Krystal stood at the door of the Castle of Friendship the next morning. She had wanted to make sure that Nathan was OK after activating Devil Mode the previous day. She wasn't able to view the rest of the battle as she had a train to catch, so she was going to find out what had happened. She knocked on the door and stood back, soon heavy footsteps could be heard and the door opened revealing Nathan at a semi-medium size.

"Oh, Krystal, hi." Nathan shrank to his normal size and stepped out closing the door. "What brings you by?"

She sighed and looked up at him. "I left Phoenix." Nathan just stared at her in silence, not expecting something like this first thing in the morning.

"Oh...well, come on in. We're just sitting down to breakfast, we can talk more inside." He held the door open for her. She thanked him and walked with him to the dining room. "Take a seat, I'm just going to go wake up the twins." She looked at him confused as he walked out. As he reached the door Sonata fluttered up to him and planted a kiss on his eye. "Good morning Nata. I'll be back in a second, we have a guest." Sonata looked over Nathan's shoulder and noticed Krystal.

"Oh, Krystal. I haven't seen you in centuries." She flew over and sat opposite her.

"It's good to see you too Sonata, congratulations on the baby by the way."

"Thanks, I'm really excited about it. I know Nathan is too, although we have some other members of the family now." Sonata said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Krystal tilted her eye in confusion.

"Come on Sapphire, your brother is up and ready. We're waiting on you." The two of them heard Nathan say from down the hall.

"Five more minutes..." A soft feminine voice complained.

"That's what you said five minutes ago, come on."

"Do I have to?"

"That's it, dragging you out." The was a few giggles and multiple protests from the small voice until heavy footsteps could be heard. "Sorry about that Krystal, someone didn't want to get up this morning." Krystal looked to the two children, one was on his shoulder while the other was in Nathan's closed hand with a grumpy look on her face. "Krystal, meet Sapphire and Lyric."

"Um...hi."

"Hello."

Krystal just looked at Nathan in question. "They're my kids." He explained. This just caused more confusion, Nathan then explained what had happened with the battle against Nightmare and what had happened after. "Sonata, could you go get the twins some breakfast, I need to talk to Krystal in private for a moment." Sonata nodded and led the kids out of the room. Nathan changed to his human form and sat down opposite Krystal.

"Didn't take you for a family man Nathan, I'm honestly surprised."

"A lot can happen over a full millennium." His smile faltered and he leaned back in his chair. "So, what happened with Phoenix?"

Krystal sighed and looked to the table. "I just couldn't put up with Thane and his fake attitude anymore. You don't know it but Zane, Katie and I were watching when you were at the bonfire. We've been watching ever since you moved to Ponyville. You looked like you had found happiness in this town, so I thought I could find that happiness too." Nathan placed a finger to his chin in thought.

"That makes sense I suppose, but what do you plan to do here exactly? I'm sure I can find room to put your capsule into in the castle, but what do you plan to do in your own time?"

"I figured I'd just let life take its course, maybe fight some creatures in the Everfree to earn bolts for weapons. You must have a ton after beating that Nightmare thing."

"Yeah, nearly a million." There was a moment of silence before a letter appeared in front of Nathan. "A letter from Celestia?" He took the scroll and undid the seal, reading over it his smile returned. "So that's it."

"What?" Nathan changed back into his ranger form and made his way to the door.

"Got our first mission from Celestia. Just for me and you... And the twins, can't leave them here with just Sonata, gotta let her get settled in."

Krystal got out of her chair and followed him to the kitchen where Sonata and the twins were eating waffles.

"Get your stuff together kids, we're going sailing!" Sonata just looked at him with a raised brow. "We're going to the land of behemoths, we got a mission from Celestia. Thought I'd give the twins an adventure while you settle in." Sonata smiled at her partner.

"Ok, but I don't want them coming back with a giant pet centaur."

"Fine, I promise it won't be bigger than a kraken." Sonata shook her head and flew up to him to kiss his eye.

"No pets. When you get back we'll talk about it." Nathan nodded and the twins finished their meals.

"Alright, let's go pay your uncle Scorpan a visit."

Nathan and Katie began walking towards the shores of Equestria, with Sapphire and Lyric riding behind Nathan's eye. Celestia had arranged a ship to cross the ocean separating Equestria from the land of behemoths.

"So Nathan, mind explaining to me what we are going to do when we get there?"

"I figured I'd pay a visit to Scorpan and see how he's doing. After that we get on with the mission."

"And what is that mission?" Nathan's composure became hostile.

"The Maniacs emblem has been spotted in the countries near the land of behemoths, we have to go investigate."

Author's Notes:

And now we are on with the main storyline with the villains of this story.