At the Royal Castle…

Princess Celestia was preparing herself for that evening. She knew, like her pupil Twilight Sparkle, that this night would be the one where Nightmare Moon would finally break free from her banishment on the moon.

Celestia had observed all the signs for weeks. She had been worried when the moon had reverted to its normal, faceless state. However, she was even more surprised when it came back only hours later. It simply didn't make any sense.

Why would Nightmare Moon break free of her prison and then return to it? She thought.

She had sent Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville only an hour ago. If her plan worked out, Twilight would make friends with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony and defeat Nightmare Moon. She felt a small amount of worry for her student, but she brushed it aside. Her plan could not fail. Luna would be with her once more.

She smiled at the thought of having her little sister back after so long.

At Ponyville…

"How much time do we have?" Cameron asked Mike as the trio walked around Ponyville.

"Hard to tell. I'm guessing a few hours before we should head out to the abandoned Castle. We still need to get snacks and stuff. It's going to be a long night." Mike answered.

"Do you think Twilight's here yet?" Jake asked.

"She probably is. It looks like the right time of day." Mike said. "On an unrelated note, if either of you have loose ends to tie up, now's the time."

"'Loose ends' meaning what exactly?" Cameron asked.

"Well, you know. A certain pony who lives in the outskirts of town." Mike said smugly.

"How do you know about that?" Cameron said, his face turning a light shade of red.

"Dude, you do realize that you talk in your sleep? You either talk about Fluttershy or some random Call of Duty crap." Jake said. Both Mike and Jake chuckled.

"By the way, who is that camper you always mutter about?" Jake asked.

"I'd rather not talk about that noobtube-using idiot." Cameron said.

"There's nothing wrong with the grenade launcher."

"There's everything wrong with the grenade launcher, Jake. Everything." Cameron said.

"Whatever. I'm going to find Rainbow Dash." Jake said.

"Remember to be at the apartment in the next hour." Mike said.

"Don't worry." Jake said as he flew off.

"I'll be back later, too. I'm gonna go see Fluttershy." Cameron said as he ran off.

"But I still need help with getting all the stuff!" Mike yelled after him.

"I'm sure you can handle it!" Cameron yelled back.

Mike let out a deep sigh. A half hour later, he had finally had a full supply of apples, soda pop, and cupcakes. He teleported all of the stuff to the apartment and headed over to the Town Square pavilion.

As he walked up to the building, he saw a purple unicorn walk out along with a small, purple and green dragon.

So she's already been here. All that's left for her to do is checkup on Fluttershy. We need to leave here soon.

Mike didn't have a whole lot of time left, so he hurried inside. He took notice that many ribbons and banners were flung around. There was a red curtain at the far end of the room where Rarity was. He walked up her.

"Hello, Miss Rarity." Mike said.

"Oh, thank goodness you're here! I need your opinion on which streamer I should use." Rarity said, levitating some ribbons. "Blue or purple?"

"I don't exactly have a sense of fashion." Mike answered.

"I just want your honest opinion." Rarity said.

"Blue."

After numerous questions on the decorum, Mike finally had to say goodbye. He walked out of the pavilion and teleported to the apartment. The other two were already there when he arrived.

"There he is, finally." Cameron said. "Sure took you long enough."

"I got side-tracked. You two ready?" Mike asked. They both nodded. "Alright, here we go."

Mike's horn glowed for an instant and the trio was gone.

At the Town Square Pavilion (four hours later)…

Princess Celestia waited in the balcony overlooking the main hall of the pavilion. She became anxious as the stars moved closer to the moon. She could imagine that her pupil was even more anxious, if not terrified.

In moments, the stars finally reached the moon, causing the face to vanish.

It is time. She thought.

"…to all of Equestria, Princess Celestia!"

She felt magic starting to envelop her. She tried fighting the teleportation spell, but the magic wouldn't let up. As the curtains began to open, Princess Celestia instantly found herself somewhere completely different. A stone wall stood tall behind her. She noticed there was a lot of foliage and trees through the gaping holes of the walls.

"Okay, got her." Said a voice, not too far away.

"See, that wasn't so hard." Said another voice.

"Easy for you to say. She put up a bit of a fight." Replied the first voice. She watched as a unicorn with a tan body and startling green eyes walk out into the open.

"Hello, Princess Celestia. I'm Mike and this is Jake and Cameron." He motioned to the two other ponies.

"Hey, I'm Cameron." Said the earth pony with the black mane and brown body.

"I'm Jake." Said the pegasus with ginger mane and light brown body.

"Sorry to pull you from the Celebration, but it needed to be done. As you can see, there is a force field around you." Mike said.

"Which means you're basically our prisoner." Cameron said with a smile.

"She's not really a prisoner, she's more like a… you know what, that's actually right." Jake said.

"Like I was saying, we will explain everything later. In the mean time, try to get comfortable. This is going to take awhile." Mike said as he walked off. "All right. Here goes phase two of the plan."

The unicorn's horn glowed for an instant and he began speaking.

At the Town Square Pavilion…

Twilight Sparkle was frightened. The princess was nowhere to be seen and the moon was now faceless. Even worse, a swirl of dark energy was swirling around the building.

"Oh no… Nightmare Moon!"

She saw Spike faint as he saw Nightmare Moon begin to appear. She didn't blame him.

"Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious, little sun-loving faces." Nightmare Moon said.

"What did you do with our Princess?" Rainbow Dash questioned as she bolted towards Nightmare.

"Whoa there, Nelly." Applejack said as she grabbed Rainbow Dash's tail with her teeth.

Nightmare chuckled. "Why? Am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"

Pinkie Pie must have thought of it as a legitimate question. "Ooh, ooh, more guessing games! Um, Hokey Smokes! How about... Queen Meanie! No! Black Snooty, Black Snooty-"

She was silenced quickly with a cupcake in her mouth.

"Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"I did. And I know who you are. You're the Mare in the Moon – Night Mare Moon!" Twilight spoke, her voice losing confidence.

"Well well well. Somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I'm here."

Twilight had lost almost the confidence I her voice. "You're here to... to..."

Nightmare Moon laughed once more. "Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!"

The dark energy began to swirl around her once more and she zipped out of the building.

At the Castle Ruins…

"Whew. Okay. Phase two is complete. Cameron, go and work out your part." Mike said.

"Gotcha." Cameron said as he ran out.

"What is going on? Are you minions of Nightmare Moon? Do you really think that your evil magic can keep me from saving my subjects?" Princess Celestia said as she attacked the force field containing her with her magic.

"First off, I don't think you'll be able to break through that barrier. If Cameron can't punch through it, nothing can." Mike said, looking rather amused. "Second, no. We are not minions of Nightmare Moon. We actually defeated her awhile ago."

"You think that you can beat the most powerful magic user in Equestria? Dude, I think you're overestimating yourself." Jake said.

"I'm seriously thinking about it." Mike said.

"You defeated Nightmare Moon? That's not possible, only the Elements of Harmony can do that." Princess Celestia said in disbelief.

Who are these ponies? How could they possibly have the power to defeat Nightmare Moon?

A thought suddenly popped into her head.

"Where is my sister, Luna?" she asked concerned.

"Don't worry she's right over there, sleeping. You'll be able to talk with her later. I still need to explain everything that's going on to you." Mike said impatiently.

"What do you mean?"

"Believe it or not, my friends and I aren't from here. We're not actually ponies. We were transported here two weeks ago. We're human."

"Human?" Princess Celestia asked.

Humans don't exist. They are convoluted creatures created by storytellers from long ago.

"Yes. Jake and I are what people back home would call 'Bronies" because we know all about you and Equestria. We know about Nightmare Moon, the Elements of Harmony, and the ponies who represent them."

"Our friend Cameron, however, is not." Jake piped up.

"As I was saying earlier, we were transported here against our will. About a week ago, we all found out that we had special powers here. Jake is able to do impossible things with his flying. Cameron is stronger than anypony here in Equestria and I can do impossible things with magic."

Wait. They all can do impossible things with magic, speed, and strength. Are they… no, they can't possibly be it.

"What exactly have you been doing while you have been here?" Celestia asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh nothing much. Destroying the Space-Time Continuum of your world. Normal stuff." Mike answered sarcastically.

"More seriously, we messed up how Nightmare Moon is defeated. That's why we kidnapped you. We're trying to recreate what should have happened."

In the Everfree Forest…

"Manticore. Manticore. Where would I find a manticore?" Cameron said as he walked around. Jake and Mike had told him that a manticore was part scorpion, part lion, and part bat. He didn't think one would be too hard to find.

Luckily he stumbled across one in a clearing, licking its paw. Cameron made sure he had the thorn Mike gave him and rushed towards the beast. Before it could react, Cameron jabbed the thorn hard into its paw.

The creature let loose an extremely loud scream of pain. It was about to smack Cameron with its paw, but Cameron dodged. For good measure, Cameron kicked the beast in the face, causing it even more pain and pissing it off even more.

Before the manticore could fight back, Cameron had already been teleported back to the castle ruins.

"Good work, Cam. We were watching the whole thing." Mike said.

"Wait, how?" Cameron asked.

Mike pointed to a wall. On the wall were over a dozen squares, each showing a different part of the Everfree Forest.

"Awesome. Do you know what this mean? It's kind of like watching TV!" Cameron said gleefully.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Jake said. "All we need is a couch."

"And snacks." Cameron added.

"Don't worry. I got apples, soda, cupcakes."

"I would do anything for a bag of beef jerky." Cameron said, his mouth watering.

"Ponies don't eat meat, idiot." Jake said as he sat down on the stone floor.

"I'm just glad that they have soda here. However, it tastes like crap." Cameron said, taking a cupcake from one of the boxes.

Princess Celestia watched in pure puzzlement. These ponies were definitely not from this world. Everything they said and did was strange. And yet, they seemed to know what they were doing.

"Mike, I need to tell you and your friends something." She said.

"What?"

"From what I can gather, you are telling the truth. You are not from here and there is very little that I can understand about you. However, there is something that I do know."

"Don't keep me in suspense." Cameron said, taking a bite from his cupcake.

"You three are gifted with special powers that are only mentioned about in legend. You three are the Heroes of Strength, Skill and Will." She said.

The trio looked at her for a moment and then Jake asked what they were all thinking.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

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