Greg peered through the window of the Radio Shack, watching the soldiers coming back toward his location. A humvee moved at a walking pace up the street as two squads covered each sidewalk. He flipped the sign in the window to CLOSED, latched the deadbolt, and went back to the little computer where Pinkie Pie was waiting patiently.

"The soldiers are coming. I've got to go."

"Take me with you! I can help."

"I'm sorry Pinkie, I can't. There's no battery in this thing. But I'll leave it turned on, and I won't go far." Greg grimaced wryly. "I won't be able to go far."

"When your message gets to Nightmare Moon, I'm sure she'll come rescue you!"

"Yeah, I hope so," Greg nodded, "And I'm going to try to… oops! Gotta go!"

He had seen the soldiers crossing the street. They would be at the front of the store in seconds. He darted into the back room and eased open the door to the alley. He retreated back into the storeroom, leaving the door open. He pulled three large boxes into one corner, leaving just enough room for him to squeeze in behind them, and then he shifted another to cover him completely and settled in to wait.

The corporal rattled the locked door of the Radio Shack, glanced at the CLOSED sign and was about to move on when a soft cry came from the seemingly-empty shop. Reversing his rifle, the corporal slammed its butt against the tempered glass of the door, shattering it into tiny pieces. He reached through the empty door frame, flipped the deadbolt, and motioned his men into the store.

"Back room's clear! The rear door's open," called one of his men.

Another was showing a photo of Greg to the clerk he had just cut free.. "Yeah," the clerk said, "that's the guy! Bastard knocked me out! He just went out the back. He said he wasn't going far."

"He told you his plans?" The corporal asked incredulously.

"No. He was talking to the pony on the computer. He didn't know I was awake again."

The corporal radioed his findings to his commander and then had the clerk show him the computer Greg had been using. He found himself facing an indignant Pinkie Pie. "If you know what's good for you, you'll leave Greg alone, you big meanie! Nightmare Moon is going to be very—" The corporal muttered something about "fuckin' cartoons", slapped the laptop closed, and waved his men out through the storeroom.

"Hey!" yelled the clerk, "Who's gonna pay for the door?" The soldiers ignored him and made their way out into the alley behind the store.

"Goddamnit!" the clerk grumbled, holding his aching stomach and surveying the mess the shattered door had left on the floor of the shop. He got a broom and dust pan out of the back of the store and began to sweep up the broken bits of glass. "I'm gonna—" but he never finished his complaint. Between one word and the next, for the second time that day, he was rendered unconscious.

Greg heard footsteps enter the storeroom and kept still, breathing shallowly through his mouth. The soldiers had tromped through and out the rear door, obviously fooled by his ruse. As long as the clerk didn't decide to start rearranging the stock, he should be…

"You can come out now." said an unpleasantly familiar voice.

Greg didn't move or make a sound.

"C'mon, there's only one spot in the room with enough space to hide you. You want me to put a couple of rounds through that wide-screen TV box?"

Greg sighed. He shoved aside the box and stood up. "Agent Gwen, you're looking as lovely as ever." It was a lie. The lower half of her face was swollen and a large, ugly purple bruise was spreading across her jaw… and she was alone. "Where's your backup?"

"The only way I'm going to make up for losing you is to recapture you myself. Alone."

Greg looked at her hands. "Just what were you going to shoot me with?"

"I lied about putting a round through the box. I'm unarmed."

"Oh?" said Greg. "That didn't work out so well for you earlier."

"You sucker-punched me."

Greg began to walk slowly toward her. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, you're ready for me now so I won't give you any trouble this…"

Gwen was no fool. As soon as he was within range, the woman threw a vicious kick at his head. He blocked, leaning into it, and then drove in at her with a series of fast and hard reverse punches. She slapped the first couple of punches aside and then spun to one side, at the same time making a grab for his left arm. Greg twisted out of the hold and jumped back.

The two of them crouched there, eying each other warily. "Pilates, my ass!" Gwen growled.

Greg shrugged. "Yeah, well, exercise is boring. Karate isn't." He stood up straight, made a little bow without taking his eyes off her and said, "Watashi wa Funakoshi no ni-dan desu."

Gwen betrayed the briefest moment of surprise and then her face settled into a grim mask. "Good. I wouldn't want this to be too easy."

They began to circle each other. "Look, you've got me… why aren't you yelling for the cavalry?" Greg asked as he watched closely for an opening in her defense.

Gwen grinned. Even if her face hadn't been misshapen, it wouldn't have been a pleasant expression. "Payback. I just want a little alone-time with you before they haul you away. They want you alive… but nobody said anything about broken ribs." Her grin got even bigger. "But you can scream for help, if you want to."

General Greenwaldt checked his tie and collar in the mirror for the second time. He was still immaculate. He turned back to the blank blue screen on the wall and began unconsciously drumming his fingers on the desktop. He caught himself, sighed, and was about to check himself in the mirror for a third time when a chime sounded and the Seal of the President of the United States appeared on the screen. He sat ramrod straight in his chair.

An aid appeared on the screen and said, "Stand by for the President." The Seal reappeared for a few seconds until the screen cleared to show a different view: The situation room in the White House.

"General." The President wasn't wasting any time on formalities, or even pleasantries. "What is the current situation?"

"Mr. President, the suspect is still at large, but he has been spotted by civilians in the town. He hasn't been seen by our aircraft or units on the perimeter, and that means he is still in the immediate area, which we have completely surrounded. We are bringing in tracking dogs from the local sheriff's department and expect to recapture him soon."

"And the web?"

"The virus is still using processing time and is accessing data but so far has not attempted to influence any system we know of. But there is some bad news."

"Continue."

"The virus is still active on machines that have been removed from the net. It seems to be able to continue to operate on, and worse, communicate from any machine that has been infected. Infected machines that are shut down will reboot themselves unless they're completely unpowered."

"California?"

Greenwaldt grimaced. "We've completely lost contact with the ground units. Before they were downed, some camera drones returned footage that is… inconclusive, but definitely indicates that something strange is happening in the area. We suspect a more widespread transformation similar to what happened to the suspect's house. We should know more after the next satellite pass ten minutes from now."

The President said nothing for a moment and then touched a key. The camera zoomed out so that the rest of the situation room was revealed. "I'd like you to stay on the line and give us your thoughts on the rest of this briefing."

"Yes sir." The general looked at the map displayed on the video wall of the distant room and his breath caught in his throat. The map was displaying the readiness of all of America's strategic-level nuclear forces and the threat level was at DEFCON 1, representing the expectation of imminent attack.

Greg and Gwen stood just out of range of each other amid the wreckage of thousands of dollars worth of electronic equipment. They were both breathing heavily.

"Are you… huff… sure… you're only a… ni-dan?" Gwen gasped. A thin trickle of blood ran from one of her nostrils and she held her left arm close to her body, partially supporting it on one hip.

Greg wasn't in much better shape. He dragged one foot a bit when he moved, his ribs ached, and his swollen right cheek was beginning to color. "Huh… yeah, I… forgot. I'm fourth-degree in Shotokan. It's… gasp… in Aikido that I'm… puff… only a ni-dan."

"What belt do you hold in… uhn… Lying Sack of Shit?"

Greg smiled. It made his cheek hurt even more. "Oh that… I'm just a natural, I guess."

There was a sudden crash from the front of the store as if a shelf of merchandise had been knocked over.

"Shit!" Gwen swore and then in a louder voice called, "In here guys! I've got him!" She didn't take her eyes off Greg and said, just barely above a whisper, "I'll have to kick your ass some other time."

"I really hope you—" Greg had begun when the storeroom door burst open.

The figure that rushed into the room wasn't a soldier. It wasn't even human.

"GREG!!!" Luna shouted and swept him up in a fierce hug. "Oh, Greg! I am so glad you're alive! I thought that they must have killed you and then the message from Pinkie Pie came and I left everything and got here as swiftly as I could but…"

Gwen had frozen at the sight of the bizarre creature. It was one thing to see her on a monitor screen but quite another to be in the same room with a human-sized flying unicorn pony. Something like a pony, anyway. Gwen recovered her senses quickly, grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall near the alley door, took two quick steps, and swung the extinguisher with all of her strength at the back of Luna’s head.

"...she said the soldiers were coming for you and…" Luna’s right ear twitched briefly in Gwen's direction and a sparkling glow flickered from her horn and caught the woman across her midsection. The extinguisher clanged and spun on the floor, and Agent Gwen slammed backwards into an already damaged shelf which promptly collapsed on top of her, spilling small items across the floor. Luna’s flood of words didn't even pause. "…I was so worried that they might capture you before I could find you…"

Greg's frantic tapping on Luna's back managed to do what Gwen's attack hadn't. Luna paused and looked down into Greg's face.

"Can't… breathe…" he managed to gasp.

Luna released her vice-like grip and then hugged him again as soon as he had taken a huge gulp of air… but this time with a lot less force. "I'm sorry! I'm just so glad you're okay… oh… but…" Now that Greg's face wasn't buried in her mane she saw the new bruise on his cheek. Luna scowled. "Did she do this to you? I will stomp her into—"

"No, no! It's okay Luna, really! Gwen was just doing her job." Sort of, Greg added silently. "Anyway, I sucker-punched her first." He couldn't resist a smug grin. "Knocked her out cold, actually. I'm fine and we've got to get out of here before the soldiers find us."

"I will not let them hurt you!" Luna growled, and tightened her hug slightly.

Greg realized, with some surprise, that Luna felt exactly like a biological creature. She was warm and her muscles moved beneath her skin in a completely normal way. Her coat was velvety soft, unlike the stiff hair of a real horse, but that was completely compatible with the fictional world she'd come from. Still, all the artistic effort that had gone into her creation was visual, not tactile. Greg wondered where had she gotten the additional qualities from. In fact, there was another element to her that he hadn't noticed before. "You know something, Luna? You smell really nice."

He could see the compliment had pleased her. She began to say something in return but was interrupted by muffled curses coming from under the collapsed shelving. Gwen shouldered her way out from under a pile of clock-radios as Luna reluctantly let Greg slip out from between her forelegs.

"You'll never get away," Gwen told them grimly. "The whole area is surrounded and there are more units on the way. Even if you steal a car and manage to get through the perimeter, you'll never outrun the helicopters."

"They promised to give Greg to me, the treacherous snakes!" Luna snarled at her. She turned to Greg and said earnestly, "Level me up! All the way! As the Dark Goddess, I could kill them all!"

"No!" Greg shouted. "No killing! I can't make you level up, anyway, no matter how useful it would be. That was a process on the original sim machine that…" Greg's words tapered off into thoughtful silence.

Gwen was thinking furiously also. The General hadn't told her anything about where Greg was being taken to. Maybe he had been on his way to California. "Greg," she began, "the marines might have been ordered to—"

"Shhhh!" Greg waved a silencing hand at her. "Thinking."

"But—"

This time it was Luna who silenced her. She turned an icy-blue glaze on the agent and her horn glowed threateningly. Gwen knew when to give up.

"Luna," Greg asked a few moments later, "how did you get here so quickly?"

"I used a sim patch on the computer for teleportation coordinates."

"Can you really teleport?" Greg asked in amazement. "Show me! jump to the other side of the room!"

Luna shook her head. "I need Equestrian coordinates for that. Here it's too… messy."

Greg cautiously peeked around the doorjamb into the public area of the store. The ornate mirror standing where the laptop had been explained a lot. He closed the door and began searching through the scattered boxes. He soon found a laptop, tore it out of its packaging, and plugged it into a wall socket. "I can access the game module remotely! If you can be digitized and transported so easily, it should be simple to rig a workable interface. Damn, I wish these batteries didn't come uncharged. I could carry this computer with us and use it to control your functions. Uh…" He glanced up at Luna. “With your permission, of course.”

“Of course.” Luna smiled at him.

Greg’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “This is all macro level stuff. I have no idea how your physical body was made or how you’re doing magic of all things, but I’m going on the assumption that the control routines are the same as in the sim. Yeah…” He paused to scrutinize readouts on the screen, and then nodded.

“Here’s your info block. I’m going to try to change your level. If it doesn’t work, we may need to have you enter and exit that mirror portal.”

“Then, these fools will regret—” Luna began.

“No! We’re not fighting them! I’ll bump you up to Nightmare Moon, and that will get you the speed bonus and invisibility spell. We’ll be out of here fast, and they won’t notice us go. If I can just get it to work…”

Author's Notes:

I just compared the first draft of this chapter to this one and realized why I need prereaders so badly. I am lucky to have such good ones as Jordanis, WrittenWord333, and Fana Farouche!

(No, really. My wife was looking over my shoulder as I typed out this note and asked me what I meant by "comnplaired.")