In the little town of Humboldt, South Dakota, far beneath a weathered warehouse that served as a storage facility for used tractor parts, General Desmond Greenwaldt of the United States Army, currently assigned to the Cyberattack Response Group, was having a very bad day indeed.

Everyone on his response team was telling him the same thing: A massive Intrusion Event was taking place. Computers worldwide were being accessed by an unknown program. Firewalls didn't seem to have any effect. Connections encrypted by the most sophisticated systems devised were being used as if they were cheap public lines.

"It's not possible, it's not possible," One of the junior members kept mumbling to himself.

To the technicians and specialists in the secure underground facility, this was the worst nightmare imaginable. The general didn't understand the technical details but he had a good grasp of the overall picture. Someone had the power to access and take over any computer that was connected to the Internet, no matter what security precautions were in place… and they were doing it on his watch. He had already sent the "Doomsday Signal", an encoded shortwave radio burst that told all critical government and military computers to physically isolate themselves. In most scenarios that the analysts had come up with, an attack such as the current one was a prelude to a massive nuclear weapons launch, designed to cripple the United States' ability to track incoming missiles and respond to them. If the general had sent the signal in error, it would probably be the end of his career. If he was right, it might be the end of the world.

"Countermeasures?" he asked the Monitor Chief.

The chief couldn't believe how calm the general sounded. He cleared his throat before speaking and tried to keep his voice from shaking. "Completely ineffective. The code they're using isn't like anything I've ever seen before."

"Tell me something good." Greenwaldt said through his teeth.

Surprisingly, the chief could oblige. "Well, it looks like the code isn't actually damaging any systems. Normal traffic has been slightly slowed down because of the volume but there are no crashes or outright hijackings that I can see… yet."

"Then what's the point of all this? What are they after?"

"There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the sites they're accessing." The chief tapped his screen where a list of heavily hit systems were displayed. "Who'd want or need to break into YouTube or Amazon just to look at their non-encrypted files?"

The general was about to reply when a technician called out from a nearby terminal, "Chief! I think I've got a pattern!"

"Put it on the main display!"

"This is in reverse at five hundred times normal speed." The room went quiet as the time lapse graphic appeared on the monitor. It displayed the last few hours of suspect traffic on a transparent globe of the Earth. The bright red lines withdrew from the web until only a single spot remained.

"An attack this sophisticated that didn't hide its source? I don't believe it," the chief snorted.

But General Greenwaldt was already on the radio, giving the suspected location to a group of very unimaginative, very unsympathetic, and very heavily-armed men. "Yes, that's right Palo Alto, California. I even have an address for you."

It was probably good that Greg didn't suspect the extent to which his little project had gotten out of hand. He was upset enough as it was.

"What's that?" he nearly shouted, pointing at a section of the Equestria map. Luna didn't reply. She couldn't tell where he was pointing and strongly suspected that the question wasn't directed at her, anyway.

The bit that had caught Greg's eye was a massive gathering of clouds floating above the main landscape. It was mostly a fluffy version of Greek architecture. "That's Cloudsdale! And that…" he zoomed in on a barren landscape where a long scaly shape was soaking in a pool of lava. "That’s a dragon! I never programmed any of this!"

Greg scrolled the map at high speed and was relieved when he came to an edge. At least it had an edge. But that edge was growing outward. He brought up a visual window with a view of the edge. Terrain and plants were sprouting in a comfortingly familiar way. "Fractal generation," he mumbled to himself. Then he saw the first seapony. It was bright blue with red stripes. ”Oh, fuck me,” he groaned.

It was just too much to take in. Greg felt himself calming down. He realized that things were completely beyond his control and, oddly enough, that was a comforting thought. If there was nothing he could do… he didn't have to do anything.

"Greg?" Luna asked tentatively after several minutes of silence.

Greg took his eyes off the window where he had been watching a pod of seaponies playing and singing in the surf. "Huh? What is it Luna?"

"Are you angry with me?"

"What? No, of course not. I mean… you didn't make all this happen did you?

"No. I thought you had… until last night. But I did try to deceive you. And I sent the other ponies to hide from you after… after you—"

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that but…" A sudden thought struck him. "What do you think… I mean, what do you feel about all this?"

Luna just looked at him for a moment, her big turquoise eyes slowly blinking once before she replied. "I'm excited by it. There is so much more of the world now. I can explore… see new things… meet strange new creatures—"

"And kill them?" Greg quipped automatically.

Luna blinked again, not understanding the joking reference. "Well, yes… if they are foolish enough to fight me."

Greg chuckled. "You know something, Luna? I'm excited, too! Figuring out what's happened here is probably going to be one of the best puzzles I've ever come across. If my setup is capable of modeling all this," he waved his hand at the five monitors, meaning the now gigantic world, "I may have stumbled across a whole new paradigm for 3D simulation… not to mention artificial intelligence." He leaned forward and tapped the screen right where it displayed Luna's nose.

"I… I don't feel artificial." Luna said quietly, her tail twitching nervously.

"You sure don't act like it, either." Greg admitted. "Ha! Maybe you can do all the research over there and I'll put your name as co-author on the papers I'm going to write. Under mine, of course!" Luna didn't understand why Greg thought that was funny but smiled anyway… happy that he was happy.

"Well, since I still don't have the slightest clue what's going on, I suppose some information-gathering is in order. Let's see how much influence I still have over Equestria." He reached for the mouse and then stopped. "Luna, is it alright if I try to alter you?" Part of him was surprised that he was asking his own computer code permission to modify it… but he was already starting to think of Luna as an autonomous entity.

“Alter in what way?” she asked with a note of caution in her voice.

“Just level you up to Nightmare Moon, like when we’re doing a battle.”

"Ah, I see. Yes, that would be fine. It is part of my basic nature.” Luna replied.

"I felt I had to ask. We're colleagues now, after all. And if there's anything you don't want to do… or want to do… please tell me. I won't be upset. In fact, I really want to know how you feel about anything that's going on."

Luna smiled. "Thank you, Greg."

"Okay… here goes." Greg accessed the part of the code that recorded the “energy” needed for Luna to level-up. Ordinarily, it was a parameter that increased during combat until it crossed the threshold needed for the change, but Greg simply typed in the value he wanted and changed the LVL switch to “2.”

There was a whirl of blue sparkles and Luna was gone. Nightmare Moon reared and struck at the air with her hooves. "I like this form! I feel powerful!"

"Try a special attack."

"What target?"

Greg thought about teleporting one of the distant monsters in to serve as a victim but they now seemed too much like real creatures to treat with such callous disregard. "Um… just aim for the communication orb."

Nightmare Moon grinned ferociously and a blast of black lightning erupted from her horn.

The golden globe was the marker for Greg's presence in Equestria, so it looked to him as if the dark bolts were racing right at him. The effect was so realistic that he reflexively ducked as the attack hit.

He was lucky he did. A crackling burst of black energy shot from the monitor and hit the processor rack behind him, spitting and hissing and throwing off a shower of sparks and the stink of ozone.

"Holy crap! Holy crap!" Greg shouted as he toppled over backwards.

"Greg?" came Nightmare Moon’s concerned voice from the monitor. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." Greg said as he rose to his feet, staring at the smoking metal shelf. "This is all impossible… but that… that was really impossible!"

"I… I didn't know! I'm so sorry Greg! I'm glad I didn't hurt you!"

"Yeah, me too." He looked closer at the scorched rack. It was moving, vibrating and twisting ever so slightly. "I really haven't the slightest clue about what's going on," he muttered to himself.

"We will find out together!" Nightmare Moon said earnestly and Greg smiled at her understated confidence.

"Okay," he said, turning back to the monitors. The one from which the magic blast had emerged seemed completely unaffected. "Let's see if—" He bent to pick up the overturned chair, and that's when the explosions began.

There was a heavy crash and a sharp bang from somewhere outside the room followed by a shout of fear from one of his roommates. A second later there was the sound of heavy footfalls and the THUNK of something heavy being slammed against a wall. Another sharp bang, louder this time, and before Greg could react, the door to his computer room burst open. He caught a brief glimpse of a bulky, dark figure before there was an intense flash of light and a burst of sound that knocked him to the floor.

He was stunned, unable to think clearly, but he could feel strong hands grabbing him and lifting him to his feet. A black bag was roughly pulled over his head and tightened around his neck. He began to struggle but he was still disoriented and weak and the hands holding him were very, very strong. Something hard and cold pressed against his shoulder and stung him. What little consciousness he retained began to fade.

The last thing he heard before he blacked out was Nightmare Moon’s enraged voice screaming, "Leave him alone! Leave him alone or I'll kill you all!"

Author's Notes:

Thanks to Jordanis, WrittenWord333, and Fana Farouche for pre-reading and editing.