Frosting. That was all he could see. Pure, colourful, sugary frosting. And the cake, oh sweet Precursors why was there so much cake? Where in the Wasteland had that portal dumped him this time? And more importantly, WHY DID IT DROP HIM ON A GIANT CAKE?

Grumbling and wiping the frosting (and cake) from his eyes, Jak slowly made his way to his feet. He instinctively raised his Blaster, assuming that he probably ticked someone or something off after crashing into the middle of a room randomly. Shaking the stars from his vision, Jak opened his eyes and came face-to-face, or in this case face-to-muzzle, with an incredibly shocked looking cyan-blue pony with a rainbow mane. Both froze when Jak’s blue eyes met the pony’s magenta orbs.

What the pony saw was a very shocked…thing with a blonde mane, a little frosting here and there, looking at her as if she was the alien. Where does this guy get off? He crashes into the middle of the Grand Bucking Galloping Gala, ruins the cake she was about to sample, gets frosting in her best dress (not that she cares about that kind of thing), and looks at her like she’s the freak show in the room? In short, Rainbow Dash was not amused.

What Jak saw was an incredibly shocked miniature horse-thing with a rainbow mane a pair of wings that looked too small to be useful for flight (although he was not one to judge with his eco-bat wings). Wait…Wings?! This was impossible on so many levels. First off, horses died out a long time ago, let alone winged horses. Secondly, Jak was pretty sure that horses did NOT come with rainbow tai-dye style manes. Thirdly, Jak was again pretty damn sure horses did NOT wear dresses. Well, whatever this thing was, it certainly was not happy with Jak. She glared at him, and he glared right back.

Jak jumped back a few feet and surveyed the rest of the ballroom. From what Jak could tell, the room was literally full of these miniature impossibilities. Ponies that came up to about his chest in terms of size of all colours were running (galloping?) around frantically, most likely due to his sudden intrusion on whatever it was they were doing. There were some that had wings, others that had horns, and then there were just average looking ponies.

“Guards! Surround and capture the intruder!”

The regal voice broke Jak from his stupor and brought his attention back to the situation at hand. Here he was, in a strange place, filled with strange creatures, and he had his Morph Gun drawn. He looked to the source of the voice and found that its owner was significantly different from the other ponies around him. This one looked more like a full size horse with a pure white coat, and judging by the voice was female. Unlike the other ponies running around him, she had both a horn and wings, a multi-coloured mane that seemed to be blowing in a non-existent wind, and a golden crown and other royal regalia. Most likely the reigning royalty. Great. Jak had so much great experience with royalty before (like the time he made it his life’s mission to kill the ruler of Haven City, Baron Praxis, and the other time Damas, King of Spargus City [and his father] sent him to the Gladiator’s Ring for mortal combat) that this was assuredly going to end badly.

Next to her were two comparably smaller winged-horned-horses. The one on her left had a midnight blue coat with a dark blue flowing mane and looked almost frightened by Jak’s appearance. The one on her right was pink in colour without a flowing mane. Interesting, Jak thought, wonder if that makes her not as important as the other two? Before he had a chance to contemplate things any further the clinking of armour caught his attention. He realized a number of things at once:

One: he was probably the strange alien creature in this situation.

Two: he literally crashed some kind of party or something.

Three: he still had his weapon drawn.

Four: he probably looked incredibly threatening.

Five: he was slowly being surrounded by what he assumed to be the palace guards.

Six: he was most likely going to have to fight his way out of this.

Seven: the only ways out were a door at the far end of the hall and one of the several windows (hopefully it was not a long way down).

Eight: that rainbow-maned pony was STILL glaring daggers at him. Geez, what’s her problem?

“Seize him!” shouted a male horned-pony with a white coat, blue mane, and donned in ridiculously heavy looking purple plate armour as he descended the stairs.

The guards that had surrounded him charged. A very familiar scene that had haunted Jak’s dreams resurfaced to the forefront of his memory. He was helpless, he was caught off-guard in a strange world, a bunch of strangers donned in red armour with Taser-Guns surrounded him and beat him before dragging him off to a two-year long stay in the Baron’s Fortress. He could almost hear Daxter's voice as he screamed "Don't worry Jak! I'll get you out before you know it!"

No. Not again.

As the first guard, an earth pony, reached him Jak instinctively spun around sticking his right leg out in his signature spin-kick attack. Jak’s armoured shin made direct contact with the side of the pony’s head and sent him flying. Luckily, another table broke his fall. A pair of armoured pegasi attacked, one from the air and the other close to the ground. Jak dashed forward, fist extended, and punched the first pegasi guard square in the jaw. Using the momentum from his charge attack, Jak jumped up to uppercut the pegasus’ airborne companion. In a matter of seconds three of the royal guards lay in unconscious heaps across the ballroom floor. As several other guards began to close in around him Jak raised his Blaster and shot at the ground around their hooves. The guards halted their advance in fear of the strange weapon being held by the even stranger creature.

Jak held his Blaster high, ready to fire at the next guard to attack. Neither the guards, the ponies in the room, nor Jak dared to move a muscle. The silence and tension in the room reached an almost unbearable level until a blast of magic streaked across the room and knocked Jak’s weapon out of his hands. His Blaster skated across the ballroom floor, far out of Jak’s reach. He turned and found that the source of the magical blast came from the same white-coated pony in purple plate armour. Jak looked with wide eyes as the horn on the pony’s head glowed in a mulberry hue. So the ones with horns can fire bolts of energy huh? Things are about to get exciting around here.

“Captain! What shall we do with this creature?” a guard to the armoured pony’s left asks.

“Hold positions lieutenant,” the pony captain replies. He turns once again to face Jak, “Surrender yourself,” the armoured white unicorn says calmly, “we have you surrounded and you are unarmed. Make things easier for yourself and give up. Do so and no harm shall come to you,” he explains in a slow, almost demeaning way.

So the little pony captain thinks he’s won already? Plus, he thinks I’m just some wild animal. Boy is he going to be in for one hell of a surprise, Jak mused to himself.

“Like bucking hell! This…this THING crashes the party, ruins my awesome dress, not to mention the whole Gala, and you’re just going to let him get away with it?! No way! This thing’s gonna pay or my name isn’t Rainbow Dash!” the rainbow-maned pony shouted as she turned to face the captain of the guards.

“Rainbow Dash, as one of Twily’s friends I’m going to ask you this one time to stand down and let the Royal Guard deal with this situation. Otherwise I’m afraid some of the troops will have no choice but to escort you out,” Shining replied, never taking his eyes off of the armoured figure. “Now stand aside so we can bring this creature in.”

As the scene played out before her, Princess Luna could only watch in shock and in fear as the strange creature deposited into the ballroom stared down her sister’s elite guards and Prince Shining Armor.

This is…this is impossible. That mane, the armour, and those eyes. It’s the same creature from my nightmares. Why is he here? What manner of sorcery is this? Why has this demon been brought into our peaceful world?

Luna involuntarily shivered as the nightmares that had plagued her dreams of late bubbled to the surface, and instinctively took a step back away from the creature that she knew could easily bring doom to all of Equestria. She had seen in her nightmares what this creature was capable. She had seen what dark powers of destruction and death it possessed, and she knew that if it desired too, it could make short work of her sister’s guards and possibly Shining Armor as well.

She thought that after a year of her liberation from the control of Nightmare Moon, she would be free of the darkness that once invaded her sleep. However, despite her restoration to her true self by the Elements of Harmony Luna still found that her sleep was constantly invaded by the familiar presence of Nightmare Moon. She knew that she ought to tell her sister, but every time she attempted to bring up the subject she stopped herself out of fear.

What if Celestia finds within me a remnant of Nightmare Moon? If the Elements of Harmony could not fully purify my soul, then what choice will Celestia have? What is to become of me if the darkness that still haunts my soul is discovered?

And now, before her, another figure that had recently been added to her nightmares had found its way into Equestria, into the ballroom where Luna was currently sitting and, until recently, enjoying the Grand Galloping Gala with her sister and new friends. Something was different about him though. In her dreams, this creature had always morphed into a demon with pale white skin and eyes as black as the midnight sea. In her dreams, this creature was ruthless. Now though, it appeared to be acting in self-defence. Regardless, she knew this thing was a threat. She knew of the dark powers it possessed. And she knew it must either be captured or destroyed. Yet she could not bring herself to move out of the fear her nightmares had over her. Her blood had turned to ice and her legs and wings felt like lead. All she could do was watch with horrid fascination the events that were about to unfold.

‘Rainbow Dash’…well that’s…fitting I guess. Without turning his head, Jak looked around the room to appraise the escalated situation. Four guards, plus their captain, plus a certain aggravated rainbow-maned winged-pony were still staring him down and slowly advancing on him. He spotted his Morph Gun towards the far left end of the room. The doors leading out of ballroom hall were apparently sealed at some point during his little scrimmage with the guards.

I could always go Dark Jak…I have more than enough eco to level this ballroom and all of the guards in it. No. Too many of these bystanders would be killed in the process. Besides, I guess there’s no real point in making things even worse by killing these guys. I’ve caused enough trouble as-is. His eyes turned to one of the many windows covering the wall. Hope it’s not a long way down. Time to bail.

“I’m going to ask you one last time, creature. Stand down, surrender yourself, and I swear no harm will come to you.”

“Sorry, ponyboy, but you’ll have to catch me first,” Jak spoke with an evil grin. All of the guards and ponies around him froze for a moment, surprised by his sudden capabilities of speech.

Just as Shining Armor regained his wits and charged his horn for a freezing spell, Jak sprung to the right and started running across the ballroom. Shining and the two other unicorn guards loosed their spells, only for Jak to dodge the first two in a forward roll and the other by using the momentum from the roll to vault forwards into the air.

Jak’s blood was pumping in his ears as he narrowly dodged the magical blasts. Years of combat experience kept him focused, his senses keen as he took in every detail of the intensifying battle around him. Jak, in his roll-jump, leaped over another horned-pony (unicorn?) with an alabaster mane and styled purple mane with a look of fear plastered over her face.

Jak landed in a kneeling position just behind said unicorn, and immediately rolled to the side to evade another mulberry bolt. As Jak got back to his feet to continue his sprint to the window, he noticed that the latest magical bolt came from a different unicorn. This one, unlike the guards and captain he’d dealt with so far, had a lavender coat and navy-blue mane and tail with a bright pink highlight going through both. She galloped ahead towards Jak with another orange plain-pony with an orange coat, blonde mane, and…is that a cowboy hat? The two were followed closely by another wingless, hornless pony with a bubblegum pink coat and curly pink mane and tail who was for whatever reason smiling like she just won the lottery.

A look to the right confirmed that the Royal Guard (with one still angry sky-blue pony) had mobilized to try and cut Jak off from the only obvious exit in the room. Little did they know that Jak had absolutely no intention of walking out the front door.

Magical blasts erupted around him as Jak rolled forward and picked up his Morph Gun, still with the Blaster mod attached. One of the winged-pony guards had caught up to him. As the pony descended on Jak, he spun around and kicked the pony out of the air and into another incoming unicorn guard. Using the force from his spin-kick, Jak took aim and unleashed a volley of bullets at the chains holding several of the hanging chandeliers in the ballroom. Three formerly-intricately designed gem-encrusted chandeliers came crashing to the floor, halting the advance of the charging ponies.

Jak heard a small whimper from behind him and turned his head momentarily to see a butterscotch-yellow winged-pony with a bright pink mane attempting to hide behind a set of curtains. Jak paused in confusion at the frightened pony. It looks…so frightened. It’s scared for its life. It’s moments like these that make me hate my job.

The clacking of hooves on the marbled floor snapped him back to reality. The guards, the captain, and the four other advancing ponies (they look female, I guess that would make them mares?) had surrounded him with his back to a window.

Jak removed the Blaster mod from his Morph Gun and it became his original Scatter Gun. A short-range burst weapon, the Scatter Gun would not normally be ideal for a situation such as this, but for what Jak had in mind, it would be all he’d need.

Shining Armor regarded the creature before him once more and sighed with an air that rivaled boredom. “So now we’re back to square one. We have you surrounded, you have your weapon, and unless you can fly it looks like you’re sunk. You realize that you’re just making things worse for yourself, don’t you? Now why don’t you stop before somepony here gets hurt?”

He does have a point, Jak thought to himself as he stared the stallion down, I don’t have nearly enough white eco to fly away. I shouldn’t need to though.

…

Man I really, really hope this ballroom isn’t too far up.

“Not likely pal.” With each word, Jak took another step backwards until he was almost literally pressed up against the window. Light of the full moon flooding in through the window, Jak turned and fired.

The window shattered almost instantaneously. Ponies, princesses, and guards alike looked onwards slack-jawed as the strange creature destroyed a window and proceeded to leap out into the night sky.

“Oh no you don’t you…whatever you are!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she took to the sky and pursued the creature responsible for ruining her night with her friends that she had been looking forward to all year!

As Shining Armor was about to order a pursuit team of his own, he was halted by the voice of aunt-in-law, Princess Celestia.

The Princess of the Sun calmly approached the window where the stranger had escaped and regarded it and the night sky with cool contemplation.

“Shining Armor,” Celestia began, never taking her eyes off of the horizon, “I believe the best course of action would be to cast your shielding spell immediately. Whatever or whoever this stranger is, we know that he is dangerous, a capable fighter, and very slippery. We must not allow him to leave Canterlot.”

“Princess!” the same purple unicorn mare shouted as she finished the distance to the window to stand next to her beloved mentor, “What should we do about this…stranger?”

“Calm yourself, my faithful student. Your brother will cast the same shielding spell used when Canterlot was under threat of a Changeling invasion. Nopony will get in, and nopony will get out until this new threat is apprehended,” Celestia explained evenly.

“Should we gather the Elements of Harmony? And what about Rainbow Dash? She just took off after that thing! She could get hurt, or worse!” With every question and statement, Twilight’s panic levels continued to rise to an almost fevered pitch.

“I am confident that Rainbow Dash will return from this unscathed. If this creature wanted to hurt anypony seriously, then he would have done so already. I see no reason for him to harm Rainbow Dash. But, as a precaution, I want every pegasi guard to take to the skies and search for both this creature and Rainbow Dash. Is that understood lieutenant?”

“Yes, ma’am!” The pegasus lieutenant saluted and took off, barking orders to mobilize the Equestrian Air Force and Wonderbolts to scour the city.

Shining Armor centered his focus and concentrated on building up the power necessary for a city-wide barrier spell. Eyes shut in determination, his wife, Princess Cadance, approached from behind to wrap a comforting wing around her husband’s back. Feeling the familiar warmth around him, Shining smiled as he released his spell, sending a pink beam of magic into Canterlot airspace. Once it reached sufficient height, the beam expanded to create a large magical dome around the entire capital city of Canterlot.

There, Shining thought, exhaustion spreading throughout his body as the spell took its toll, let’s see him get out of this one.

Damn, the ballroom was a little higher up than I hoped it would be, was the first thought that crossed Jak’s mind as he plummeted towards the cobbled streets of the city below him. The ballroom was situated up in some kind of palace, constructed a fair deal above the rest of the city. And now, Jak was freefalling and about to be well acquainted with the alien ground (sooo tempted to use the “FlapJak” pun again here, but I won’t, because I’m a good person).

The next thing Jak noticed was a rainbow blur out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head, surprised to find that the same winged-pony had decided to chase after him.

“No way are you getting away from me freak-show!” She shouted as she narrowed the gap between the two.

Wow, she really doesn’t let things go very easily now does she?

“Alright then! Want to play? Then let’s go!” Jak shouted as he sheathed his Morph Gun and dislodged the bronze disk strapped to his back. With the flick of his wrist, Jak threw the disk down towards the ground.

Rainbow Dash watched wide-eyed as the disk began to expand to twice its previous size and hum as it came to life. A strange, blue energy began to glow along lines in the strange device, and what looked like a metallic fan began to spin on the disk’s bottom side.

As his Hover Board took its full form, Jak somersaulted in midair before landing on his favourite mode of travel (aside from his Sand Shark, which, as you remember, was left behind in a smoldering wreck by a certain unconscious ottsel). Adjusting his weight, Jak angled the Hover Board so that it was aligned with the angled cliff wall behind him.

Instead of freefalling, Jak was now riding down the side of the Canterlot mountain slope into the city below, his speed increasing with every passing second. As Jak neared the city below, he noticed a bridge connecting the palace to the rest of the city with large cables used for support that looked perfect to help him ditch this persistent pony.

“Hah! That all you got? You’re gonna have to do better if you want to ditch the fastest pegasus in Equestria!”

Oh, so the winged ones are called pegasuses? Or would it be pegasi? Whatever. Why didn’t I think of that?

“You want a race there? Alright pegasus, you’re on!” Jak shouted behind him as he veered to the right towards the bridge. Feet firmly planted on his Hover Board, Jak jumped onto one of the cables and grinded down the last stretch to the city. As he neared the end of the line, he jumped, spun his Hover Board beneath him, and landed with an even bigger speed boost.

I’ve got a hunch that this pegasus likes to show off. If that’s the case I don’t see the harm in showing her what I can do.

Jak veered through the city streets of Canterlot with Rainbow Dash never too far behind. Luckily for them, it was the middle of the night and most ponies were asleep in their beds, leaving the streets empty and leaving lots of room for Jak to attempt to out-maneuver the pursuing pegasus. Jak performed a number of tricks, jumps, and spins as he zig-zagged through the empty streets, backtracking, and getting increasingly lost as he tried to ditch Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash, of course, would have none of that, and kept up with the weird creature with the even weirder (albeit awesome) floating gizmo.

Eventually, Jak saw what he guessed was the edge of the city.

Time to get the hell out of dodge.

He made a beeline for the city perimeter, only to gawk as a mulberry-pink beam of energy shot into the night sky and formed into a similarly coloured dome that covered the entire city.

Well that’s just prime. Now what? Jak scanned the area around him and noticed a manhole cover (ponywhole cover?) down an alleyway. Perfect. Why do I always end up running around the sewers no matter where I go like some kind of rat?

Jak made a sharp turn and zoomed down the alley towards the sewer entrance. As he crossed over the ponywhole cover, he hit a switch on his Hover Board emitting a small shockwave that knocked the cover loose.

Rainbow Dash failed to notice this from the air as she continued her relentless pursuit. When Jak reached the end of the alley way, he made one last sharp turn to the left before kicking his Hover Board up where it compacted to its original shape. Jak caught it in midair before concentrating on making himself invisible, literally. He felt the dark energy course through his veins as the dark eco in his body did its work and Jak became invisible.

Can’t keep this up for long, gotta move fast.

Rainbow Dash, bewildered by the sudden disappearance of her quarry, failed to neither see nor hear a ponywhole cover behind her in the alleyway slide closed.

As he descended into the dark, murky, stinking sewer system of Canterlot, Jak released his invisibility (although in this darkness it made little difference). After a few hours of aimless wandering through the complex sewer labyrinth, Jak happened upon the entrance to a series of crystal caves buried deep underneath Canterlot. The crystals emitted some sort of light, not unlike the eco crystals of Jak’s homeworld.

Well, this is better than nothing and definitely better than that sewer.

Jak slumped against the cave wall exhausted, beaten, and very homesick.

“Okay, so far I’ve succeeded in getting shot at, blown up, chased by a giant Metal-Pede, ravaged in a sandstorm, sucked into a strange portal into an even stranger world, pissing off the local population, falling out of a palace built into the side of a mountain, chased through the city streets, trapped, and now stuck in some crystal cave connected to the city sewers.”

…

“And this time I don’t even have Dax with me…”

Jak had never felt so alone, so marginalized. Before, no matter how bad the situation was, he at least always had Daxter by his side. Despite his constant wining and stupid bravado, Daxter was Jak’s best friend. And now here Jak was, in a strange world with no way out, and now he was truly alone.

This was Jak’s last thought as an uneasy sleep finally took him into its bittersweet embrace.