Mercy
The smell of death filled the morning air as the sun rose over the horizon. Corpses... thousands of rotten corpses of Ponies littered the blood soaked grassy field outside the fortress. Left to slowly decompose and be eaten by maggots.
Inside the fortress, you would think the defenders would be overconfident from seeing the masses of dead Ponies. But the reality was they were scared, hungry and fighting for their very survival. They were Humans, covered in heavily plated armor for protection, armed with swords and bows. They stood guard on the walls, waiting for another attack from the Ponies.
The weak, the timid, the wounded, the physically impaired, the elderly, and children and their families were gathered in the hundreds inside the keep. Where they preyed and cried holding one another in a desperate hope that they would somehow survive this siege.
The siege has been going on for the last six months, and supplies were running low. Some had even resorted to eating dead Ponies and cannibalizing their own fallen Humans soldiers.
Not too far in the distance outside the fortress there was a vast amount of tents surrounding the fortress. Dozens of trebuchet bombarded the fortress night and day.
The Pony soldiers cheered in joy as Princess Celestia slowly made her way past the tents and made her way to the command tent. Inside the large command tent itself, Shining Armor and several other Royal Guard looked over a map of the fortress on a round wooden table.
"Shining, we can breach their walls here and-- with the sudden sound of hooves approaching from behind them, they turned around to see their Princess Celestia entering the tent. "Your majesty, you're finally here! Now we can crush the Humans!"
"I am not here for that reason."
"Then, why are you here?" said Shining Armor giving her a curious look.
"I am here to offer peace to the Humans."
The Royal Guard stared at her wide eyes. Shining Armor however looked at his Princess with rage in his eyes.
"Peace?! Rrahah!" he pushed the table over. "What do you mean peace? They are weak now, we can finally end this!"
"That's just it. They are starving and are on their knees basically, we would be monsters if we destroy them."
"But--
Gritting her teeth Celestia had roared in rage stomping her right hoof, which cracked the ground beneath her. It resulted in even making the Royal Guard scared as they looked at their angry Princess with fear in their eyes.
"THERE IS NO BUT! HUMANS CAN FEEL, THEY CAN CRY AND THEY CAN LOVE! SO I WILL NOT ALLOW US PONIES TO WIPE AN ENTIRE SPECIES FROM EXISTENCE!" she roared in the Royal Canterlot Voice.
From hearing Celestia shout the Royal Canterlot Voice the Pony armies around the fortress had a look of confusion on their faces, the Humans on the other hand seemed to have a look of relief on their faces.
"Then what do you suggest we do then?"
"We end this horrible war right now. We impose tighter defenses on our borders and offer friendship to the Humans."
"No!" he shouted stomping his hoof. "When they came to this world they immediately attacked us as soon as we met them, killed almost everyone in Ponyville and burned Manehattan down to the ground and lay siege to Canterlot! They've killed tens of thousand of innocent Ponies! We can finally end this!"
"And now their soldiers are defending their weak and their children behind those walls? So we are to show mercy!"
"Children that will become monsters when they grow up!"
Celestia slapped him across the face. "General Shining Armor, you will call off this siege this instant! Or I and my sister Luna, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and your former wife Princess Cadence and even many of the Royal Guard will be forced to make an alliance with Humanity and declare you as an enemy of Equestria!"
All the Royal Guards' jaws dropped in shock.
"So... " he glared angrily at her. "That's why I haven't been getting any reinforcements from Canterlot? You been gathering your armies to turn against your own fellow Ponies!"
"Yes and more! If you will not listen to reason, I don't think we had a choice."
"So, you will join Humanity on their walls and will defend them, and kill any of my soldiers that dares approach?"
"If it means saving a sapient species from extinction, then yes. We will kill your soldiers."
"But Humans are monsters!"
"You and your brutish thugs have proven to be the same, if not possibly even worse. And believe me, Humanity had a very good reason to attack us."
"How?!" he shouted. "Explain their very good 'reason' they attacked us!" he said sarcastically.
She sighed and turned to looked at the other Royal Guard. "Leave us." the others left the tent, leaving only Shining and Celestia. "I'm going to let you in on a secret, the reason the Humans attacked us is because we tried to destroy their species."
"Nonsense we only---
"In their home world."
"What?"
"The next thing I will reveal may be shocking."
"What is it?"
She took a long look at him, staring into his curious eyes and spoke slowly. "I … brought … Humanity …. here."
Shining's jaw dropped, he stared at her like he had never seen her before in his life.
"How.... how.... how could you? The Humans have killed thousands of us."
"And we kill millions of them."
"On their world?"
"Yes.... we killed them without mercy or remorse. We burned their cities down to the ground and we cut them down until our swords became blunt from over use."
"So you brought them here, because you wanted to save them?"
"Yes. I wanted to save them, I wanted to help them rebuild from ashes and I wanted both our species to come together in peace. And one day make Humanity strong again, so we can together reclaim their home world Earth." she sighed with tears falling down her cheek." Sadly things didn't work out as I planned. "she began shouting loudly." But, I know it's not too late! We can stop this war! We can be friends, it's not too late!"
"But why would us Ponies do this?"
"I don't know exactly, but that's what we done to them. Are we going to do the same here on this world?"
"I guess not. But how are we supposed to forgive Humanity?"
"Time. Time will heal these wounds and past grievances. In time this war would be just a foot note in history and we will build a brighter future together."
"I sure hope you're right about this. Very well, I shall call off the siege."