good riddance. I bet your job pays better than theirs anyway." Daniel went back to where Ditzy was without going at the speed he did before. When he got over to her she went close to his face and her bottom lip was quivering while she still cried but she had a smile on her face.

"Co-Cosmos..." She stood there for a moment before she tackled him to the ground in a big hug. "Thank you. So much." She said as she continued to cry tears of joy.

"Uh. Ditzy, can you please get off me?" She realised she had tackled him to the ground in a hug and quickly got off of him.

"Sorry. But...Nopony has ever stood up for me like that. They mostly all back out when the bullies arrived."

"Hey. I said I was your friend and I mean it. So now that they’re gone why not continue going through with the competition?" She looked a little uneasy.

"But...What if they’re others who think the same?" She asked.

"Forget about them. Bullies just pick on others weaknesses or faults because they themselves are so flawed they tried to make themselves feel better by hurting others." She held her number in her hoof and continued to look at it. He could tell it was going to take a bit more encouragement to get her to go through with it. "Ditzy. This is your time to shine. Even if you don't come in first it doesn’t mean you’re bad. Some are just better at things than others. Back in my home we had some folks who were considered crazy and do you know what they did?" She shook her head. "They didn’t listen to others and followed their own dreams, and they became some of the best inventors, artist and teachers ever. Everyone has their moments to shine-" He folded her hoof over the paper. "- and I think this is one of your big moments to show them what you’re made of." She smiled at hearing this.

"You-You're right!" She now looked determined. "I won’t let this chance go to waste! Again, Thanks for what you did back there!" She smiled at him and then ran off to the coliseum. As she ran Daniel couldn’t help but smile as her newfound determination.

"Cosmos!?" Daniel heard Twilight call out to him.

"Over here!" He called back and Twilight ran towards him.

"Where were you?"

"I was helping a friend." He looked in the direction Ditzy went.

"Well it's almost time for the competition to start. Also Rarity is going to enter." Daniel sighed.

"Let me guess. The attention of her silly wings has gone to her head?" Twilight nodded and Daniel almost facehooved. "Well let's go. We don't want to keep Dash waiting."

Daniel and Twilight met up with the rest of them, not including Dash or Rarity, and headed to the coliseum. When they were there a Pegasus pony took them to their seats and they waited for the event to start. Daniel knew there couldn’t be two 1st places so he prayed to whatever higher power there was that Ditzy or Dash didn’t come in last.

Pinkie got a No1 foam finger and Daniel started to question where she got such a thing in a world with little to no actual hands. Some laughing caught his attention and he looked at the cloud below him to see it was the same 3 who were picking on Ditzy before.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts. Please rise and join me, in welcoming our beloved princess Celestia!" The anouncer pointed and the cheers from the crowed raised. Daniel saw Celestia along with two guards land on a cloud that was high up in the coliseum. "Please welcome our celebrity judges for the best young flyers competition, the wonder bolts!" A bunch of Pegasus ponies flew in and then up before making an explosion like one from a firework show before taking their seats on a few empty clouds. "And now, Let's find out who will take the prize as this year’s best young flyer."

A few moments later a flyer exited the curtains and started to preform tricks followed by another and it repeated. When Daniel saw it was Ditzy's turn he focused on what she did. Needless to say, he was impressed. She use one of her eyes and juggle 3 bean bags with her hooves and when her wings flapped downwards her biggest feathers flipped hoops that she caught with her wings when they went up only to throw them back up when she flapped them. She used her other eye to navigate through hoops in the air before back flipping and throwing everything in the air where she then stopping on a cloud and caught the items as they fell. Holding the rings with her wings and the 3 bean bags in her hooves and one in her mouth.

"Amazing hoof, wing and eye coordination!" The announcer shouted.

The entire coliseum was in awe of how she managed to do that before they broke into a loud cheer. They were now waiting for Dash to give her performance, which was at the very end along with Rarity. While Dash's performance was more on speed and manoeuvring, Rarity's was more graceful and beautiful. Dash flew among cloud pillars but seemed to lose her focus and hit one which sent her off course.

"Nice work. Rainbow crash." The three started to laugh but were quickly silence when Daniel spoke.

"Watch what you're saying about my friends." They froze up and shut up.

Dash now flew into the sky and worked on some clouds, making them spin rounds like records.

"Look, Phase 2 is working." They all started to cheer for her but Daniel just smiled genuinely at how she was doing, which he thought was quite good. But that didn’t last as she was knocked away by a little cloud that hit her in the face which caused the big one to spin right at Celestia, who ducked to avoid it. After a few moments of standing still in mid air they both flew up to the sky, intending to finish their performances.

"Look upon me Equestria! For I am Rarity!" She shouted to everyone when she flew in front of the sun and different rays of colour shined down, however that didn’t last long as her wings were burned to ash and she started to fall.

"Oh no! Her wings evaporated into thin air!" The wonder bolts tried to help her but the kicks from her panicing knocked them out.

"That's it. This is an emergence." Daniel quickly altered space to make the area next to him an area that would make him invisible if he stepping into it, then he separated into his mew form from his side which was right next to the alter space so none of the ponies saw anything. He hid behind a pillar before making himself visible again, but just as he was about to go and help out he heard Dash shout.

"Hold on Rarity! I'm coming!" She zoomed downward towards Rarity and the wonder bolts.

"Oh, I can't look." He heard an echoed voice which was what his clone heard Fluttershy say.

He heard gasps and looked to where they were all looking and saw that Dash had almost broke the sound barrier and a few moments later she did just that in the form of a Rainbow explosion which caused the whole coliseum to look in shock, even his friends. Fluttershy however was jumping for joy and shouting, this was totally unlike her.

"A sonic Rainboom! She did it! She did it!" Dash managed to get Rarity and the Wonder bolts before they hit the ground and flew back up and over the coliseum, leaving a Rainbow trail behind her before she came back and the other ponies helped her with the 4 she was carrying. The entire coliseum broke into cheers and confetti fell all around, Fluttershy was still jumping energetically and shouting about the Sonic Rainboom.

Daniel on the other hand was shocked, it was not the sonic rainboom that shocked him but it was what it looked like. The only other time he saw something that was close to that was...when he though he died and shortly before he woke up.

"How did...What?" Daniel decided to ask PIA because he had a feeling he never would find an answer the normal way. "How did I see that before?"

"That was a glimpse into the future."

"How?"

When you first merged, you were almost dead. So the heart did what it had to do to keep you alive. It couldn’t revive you if you died so it went back in time to reverse the effects of your almost total death. When you were back to normal it fulfilled your last thought. It sent you back to your own time but as it did it bent time and space which caused you to get a glimpse of that rain boom from the future. Yes. The heart itself is semi sentient. Enough to know what needs done to keep a host alive and when it's host in is danger. But from what I know, it doesn't have enough sentience to have a will of its own when it’s not required." Daniel stood there for a moment to process what he had just heard.

After he understood it he turned invisible again and remerged with his pony clone. His friends were leaving their seats so he followed then down to the main level of the coliseum, where Rarity was standing in the balloon.

"I want to apologize to all of you for getting so carried away with my beautiful wings. I guess I just lost my head." All of them assured her it was ok. "And I'm especially sorry that I was so thoughtless as to jump into the contest at the last minute after you had worked so hard to win it." She said this while looking at Dash. "Can you ever, ever forgive me?"

"Aww it's ok. Everything turned out alright, right? I just wish I could've met the wonder bolts when they were awake." Dash felt a nudge on her shoulder and turned to see the wonder bolts she had saved in the fall. "Oh my gosh!"

"Wow. Total fan girl much? I knew she like them but wow."

"So you're the little pony who saved our lives. We really wanted to meet you and say thanks." She repeated the same things she said before but her smile got wider.

"Now, Now, Keep this up and her ego will go through the roof." Daniel saw a shadown on the ground as when he looked up he saw Celestia flying down to them and they greeter her with a bow so Daniel did the same, even it felt weird to him.

"Hello Twilight Sparkle and hello to your friends too."

"Princess Celestia, I’m sorry I ruined the competition. Rainbow Dash here really is the best flyer in all of Equestria." Dash looked a bit nervous at that statement.

"I know she is, that's why for her incredible act of bravery, and her spectacular sonic rain boom. I’m presenting the grand prize for best young flyer to this year’s winner, Miss Rainbow Dash." A crown or tiara was place on her head and the entire coliseum cheered. Dash started to repeat the words 'oh my gosh' again but much more than before as her friends picked her up and lifted her away.

"So Twilight sparkle, did you learn anything about friendship from this experience?"

"I did Princess, but I think Rarity learned it even more than me." They both looked to Rarity.

"I certainly did. I learned how important it is to keep your hooves on the ground and be there for your friends." Daniel was looking around for Ditzy to see how well she did by the judges point of view. His search was stopped by a tap on his side and when he turned to see who it was, it was Ditzy.

"I did it. I really did it. Thanks Cosmos."

"You're welcome Ditzy, how well did you do?" She showed him a silver medal that read 'runner up for best young flyer's competition' and Daniel smiled at her. "See, I told you that you had greatness in you."

"Thank you, for believing in me." She said as she hugged him.

"Ditzy, I don't like being touched." She let go of him.

"Sorry. But again, thanks." Ditzy flew away, looking at her medal the whole time after she took off. Daniel heard Dash speak from behind him.

"Sorry boys, but I got plans." Daniel turned to see Dash flying off with two wonder bolts. He also heard footsteps from behind him and tuned to see Celestia looking at him.

"Hello again Cosmos. I’d just like to say, Thank you for accepting my sister request." Daniel smiled back at her.

"Happy to be accepted. If you don't mind me asking, what will I be learning?" Celestia giggled and looked to Twilight.

"Well, you'll be learning defensive and offensive magic. Learn about politics and even some request Luna might make, like my request to learn about friendship." Daniel continued to smile but he groaned in annoyance in his head.

"Seriously, more training? Well I guess I could use it, it might prove useful to know some magic." Daniel had one more thing to ask about it. "How often will this happen?"

"A few times a week for a few hours, say from 10 till 3 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There might also be times when Luna will send you a letter with a task she might want you to do." Daniel thought the times of these lessons sounded great as it ended at the same time Annabelle's school ended.

"That all sound great." Celestia smiled at his answer.

"Cosmos. We’re ready to go." Twilight called to him as they gathered in the balloon.

"I guess I’ll soon be seeing you around a bit more often Princess." Daniel headed to the balloon and it started to go down to the ground.

Bravacho groaned in frustration and slammed the desk. He had been trying to find anything related to the heart bearer, or a clue to who it might be for a while but so far he found nothing. He had no idea how long the bearer had been here so he was looking through old history books to try and see if there were any clues.

Dravia was out looking for any recent news related things that could give them a clue to where the bearer was. Bravacho almost fell off of his seat when Dravia burst through the door.

"Dear, have a look at this." She showed him a copy of what looked like a comic book that read 'Daring do and the new species.'

"Honey, that's a comic book. Made for fictional entertainment." Dravia shook her head and showed him a newspaper that look like it was published a few days ago. As he read it, he saw it said 'Adventurer Daring do's new book of her recent adventure skyrockets.' He continued to look through what it said and it mentioned how some ponies think Daring do is real and how this creature is also real. "Let me see that book."

As he read the book he found out that the creature mentioned could alter time, space and matter. Based on what the book said and so far none of the ponies have shown magic strong enough to even consider doing that. While it was a bit of a long shot to being real, Bravacho took it as their first real lead. He continued to read until he discovered that this creature was supposed to live in the everfree which was right next to a town called ponyville.

"I also found this." She said and handed him another newspaper. The Title read 'Real or fake. Uncovering the Shadow.' It mentioned of a creature that appeared in ponyville and it fought both a ursa minor and major. It gives details of how the creature was shrouded in a dark mist and its eyes were glowing white.

There was no pictures of it and it mentioned that no other location in Equestria had reported seeing this creature which made most think this was fake. Bravacho putted two and two together, a new creature that supposedly lives in the everfree which is right next to ponyville, another one that has only appeared at ponyville and both of then suspected to have a power that greatly surpasses these ponies.

"Dravia. How do you feel about heading to ponyville?" Bravacho asked.

Daniel waited outside the school for Annabelle to come out after class was done. He didn’t have to wait long as he heard the bell that signalled the end of school and when it did the door opened and the fillies and colts poured out of the door.

Annabelle walked out with Cheerilee and when she saw him she smiled.

"Hey Strawberry, how was School?"

"Great. But, Cheerilee wants to speak to you." She said with joy then a little worry.

"Mr Cosmos. I want to talk about Strawberry's...lessons." Daniel didn’t like the pause she made.

"Is it bad?" She shook her head.

"No, in fact it's the total opposite. Her math and knowledge of some subjects are amazing for a little filly her age." She showed him her work and it was many different kinds of math questions and she got all answers right and showed her working for them. "Not just that but her art and design is top notch. Almost like she has been doing it her whole life. I can't believe I am saying this but I think she would need to be move up a few grades."

"How far up?"

"Well...I would say to a place in canterlot for talented young ponies. Perhaps Celestia’s school. If you don’t mind me asking, where did she learn to do this?" Daniel gave her a questionable look.

"The art thing is a hobby she has. As for the math part, back where I lived most kids her age can do this level of maths." Perhaps it was cause most of these colts and fillies were younger than her so she found the work too easy.

"You must come from a very smart town." She mentioned.

"I consider it normal. So this is a little bit of a surprise." He looked back at Annabelle and grinned. "Looks like your teacher thinks of you as a little geniuses." She rubbed the back of her head, a little embarrassed. " Do you think she could still come here until you find a place more suitable for her?"

"Certainly. I love to see bright young minds." Daniel smiled and looked back at Annabelle.

"Well Strawberry. Let's go home and thanks for letting me know this Cheerilee." Both of them started to walk back home.

"Bye." She called to them as they walked away. Along the way back home Annabelle had a grin on her face almost every time she looked at Daniel. At first he chose to pay it no attention but it only seemed to get bigger the close they got to their house which caused him to get more curious.

"Ok Strawberry, what's with the grin?"

"You’ll see." She simply said and the grin didn’t leave her face. Daniel arrived home and they both entered the basement and started to head up the stairs to the other side. When they were at the door to the living room Annabelle was snickering and it was starting to get to Daniel.

"What are you snickering at?" He asked, almost laughing himself. He opened the door, and fell down the stairs after receiving a giant fright.

"SUPRISE!!!" All his kids shouted but then they looked at Daniel who was now on the basement floor against the wall and he picked himself up off the ground.

"Ouch!" He said to himself as he rubbed his back. When he was at the top of the stairs again he turned himself and Annabelle back to their human forms before he looked at his kids with a confused look. "What's the surprise for?" That seemed to confuse them.

"Wait. You don't know what day it is?" Elizabeth asked.

"Friday?" There was a silence before his kids fell over laughing.

"It is Friday but guess what else it is?" Daniel thought for a moment.

"No clue." Their eye shutters all opened as wide as possible.

"Ok. Listen. When Alpha made us out of your blood we also got some of your memories, so we set this up. It's your birthday." Daniel stood there in shock. He had lost track of time in the recent months so much he completely forgot about those days.

"Great. You broke him Freddy." Selene said to Freddy.

"Hey, not my fault he forgot." Daniel shook his head clear of his thoughts.

"I completely forgot. If you don't mind me asking, what did you all do?" They moved to the side and Daniel saw that his house looked just like what a party would look like. Sandwiches, drinks, cake and even some board games. "Where’s Alpha?"

"He said he should be left in the lab. That this event is only for 'family'. That and also because he can't. He’s still stuck to the tracks in the lab until he gets a new body." Daniel looked at the door to Aperture with narrowed eyes.

"I know Nature told me to save my energy but I don't want Alpha to be left out. Even if he has no emotions he is still a member of this family." He looked back at his kids. "I’ll be right back. Annabelle, have some cake and juice." He walked into Aperture, leaving his kids and Annabelle looking at the door.

As Daniel searched Aperture for Alpha he realised just how big this place was getting. The factory was now more like an actual factory rather than just a small area and the machine that made metal mostly all went to making a steel floor with some plugs in it for future structures. It almost looked like a flat metal grey meadow with just a few machines and a large main building.

"I need to start building in here more often. But if I do will that it’ll just get in Alpha's way. Speaking of which, where is he?" Daniel continued to look for Alpha and found him in the factory, in the control room. He was going back and forth like something was troubling him, curiosity got the better of Daniel and he started to fly to avoid making noises from his steps and put his ear against the wall.

"How? How does Daniel deal with these emotions? Everything I've felt, Happy, sad and even stressed I have ran scans on, complete depth analysis. But I still don't have the answer. Does it just come naturally to him?" Daniel wondered if he was dreaming after he heard that so he looked at his fist and punched himself in the face, which sent him back against the metal wall and he just slid down it towards the ground.

Knowing he was awake and not dreaming thanks to the pain he felt, he decided to confront Alpha about this so he walked up to the door and entered the control room. Alpha turned around to greet him.

"Greetings Boss. I have been informed that your kids are looking for you." Daniel crossed his arms.

"I know." He stood there unmoving. He would give Alpha some credit for the poker face he was pulling off, it was very convincing. "But right now I am more interested in what I heard you say a moment ago." Alpha seemed to glitch when he said that.

"You...you heard that?"

"Yes I did. Alpha, how did this happen?" Alpha turned around.

"A few weeks ago I did another experiment on your blood. Blood is a life force and some metals can share this life force. While I was building a few weeks ago the machine sparked and a small section blew off, knocking a part off of me. I used the last of your blood and changed the molecules in it to make a new and strong piece of metal. But when I put it on myself the life force must have went into me. Making me have these...emotions. I know it's bazar and even I was confused. But all this started when I changed the structure of some of some of your blood to metal and added said metal to repair myself." While he was explaining this, Alpha pointed to the part that he got his emotions from after he attached it to himself.

"Why did you hide it?"

"I didn’t want you to worry about me." Daniel chuckled and walked up to Alpha.

"Listen Alpha. I made you, so of course I care about you. You are part of this family. Emotions or none. But still, this is a pleasant surprise." Daniel remembered what he was here to do. He snapped his fingers and a body that looked like a thin metal human skeleton appeared. "Nature said I should save my energy for the training I’ll be starting, and I also have lessons with Luna that will start soon too. So I’ll likely need to save as much as I can. But enough about that. I want you to transfer yourself into that body and come to the party."

"You do?" Daniel nodded and Alpha picked up the skeleton with a claw. As he did that he did a quick inspection of it and soon found what he was looking for. The chip slot. "I’ll need your help with this part. Please put the chip in that slot." Daniel nodded and Alpha's holographic avatar disappeared and the pillar that was him shut down. A ping was heard and Daniel got his computer chip and place it into the slot in the metal skeleton body. Daniel also took the ‘Emotion metal’ part off the pillar, used his strength to twist it and wrapped it around Alpha’s new skeletal arm.

"I don't know if he needs this or if it's part of him now but...can't be too careful." After a moment it started to move and its eyes opened. It looked at its hands then back at Daniel. "How do you feel."

"Much...better." Alpha told him with a hint of joy in his voice. "I no longer have to stay on fixed tracks. But I might make a few modifications using my older body."

"Well you can do that some other time. I’m sure the others are waiting for you to join in."

Daniel headed back with Alpha but along the way he walked with him so he could adjust to his new body. There was a few times he almost lost his balance. When they arrived back in the living room all of his kids got a fright when they saw the new Alpha but after a quick explanation from Daniel they calmed down. When he said about how he discovered Alpha had emotions they all looked at him with happy eyes, likely the thought of a new friend instead of an emotionless boss.

A few hours later, it was well into the night and they were all having fun. There was a lot of poker games and laughs and they even watched a movie together. While it was fun, one part turned into a nightmare. The movie they were watching was Frozen and his kids would not stop singing Let it go.

By the time it was almost over they all gathered together for a large family photo that Daniel place on top of the fireplace and a few moments later Annabelle walked off to her bed in Terabithia and his kids walked back into Aperture along with Alpha.

With a snap of his fingers the living room was back to normal and Daniel sat down with a random book he got off of the shelves.

"I know I have accepted they are my family too. But I'm still holding onto my old one. Nature is right. I need to move on." He looked at the picture that was on top of the fireplace and snapped his fingers before going back to reading his book.

The picture on top of the fireplace now had some writing on it that was not there before.

'My New Family'

As Daniel looked out the window and into the night, something caught his eye. In the trees in the distance, he saw purple mist but the moment he looked at it, it seemed to vanish. Shrugging it off he went back to reading his book.