“What the hell did you do?” Jake scolded Mike.

“I told you! I have no idea! Holy crap, this is bad.” Mike said.

“Will someone please enlighten me?” Cameron said, annoyed at the fact that he had no idea what was really going on.

“This here is Princess Luna, Celestia’s sister. She was actually Nightmare Moon but got turned back into herself after the second episode of the TV show.” Mike explained.

“Okay, I think I get it but I’m still not seeing the problem.” Cameron said impatiently.

“I was getting to that. She’s supposed to be turned back into herself by the main characters on the show, meaning Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and so on.” Mike continued.

“And this is a problem because Mike was stupid enough to change the entire storyline of the show. The Mane Six won’t become friends, which means basically everything in this world will change.” Jake said.

“In short, we messed up.” Mike said.

“Correction. You messed up.” Jake said.

“Hey, I could’ve died! Sorry for trying to protect myself!” Mike exclaimed.

“You were the one who got us spotted! This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t thrown a freaking rock down the stairs for the fun of it!” Jake retorted.

“Well, I-“ Mike started. He was interrupted by the sound of Luna’s groaning.

“Crap, she’s waking up!” Jake whispered. He saw Mike’s horn glow and watched as Luna fell back to sleep.

“There has to be a way out of this mess.” Cameron said.

The three laid down, exhausted. Jake felt a throbbing pain in his wings. Cameron’s front legs hurt from all of his kicks.

Mike’s head hung low, but an idea made him grin.

“Got it!” He exclaimed.

“That was fast.” Jake said.

“Here’s my idea: We already know what happens in the episode, so why don’t we just recreate it?”

“How are we going to recreate it? Nightmare is long gone.”

“I could make an illusion of her or something! I can make it look like she’s there, but she really isn’t.”

“Care to demonstrate?” Cameron asked.

Mike’s horn glowed once more and in a few moments, there was a full sized Nightmare Moon standing beside Mike.

“See? I can do it.” Jake heard Mike say, however, he heard Nightmare speak the same thing.

“You can make her speak too! This might actually work.” Jake said.

The illusion of Nightmare disappeared.

“The plan is going to be complicated. Cam, this means that you have to pay attention. No dozing off while I’m talking.” Mike said sternly.

“Fine, you have my full attention.” Cameron said.

“The first thing we have to do is make sure that the moon still has the face on it.” Mike said as he looked up into the dark night sky.

“Yep, it’s gone.”

“Can you fix it?” Jake asked.

“I think so. Hold on.” Mike said as he concentrated once more. Sure enough, the moon was once again had a face. “There we go.”

“Awesome.”

“Alright, here’s the next thing we need to do. In the episode, the Mane Six had to go through some tests or whatever so that they could get to this castle and find the Elements of Harmony. As they completed the trials, Twilight was able to figure out what element each pony represented. This means we need to recreate the tests.”

“We’ll plan that when we get to the apartment. Right now, we need to focus on the unconscious Luna we have right here. What exactly are we gonna do with her?” Jake asked.

“I’ll keep her sleeping in our apartment until the Mane Six “defeat” my illusion of Nightmare Moon. Then I’ll just teleport her here and let her wake up.” Mike explained.

“Is that it?” Jake asked.

“That’s all that we really need to do. The trials are probably going to be the hardest part. Lets head back to the apartment.” Mike answered.

“Wait. When is the celebration anyway?” Cameron asked.

“Idiot, I told you a couple days ago, remember?” Jake said.

“Nope. Wasn’t really paying attention.”

“You are going to be the death of me, Cam. It’s in six days. Do you understand? Six days. Repeat after me: six days.” Jake said in a mocking tone.

“Shut up. I get it.” Cameron said.

“Can we just head back? I’m exhausted from that magic I used.” Mike said.

“Fine.” Jake and Cameron said in unison. Mike’s horn glowed and the trio and Luna vanished from the castle.

The next morning…

Rainbow had to admit, she couldn’t stop thinking about Agile. She was amazed at how much they were alike, even more so at his speed and talent for flying. On the previous day, she had arrived at his apartment to say hi, but he wasn’t there. Nor were his friends, Facade and Keen. She had taken a cloud over to the apartment and laid waiting for his return. She could tell after an hour that he wouldn’t be back for some time, so she took a nap. When she awoke, it was already morning.

“Hey! Down here!” said a familiar voice. Rainbow smiled as she realized it was Agile. She peered down from her cloud. Agile smiled. “I need to talk to you! You mind coming down?”

Dash had to struggle to make sure she didn’t look too excited.

“Sure.” She said, trying to sound casual. She landed close to him.

She looks exceptionally cute today. He thought to himself.

“What I wanted to say was that we haven’t had a real… date for last few days, so I was wondering if… you would… allow me to take you on another?” Agile said nervously.

Rainbow almost burst into a wave of “Ohmygosh”, but managed to keep her composure.

“Sure. What did you have in mind?” She asked.

“Can’t tell you, it’s a surprise. I’ll be back soon.” He replied.

Rainbow Dash waited until Agile was out of sight. She then proceeded to unleash a long wave of “Ohmygosh”.

Meanwhile…

Rarity woke with a start. She had been working on her latest dress designs all night, the third time that week. Just as she was getting ready to brush her mane back into its normal styling, somepony knocked on the door to her boutique.

“Yes? Who is it?” she inquired.

“It’s Keen, Miss Rarity. I need to talk to you if you don’t mind.” said Keen.

“One second darling!” Rarity said quickly. She couldn’t let anypony see her with bed head.

After a long ten minutes, Keen was finally let inside.

“What was it you wanted to ask me, Keen?” Rarity said as she closed the door behind Keen.

“I was wondering, if you wanted to, we could have dinner somewhere after work today. Perhaps I could make dinner.”

“Why, I would be delighted to.” Rarity’s face lit up. She really wasn’t expecting this from somepony she had hired only a day prior. However, she wanted to get to know Keen better.

Also, he was quite handsome.

“That’s great. Now, what will you have me do today?” Keen said smoothly.

Outskirts of Ponyville…

Cameron was surprised. No, he was astounded at what his friends were doing. When they had arrived home late the night before, Jake had randomly said that if he was thinking about asking Rainbow Dash on another date. Mike had proceeded to tell Jake that he was better at romance than Jake. After a heated argument that lasted a full minute and an awkward silence, Mike said that he was thinking about asking out somepony called Rarity.

Cameron could not get over how weird the two of them were being. After all, they were talking about dating ponies. It just sounded… strange.

Cameron kept thinking about the plan Mike had come up with. Apparently, each one of them would have to be in charge of two tests. One for each pony. Six total. Jake had made sure Cameron remembered.

He was in charge of Pinkie Pie and another called Fluttershy. He was supposed to get to know Fluttershy, for whatever reason. He personally thought he was tasked with this so that he would be out of both Jake and Mike’s hair.

He approached a cottage with all kinds of animals wandering about. The roof of the cottage was made entirely of grass.
Bird houses were situated at every point possible.

Maybe she’s some kind of hippie pony. Cameron thought to himself.

He knocked on the door twice. It opened a tiny bit and Cameron heard a voice so soft it was barely audible.

“Hello?” said the voice. Cameron was surprised that the pony spoke so softly. He could tell already that the Fluttershy was… well, shy.

I should probably try to speak softly to her. Just so I don’t scare her.

“Hello. Are you Fluttershy?” Cameron said as quietly as he could.

“Yes. May I help you with something?” she replied as she opened the door more. Cameron could now see what the pony looked like. She had a pink mane and was yellow. He eyes looked sad, but also relaxed. They were blue, almost as if one were staring at the sky. Her cutie mark was three pink butterflies, probably meaning she was good with animals.
Cameron felt that only one thing fit what he thought of her: Cuteness Overload.

Right then and there, he wanted to hug the pony. However, that wouldn’t be appropriate or wise. Cameron tried to regain his composure.

“My name is Facade. I was wondering if I could talk to you about your animals. May I come inside, please?” he asked politely.
Fluttershy was surprised to see somepony, to say the least. She hadn’t had any real visitors to her cottage in a very long time. She looked at Facade. He was a bit taller than her, and looked tough. However, he didn’t look mean or scary at all. He actually seemed to radiate kindness. She felt her shyness go away a little.

“Yes, please come in.” she said.

In Cloudsdale…

After many long hours of trying to find where the Wonderbolts’ were located, Jake found them at the empty stadium, practicing.

After two more maneuvers, the group decided to take a break. Jake walked casually up to the captain, Spitfire, a yellow pony with an orange mane.

“Hello, Spitfire. I was wondering if you and the Wonderbolts could help me out with something.” Jake asked.

“Um, I’m sorry. Do I know you?” Spitfire asked back.

“My name’s Agile.” Jake answered.

“Well, Agile, why should we help you with something? We are busy preparing a new stunt for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
Piped up another mare with a white colored mane.

“Fleetfoot’s right. We are pretty busy.” Said another blue colored pony. Jake recognized him to be Soarin’.

“Look, I know you’re all busy, but I really need you to meet this one mare.” Jake said.

“You know what, I’ll give you a chance. If you beat me in a race, we’ll all go down and meat your marefriend.” Spitfire said.

“You have to be kidding! You’re the fastest out of all of us, Spitfire. He has no chance.” Said Soarin’.

“That’s my only offer.” Spitfire said, looking back at Jake.

“Fine. Prepare to lose.” Jake said.

“You’re pretty smug.” Spitfire said with a smile.

The entire group headed for a nearby racing area. The two stood at the starting line.

“On the count of three! One… two… three!” counted Fleetfoot.

From the start, Jake was already winning. In a matter of seconds he was already twice as far as Spitfire was.

Just for fun, Jake decided to perform a sonic boom. Unlike the other times, this one would be performed horizontally. From what he could tell, it was much harder than flying vertically. Without the gravity to help him gain speed, he would have to fly at supersonic speed by himself.

He did so with relative ease.

In no more than a few seconds, he was already past the finish line. It took him a second to stop moving. He flew back to the finishing line and saw all the Wonderbolts’ mouths agape. In a few seconds, Spitfire arrived at the finish line.

“I’ll see you all later six o’ clock tonight. Please don’t be late.” Jake said as he flew back to Ponyville.

Soarin’ said what everypony was thinking:

“Who is that Pegasus?”

Next Chapter: Expedition Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 51 Minutes