Greg met Lisa as she returned from the warehouse. She was riding on Chitter’s back, and the changeling was holding her head high and proud with what was a definite strut to her stride. Lisa was smiling and her face was flushed. Greg assumed the games had gone well.

When Lisa saw Greg standing in the hallway, she lost her smile and she ducked her head slightly.

"Would you guys like some lunch?" Greg asked nonchalantly. "Gwen will be joining us."

Lisa looked up in surprise. "She's not...?"

"No," Greg assured her. "She's fine. Luna decided that a stern teasing was enough... well, okay, a vicious teasing... but we're satisfied with where things stand for now. I take it from Chitter’s smug expression she must have done pretty well with the games… even though she doesn’t have thumbs?”

Lisa's face burst out in a smile again. "She’s a changeling, silly! She can have thumbs whenever she wants to! But her magic is even better! She can do all the top combos on Street Fighter, and…” Lisa chatted happily all the way to the Dining Hall.

All of them sat around a long table except for Chitter, who lay in a corner of the room, curled around a chunk of meat that looked to Greg like an entire hind leg of a cow. A griffon set plates down in from of each of them, and then poured drinks for everyone.

Gwen hadn't eaten for almost an entire day and tore into her omelette, wolfing down the food until she looked across the table and saw Luna taking small, lady-like bites of her food, her magical aura handling the utensils with delicate grace. Gwen frowned and forced herself to slow down. When she did, she suddenly realized that the omelette was superb. "Don't tell me you're a culinary genius, too," she half-growled at Greg. "I don't think I'd be able to stand it."

"Me?" Greg laughed, "Oh ghod, no! I could burn water! It's Geoffrey there that did the cooking." He gestured with his chopsticks to where the griffon had once again taken up a guard position next to the main door.

"Really?" Gwen asked in surprise. "You made this?"

"Um..." Geoffrey’s claws shifted nervously on the floor. "Yes, Ma'am. I... I enjoy cooking. I find that it relaxes me."

"He makes the best burgers, ever!" Lisa put in, holding up her half-eaten sandwich.

"Don't be so surprised, Gwen," Greg said, "Even if they look cartoonish, they're still individuals, with different tastes and interests. Once you get to know them well, they’re just as complex as any human."

"Why do you even bother?" Gwen asked.

There was a brief silence around the table. "Because they're people, Gwen." Greg said softly.

She looked at him like he was insane. "No they're not. They're things that you made. Computer programs, complex robots, but not people."

Greg put down his chopsticks and looked Gwen hard in the eyes. "I've tried to make ponies that were 'robots'... ones that would mindlessly obey me... and it doesn't work. If they don't have free will from the start, they just stand around like empty sock-puppets until I tell them exactly what to do, moment by moment. Oh, I can control the normal ones... force them to do what I want... but that's no different from coercing or enslaving a human being. And no less an evil act, I'm ashamed to say. None of my troops have Black Helmets on them now. I've learned my lesson."

"We caught some of those," Gwen said. "They didn't last long after we—"

Luna flicked her fork across the table. It hit the back of Gwen's chair just beside her head and buried its tines in the polished oak.

"Hint taken," Gwen muttered, and returned her attention to her omelet.

"If you don't like the word people," Greg continued, "then at least think of them as sapient beings or aliens with their own needs and desires. People have always wondered how we would react to a First Contact situation. Well, now we know, and it didn't do the human race much credit."

Gwen glared at him for a moment and then put down her fork. "If I can express an opinion without getting impaled?" she asked Luna.

Luna blinked lazily and then looked off toward a corner of the room... as if nothing that interested her was happening at the table.

"That is a load of California Liberal bullshit." Gwen continued, her voice calm, even though her words were passionate. "It doesn't matter what you call them... they're invaders. I swore an oath to protect and defend the United States, not every damn 'sapient being' that wanders by."

"Yeah?" Greg snapped back. "How's that working out for you? A couple of million citizens of the US got 'protected' into radioactive ash, not to mention the ones who took weeks to die while crapping out their insides! And how many died in the food riots? And that horror-film director's wet-dream over there..." he gestured to where Chitter was stripping hand-sized chunks of raw meat off the cow leg, "...was working for you until a little while ago. So, let me guess... there are bad invaders and good invaders, right? Your morals hinge mostly on convenience, it seems."

Gwen's expression went icy cold. "How it's worked out for me is that I've failed, even though I did everything I could to stop you. And you... you've betrayed and destroyed your own country. Does that make you feel like some kind of fucking hero?"

Greg took a moment to get his anger under control and then said, "You seem to be confusing the political and military leaders with the nation as a whole. Those leaders are off on a nice, permanent vacation, and the citizens... the real America... well, they're doing just fine."

"For how long?" Gwen shot back. "Without the government, all the infrastructure will fall apart within weeks. If you thought the food riots were bad, you haven't seen anything yet! And that's if some other country doesn't decide to waltz in and take us over! With our military's command structure gone, who would there be to stop them?"

"Oh, please!" Greg snorted. "You think I didn't plan for all that?"

Gwen frowned at him. "What did you do?"

"Well, for a start, I equestrianized DC, and now instead of a politician-infested rat hole, it's a beautiful city of marble and gold, surrounded by cozy villages and pristine wilderness."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "That's just what people need; a fucking fantasy land! That place ran on politics! What are people going to do to earn a living now?"

"That's the best part!" Greg said, a broad grin spreading across his face."I made it so people don't have to earn a living anymore. They can do whatever they want now."

Gwen's eyes went wide. "Oh God, what did you do?"

"I did a convincing imitation of Santa Claus," Greg smirked. "Oh, don't look at me like I'm crazy! What I did was hand out presents to all the good little girls and boys... and bad ones, and adults... all in one night. And all over the world, too, not just my country."

"What presents?" Gwen asked, a chill running down her spine.

Greg reached back into a satchel that hung from the back of his chair and removed a small object. It was a red jeweled necklace. The pendant was a stylized unicorn head with wings on either side. He held it up and said, "What I gave them was power. The power to change the world in any way they see fit. It's what the douchebags in the ex-government always told me. They said the sort of power I commanded shouldn't be in the hands of one person, that no single person had the right to make such sweeping changes. Well, they should be happy now that everyone has that power. Very democratic, right?" He slid the object across the table to her. "Here's your very own alicorn amulet... even though you're on my 'naughty' list."

Gwen picked up the amulet and looked closely at it. There was a slightly recessed button beneath the head and several of the wing feathers lit up with text when she pressed it: Transform; Invite; Information; Mirror Gate; Ponify.

"Touch the word 'Information' and ask it to give you complete instructions on how to use it,” Greg told her. "Basically, it'll enable you to transform the landscape around you for about a mile or so, including making buildings and clothes and food and so-on. You can send out a signal that will invite different types of ponies or other people to your location, and it'll act as a holographic net terminal, or... if you're feeling brave... you can open a mirror gate to the Equestria sim, or actually become a pony."

Gwen stared at the amulet silently for a moment. "Everyone? All over the world? How is that possible?"

"I'd like to give the credit to magical reindeer, but it's really just good software design." Greg smirked. "And I'm not kidding. One of the key elements of my self-improving code was to optimize its own ability to execute. I think those first mirror portals were… well the science fiction writers would call it 'computronium' or programmable matter. But matter is a pretty coarse substrate really, so my software went looking for something better. Turns out the Higgs Field can be organized into slightly different elements that can act as logic gates…"

Greg trailed off. He could see that Gwen wasn't following at all. "Think of it this way; it's like sending data over an electrical power line. Not what it was designed for, but it can be done and without disrupting the primary function of the line. The Equestrian system now runs on the fabric of the universe itself… underneath the system that blindly executes the code we call matter and energy. Since it's a lower-order language, it can transform matter and energy simply by changing variables. Effectively it is magic… and now everybody's got a little terminal that lets them alter the local code however they want. There are limits, of course. It won't alter or harm another sapient being, for instance. The Equestrians don't have them, because they don't need them. They're magical enough already."

"You are crazy!" Gwen shouted. "One super villain was one too many! Now there will be thousands of people out there trying to start their own pony armies, or worse! And in a city as dense as New York, with everyone trying to transform their surroundings? It'll be unbelievable chaos! With everyone able to do whatever they want, who will control things?"

Greg shrugged. "I've pretty much run out of fucks to give. I'm sure it'll work itself out after a while. People are more adaptable than you give them credit for. Like I said, the amulets are limited and designed with safeguards. No killing, and you're practically unkillable while wearing one. Oh, yeah, and I did reserve a little bit of outside administrative authority over it all... just in case. I can update and patch like any good software developer."

"What... you're going to be the final judge of all humanity?" Gwen sneered. "You give megalomania a bad name!"

"Jeeze, Gwen!" Greg shook his head in mock sadness. "And you can be so charming when you want to!" He pulled a little tablet computer from his pocket and glanced at it. "Mm... good timing! I have exactly zero interest in bossing people around, even though I can see there will be a need for it. So I decided to delegate the job. C'mon, let's take a little walk, and I'll show you what I mean."

"Ooh!" Lisa said with sudden interest. She had been keeping her head down, avoiding the argument at the head of the table while actually listening carefully. "Is it her? Can I come, too? I want to see!"

"Lead the way!" Greg told her.

They all walked out of the building. The first thing Gwen was aware of was a sound like distant music with a strong bell-like quality. The little hairs on the back of her neck went up, much like they would have on a day when a powerful thunderstorm was about to break. But there were no clouds in the sky, only a lone figure, speeding along.

"Oh my God," Gwen breathed in sudden realization, "that’s… that's…"

"Princess Celestia is the name you’re grasping for," Greg told her.

"I know," she replied. "I've studied the series... I recognize her now. But she's so... God, a cartoon is one thing... she's terrifying! I can feel her presence from here! And you're giving over the rule of humanity to..." Gwen waved her hand at the sky, unable to sum up the incredible creature in words.

"Well, she's actually Celestia at level three; the Bright Goddess, roughly two orders of magnitude more powerful than the ordinary old alicorn who juggles the sun every morning," Greg said, thoroughly enjoying Gwen's horrified expression. "The other Royal Sovereigns are around as well."

Greg didn't mention the names of Cadance and Twilight's ultimate forms. The Love Goddess sounded a little too porn-y, and the Librarian of Doom was far too ridiculous for words. Even Twilight herself was a bit embarrassed by it. For perhaps the ten thousandth time, Greg wished he hadn't unknowingly locked the whole system into purely pony-related themes with a strong videogame flavor, but it was only a very small regret.

"Don't worry, Gwen," he continued. "They're not really rulers. They won't interfere unless things get too far out of balance, and their presence will be a constant reminder for people to play nice. Think of them as judges, or moderators with god-like powers. Gotta keep the monkeys from setting fire to the zoo, after all."

Gwen just stared at him, unable respond to such unbelievable hubris.

Greg shrugged. "It's the best solution I could come up with on short notice. I wanted everything to be as stable as possible before I leave. Yeah, some people might get a bit extreme, but each one of those alicorn mares packs enough magical mojo to boil an ocean with a glance, so I don’t think anybody but a true nutjob is going to risk their displeasure."

The alicorn princess flowed through the sky, the distant sound of her passage chiming like stroked crystal, until the last sweeping movement of her glorious tail faded into the mist on the horizon.

"That was so cool!" Lisa whispered.

"Leaving?" Gwen asked, turning her gaze down from the empty sky.

"Yes," Greg said. "The world holds too many bad memories for me. I have a few things to take care of and then I'll head off to Equestria. It's expanding quickly, and since it's only limited by the size of the universe itself, there's going to be a lot of territory to explore. Humanity is about to become an extreme minority as far as galactic citizens are concerned, so I probably won't ever run into you again, Gwen. In a weird, twisted sort of way, it's been fun."

From the reactions of Luna and Lisa, Gwen gathered that Greg's announcement was just as much of a surprise to them as it was to her. "So you're just screwing up the entire planet and then running away?" she sneered.

"Suck it up, Captain Gwen." Greg grinned. "If you don't like the shape the world's in, fix it yourself." He reached out and tapped the red jeweled necklace she was still holding, "You have the power, now."

"So does everybody else," she said sourly.

"Ah, but cleverness has to count for something, and you are a very clever woman." Greg grinned.

"I'm coming with you, right?" Lisa asked in a quiet, unsteady voice. Luna said nothing but watched Greg carefully.

Greg looked down at her and frowned sadly, "Lisa... going to Equestria will turn you into a digital construct. It'll freeze you at the age you are now. If you come, you might never have a chance to grow up."

"I'm sixteen next month!" she said emphatically."I'm just small and skinny for my age!"

"Well, even sixteen is—"

"And what's so great about growing up, anyway? I could turn out like her!" Lisa finished, pointing an angry finger at Gwen.

"Good point," Greg admitted.

"I'm not even sure I like being a human. They're so mean! If you can do magic, can you make me into a pony? Or a changeling like Chitter? That would be so cool!"

"Uh… no, I can only do ponies right now, but maybe you should wait before making that decision."

Lisa's smile disappeared and she hung her head. "Oh. Okay."

The disappointment in her voice made Greg wince. "Look… we'll work something out. I may be able to alter some of the code... do some experimenting. I need a few more days to wrap things up, anyway. For now, let's all go back inside and finish our meal, Geoffrey makes some kick-ass desserts."

Lisa nodded, still looking slightly unhappy. In her experience, "later" and "maybe" meant no.

"Not for me, thanks," Gwen said. "If you don't mind, I think I'd better get started on damage control." She waved her amulet for emphasis.

"Not too much power for one individual to handle?" Greg gently chided her. "Well, good luck anyway, though I doubt you'll need it. You're a very capable woman, Gwen. You'll probably be running your own kingdom by this time next year."

Gwen didn't immediately reply but a thoughtful expression crept across her features. "Well... who knows?" she said finally.

After lunch Lisa took Chitter up to the roof to watch the skyline of the city ripple and change, leaving Greg and Luna alone together in the Common Room.

Luna watched him silently as he ran through several screens on his computer and then, when it seemed as if he had reached a stopping point asked him, "So, what are your plans for the future? Do they include me?"

He looked up in surprise and then gazed into her face for a few moments. "I hope so, but that's for you to say, Luna. You're not my slave or my servant."

She narrowed her sapphire eyes. "You've been acting strangely ever since you were with Gwen when she woke up this morning. It's still not too late for me to run her down and trample her into jelly, you know."

"No, it's not her fault... not exactly. She was desperate and fed me some manipulative bullshit, but when I started thinking… well, it just made me realize some things..." Greg shook his head. "We can talk about all that later. Right now I need to go get my parents. They've been in protective custody for a while. It's a good thing the government put them in a nice facility or the place I built for the Washington wonks would have involved a lot more molten lava. Once I get them settled and safe, I'll want to look in on Terminus Village and then..."

"Then...?" Luna echoed.

"Then... before anything else... before I make any more plans... I'd like to spend one perfect day, alone with you."

Luna smiled. "That will be wonderful."

Greg smiled back at her. "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure it is."

Author's Notes:

The Christmas-y theme in this chapter is pure coincidence and completely unrelated to the day of its release. Honest.

Regardless, I hope all y'all have a splendiferous holiday season, filled with joy! If Santa gave you an Alicorn Amulet, please use it wisely.

Thanks, again and again, to the merry band of brigands prereaders that keep me from going too far off the tracks, Fana Farouche, Jordanis, and WrittenWord333!