"Alright, Twilight. Toss up round two." Two clicks sounded as a new round worked it's way into the barrel of my homemade rifle. I'd been hard at work coordinating mining and production efforts for the past week, and I felt as though I deserved a few minutes off for target practice. Luckily, Celestia herself had volunteered to oversee the workforce while I took those minutes.

"Okay, here goes." A foam target rose up fifty yards away. I took aim, not bothering with the scope yet, held one breath, and squeezed.

Bang.

"Next target." An old hat whipped around eighty yards away. Still no point in using a scope. Hold breath, squeeze trigger.

Bang.

"Last target." This one had been set up by Rainbow Dash to test me, and could feel somepony else watching as I slid the scope off the rail and placed it beside me. A single bit leapt into the air from behind a hay bale two hundred yards away. My lungs emptied and all noise vanished into the back of my mind. The only things that existed were me and that coin. My finger tapped once on the trigger, then squeezed.

Bang.

A high-pitched clang like two pieces of metal striking together echoed across the field. "Cold range. I'll go check my shots." I set the rifle down on the hay bale I was using as a stand and walked up to the first target. No point here, I knew I'd hit a bullseye. The second target was a bit more interesting. I'd struck the knot that tied the ribbon to the brim of the hat, and the bullet had caught in it. I chuckled to myself as a blue streak touched down a hundred yards to my left. I placed the hat on my head and strolled over to the third target area, where a stunned Rainbow Dash had just flopped onto the ground.

"No way! Is there anything you can't do?" I reached down and grabbed the notably lighter coin off the dusty ground.

"I can't fly. You've still got me beat there." I pulled the string off the brim of my hat and broke it where the bullet had struck, threading it through the coin. "Here. In case I don't get to see you anymore after this is all over, you'll have something to remember me by." Her eyes bulged as she took the coin gingerly from my hand and hung it around her neck.

"What do you mean? Of course we'll still be able to see each other. We will, won't we?" She looked desperate for an affirmative answer. For some reason, seeing that look on her gave me an unpleasant feeling all over. I knelt down to her level and looked her straight in the eye.

"We will. I promise that no matter what happens, I will come back for you. You can count on seeing me again." I wasn't fooling her, but she at least tried. She nodded, clearly a bit choked up, and rose back into the clouds.

"She's never met anypony like you before. She's always assumed she'd never meet somepony who could keep up with her. Somepony who might make her feel like she isn't good enough for them. That's why she's fallen for you." I sighed with regret from hearing the truth spoken aloud.

"I can relate. That's why I promised her I'd come back."

"I'm back, Milady. I can take it from here." She looked down at me like a mother looks at a toddler who claims full energy at bedtime.

"Don, you've been awake for almost two days now. Have you even met my sister yet?" I blinked in a very cartoonistic fashion. "I didn't think so. Trust me, you'll love sleeping around here. I've looked over the construction plans a dozen times. Get some rest. If you insist on sticking to your strategy, you'll need it." It probably didn't help my case that my eyes had begun to drift closed the second I'd left the range.

"Are you sure?" I didn't stick around long enough to hear her answer. The last thing I felt was a pillow of magic catch me before my eyes closed involuntarily. Unfortunately, I did dream. Fortunately, somepony was there to fix my usual nightmare right up. Her voice rang through my head like a church bell.

"Hello, Don. I've heard a lot about you." My body was considerably slower in a dream, but I didn't have to turn far to see her. She was like an image negative of Celestia, with a tone that indicated she was more of a friend than a mother.

"I take it you're Princess Luna." She nodded, a slight grin spreading across her face.

"I can see why Rainbow Dash has spent so much time dreaming about you. You are quite the specimen." She gave me a once over, her face displaying only the slightest signs of what looked like a hybrid between curiosity and greed. I wasn't sure how to respond here. Luckily she kept talking. "But enough about my own opinions. I've never been inside a human dream before, and I'm eager to see what I can do in here." I wasn't looking forward to whatever I was going to dream about, mostly because I knew it wouldn't be pleasant. "Now, let's begin." Suddenly the entire surrounding area was a forest. I recognized it from my childhood. I also recognized this dream, and I berated myself for bringing a princess here.

"Luna, you should probably get down." She realized what I was talking about too late and I was forced to dive across the clearing and catch a rock inches from her face. I picked myself back up and tossed it to the side.

"What was that?" She sounded mildly shocked.

"That would be Jason Marcona. He made it a point to make sure I never made it to school without three new bruises each day." She pursed her lips with disapproval.

"Did you ever try to stop him?" I chuckled under my breath.

"I did more than try. He didn't last longer than a week after I hit my first growth spurt. But he's not the problem any more. Come on." I turned and gestured to a pit in the dirt twenty feet away. "We're about to go to the next phase of the dream. If I remember correctly there should be a sidearm in here." I dove into the dirt and dug out a Sig Sauer P270 handgun. "Now, if you could please just stay down here for a few seconds, Princess, I'm going to clear the area right quick." I stood straight up and fired off four rounds to the west.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. "Now comes the bad part." A terrible screaming started up from where I had fired. "I hate this, but if I make it through I'll wake up." I could barely hear myself over it now. My eyes shut and I sunk into a blank state where nothing affected me. At least not until everything stopped. My eyes cracked open and there was nothing again. "What did you do?" She took a breath and looked over to me.

"I took you somewhere you might actually want to be." I looked around and saw that I was in an old timey hospital. "You might wish to understand a few things about the ponies you're going to be starting a war for." I stared through a pane of glass and my exact location finally came to me. I was in a maternity ward. In dozens of little beds sat multicolored baby ponies. I had never seen anything so adorable in my entire life. I was definitely going to have to shoot something after this, but for now I was happy just watching them.

"Do I know them?" Luna gestured to a few beds in the corner.

"You know a few of them." I saw a bright orange filly with a yellow mane draping along her head.

"That's Applejack! She was born here in Ponyville, wasn't she?" I took a look around, looking for her parents. I could see her big brother sitting on a bench across from the ward. "Luna, what happened to Applejack's parents? I know they're still around. She has a baby sister." She shook her head.

"Strangely enough, the mystery of Applejack's parentage is universal. Her grandmother refuses to speak of them, and it is against my code to force somepony to reveal their own secrets to me in a dream." I paused for a second, thankful that Luna didn't know about my own parents. That would make for a terrible dream session if ever I'd seen one. I was torn from my thoughts by a strange flash of color out of the corner of my eye.

"Is that...Is that Rainbow Dash?" It had to have been. Nopony else in Equestria could have had a mane like that. Every color of the rainbow on one filly.

"Yes it is, Don. Unfortunately, her parents are considerably less of a mystery." I turned to the Alicorn.

"How so?" She sighed, obviously burdened by the news.

"Rainbow Dash's father passed away a month before she was born from a work related incident. Rainbows are much more dangerous to manufacture than one might think. Her mother gave her own life for that of Rainbow Dash. She grew up a ward of the town." I shook my head in disbelief.

"No way. She has a little sister too." Luna shook her head right back.

"Have you not wondered why the younger sister of the greatest flyer in Equestria would be incapable of any flight at all? Scootaloo believes herself to be the biological sister of Rainbow Dash, and Dash herself has become so attached to Scootaloo that they might as well be sisters, but they are not." I took a moment to absorb this piece of information.

"So she spent her life as an orphan too." Luna raised an eyebrow.

"Too? Who else do you know of that had such a life?" Well, there was my brilliant mouth again.

"I did. My parents went in a notably less peaceful fashion than hers, but I spent my entire childhood after the age of eight roaming on my own." Luna smiled, though her eyes were filled with pity.

"There is a reason Rainbow Dash has attached to you so quickly. You are the only person who has ever understood her perfectly. With no parents to have ever cared for her, all she needs is affection. She believes that she can get that by becoming famous and allowing her fans to shower her with praise, but in the back of her mind she knows that to be a lie. Don, if you do nothing else, you must show Rainbow Dash that you will always be there for her. You cannot lose this battle." I opened my mouth to answer, but everything began swirling away like water down a commode. I jerked straight up off of my straw bed and grabbed at the closest thing to me. Unfortunately, that happened to be the neck of Twilight Sparkle. I realized my mistake and brought the hand down quickly, not meeting her eyes.

"They're here. A man named General Morrison wants to speak with you." I took a deep breath.

"Alright. Get everypony ready. Phase Two starts as soon as I leave town."