Canterlot
Three Days Later
For Twilight, the train ride from Ponyville had been nothing but a giant interview session. The line, "Oh my gosh! Is that Twilight Sparke?!" had become the number one greeting for her, with "Hey! Weren't you the one who fought against those aliens?!" coming in second. That's all every conversation had been about. Aliens, aliens, and guess what? More freaking aliens. It was driving Twilight nuts. While any other time she would have been happy to talk about it, she had just gotten done helping to bury about thirty alien corpses, catalogue their technology, and bury and mourn for fifteen militia members all while dealing with the abrassive army ass who was in charge of the whole process. She would give anything to have her mind off the whole situation for just one second.
True, Luna was also there helping out in Ponyville, but she was only the night shift. The poor princesses weary eyes told her that she was giving more then just that though. In the meantime, Celestia had shut herself in her castle, dealing with some sort of secret business and refusing to address the many questions that were being thrown at her, such as where in the heavens did aliens come from that looked just like ponies on Trinity. What a big coincidence! She almost wished the army had been able to cover up the incident, but word had gotten out to fast. The fact that an alien ship now rested in the Everfree Forest was all over her nation now.
Twilight was about on her way to meet with Celestia about the topic, and though she was extremely interested in what her mentor had to say, that meant more discussion... of freaking aliens. She felt slightly guilty about this. Her friends were back in Ponyville already helping with reconstruction while she was about to be exposed to the universe, in all its glory, and apparently, all of its horror.
Twilight had decided to read a book on mythical creatures on the way, what she thought would keep her mind off the situation. About halfway through, Spike, who was sitting next to her in the main car spoke up, "Hey Twilight, we're here!"
Twilight took a deep breath. It was time to find out what exactly had fallen out of the sky on that fateful night three days ago. When she stepped out of the train, it was midday. Despite what had happened in Ponyville, Canterlot was pretty much its normal busy self save for all the chatter she heard about their extraterrestrial visitors. As she made her way to the palace, it seemed like on every street corner there was a paperfoal shouting about it.
"Extra extra! Canterlot Science Society to hold special meeting on the implications of alien life! Skies being carefully searched for more signs of invaders!"
"Princess Celestia continues to withhold comment on the situation! Read all about it! Princess Luna asks for populace to remain calm!"
Sir Fancypants and Princess Cadence to hold a fundraiser in the Royal Gardens for the victims of the space pony attack!"
"General Warfield releases official statement on chances of withstanding a full invasion! Get your Canterlot Times here!"
Twilight sighed at that. She really was in the dark as much as everyone else. She had no idea if the parasites controlled more ships or if they were going to strike again soon. She didn't even know how their first ship was shot down except for the fact that 'Terrans' had something to do with it. She wished Celestia had more time to elaborate about who they were, as well as more on the Dragan, but as soon as the attack ended she believed it was urgent to return to Canterlot, and Luna didn't seem to think it was right to reveal information without her sister's consent. She could only hope that if there were more of these Wraith on the way Celestia could do something about it.
Unfortunately for Twilight, people seemed to think she had the answers. Twenty terse conversations with people on the street about what she knew and her roll in the defense of Ponyville later and she and Spike had made it to the Royal Palace. She had sent a message to her brother to see if he could meet her, but unfortunately he said he had to be at some sort of important meeting of military minds. Gee, what could that be about?
On that note, military presence in Canterlot certainly wasn't lax. There were as many soldiers and guards posted at every corner as there were right after the Changeling invasion. She wondered what their purpose was, as spears and swords certainly couldn't thwart an alien ship.
"It kind of sucks Shining Armor can't meet us," Spike commented as they made their way up the great stairs to the palace's entrance. "You haven't seen him since the wedding, have you?"
Twilight frowned and shook her head, "No, unfortunately not. It seems Cadence is busy tonight with that fundraiser as well."
"There's probably going to a ton of Canterlot elite there!" Spike said, "If only I could have escorted fair lady Rarity to it... she would have loved it." Twilight could practically see hearts forming in his eyes, forcing her to roll her own.
When they reached the door, two guards quickly slung pointed spears downwards in a cross position, blocking their path. "Halt, nobody is to enter the royal palace until it is confirmed they are... uncompromised."
Twilight raised an eyebrow, "Are you searching for Changelings?"
"Not just Changelings." He then gazed at her intently. After a second, his expression laxed. "Hey, wait. Aren't you Twilight Sparke?"
Twilight forced a smile. Great, more people in her fan club. "Yep, that's me."
"I thought so too!" the other guard said. "Hey, was it true what's being said? Did the Elements really take them out?"
Twilight sighed, gazing away from him, "Not exactly."
The guard threw her a sympathetic glance, "My apologies miss, I won't talk about it if you don't want to. I know what happened there must be tough."
Twilight nodded. At least someone understood that it wasn't something she wanted to just blab about.
"We'll let you in in a second, we just need to scan ya really quick," the first guard, a unicorn said. His horn soon began to glow brightly, and soon after it a sheet of blue light shot out of it. It ran over Twilight's body, and after it was finished the guard nodded, "All clean." He then turned towards Spike and scanned him as well. "Dragon's clean too."
Spike shot him an annoyed glance, "The name's Spike."
The guard simpered, "My apologies. Anyway, you guys can go through." They lifted their spears at that. "If your looking for Celestia though, nobody really knows where she is."
Twilight raised her eyebrows, "What! You mean she's missing?"
The guard shook his head, "Nono, she's in the palace, we know that. However, she seems to be spending her time in some sort of hidden section not even we know about. Occasionally she'll pop up for food and to walk the grounds, but that's all we see of her." He paused before adding, "I've never seen her so tense. You're her student right? Hopefully seeing you will relax her a bit."
Twilight sighed, "I hope seeing her will relax both of us, thanks for the information. I think she knows we'd be here around this time so hopefully she'll find us."
The guard nodded, "Hopefully. Good day, miss."
Twilight nodded at him before her and Spike made their way into the Palace's extravagant commons. Scattered about it were many different creatures, most not even ponies. She saw a medium-sized dragon, a few zebras dressed in extravagant foreign robes, a stressed out looking gryphon, and that was just the start. She guessed they might be foreign dignitaries here to discuss the alien issue. Obviously, they weren't just a threat to Equestria alone.
She then made her way to the throne room, and Celestia was nowhere to be seen.
"I hope Celestia remembered we were coming." Spike said.
Twilight turned to him. "With all that's going on, I wouldn't be surprised if she forgot. I mean, it's not like giving me information is the most important thing she has to deal with right now." She sighed, "If she did forget and is in some secret area of the palace though, there's no way we're going to find her. I hope this trip wasn't a waste of time."
"Well, at least there's Doughnut Joe's to look forward to." Spike said. Twilight shot him a look. "Hey, at least it's better then coming here for nothing." he grinned.
Twilight sighed, "What do you think, Spike. Do you think there are more alien ships on the way? Those Wraith seemed pretty intent on taking out the orb..."
Spike raised an eyebrow, "I thought you didn't want to talk about aliens."
Twilight shrugged, "Might as well, it's what everyone else is doing."
Spike shrugged, "I dunno Twilight. I'm in the dark just as much as you are. I'm actually sort of surprised Celestia is willing to trust me with information."
Twilight smiled at him, "She's known you just as long as me. You're a trustworthy little guy, Spike."
Spike blushed slightly, "Yeah, I guess."
As if on cue, Celestia suddenly teleported before them. Gazing her over, Twilight decided the guard wasn't lying about her being tense lately. Celestia's eyes seemed to be somewhat bloodshot, and her fur was unkempt. Despite this, she could still afford her favorite student one of her care-free, warm-as-the-sun smiles. "My faithful student. Welcome back to Canterlot."
"Thanks for having me princess," Twilight smiled, "But like I said in my letter, if you have other things you need to do... don't waste your time on me."
"Nonsense, no time with you is time wasted." She said.
Twilight's smile widened at that.
Spike simpered slightly, "Um princess, I wasn't exactly sure if-"
"My faithful student's assistant is more then welcome to share in the knowledge I'm about to give." Celestia said. "Now, if you two could stand by me."
The two nodded before each standing on the opposite side of the princess. After a second, her horn began to glow. With a flash, they teleported out of the throne room. Another flash of light later, and Twilight found herself standing in a small square room with no noticeable entrance. It was bathed in a strange blue light of unknown origin, the gray walls glinting the same color. The only feature of the room was a small pyramid attached to the ceiling and a strange, rectangular device on the other side of the room lined with small cubes.
Twilight gazed at the device curious before turning towards her mentor, "Where are we, princess?" she said.
"A room meant for communications and information." Celestia said. She then smiled, turning towards her pupil and her young assistant, "You'll probably get a kick out of this. I always do."
Her horn began to glow again, and soon enough she was manipulating the cubes on the rectangular device. Twilight surmised they were actually buttons. Soon after, she could hear a small whirring sound coming from the pyramid on the ceiling and she turned her attention to it. After a second, the room became completely black. However, it didn't stay that way for long.
All around the young mare, small, transparent, and brightly lit orbs of various colors, mainly blue, red, and yellow popped into existence. There were fifty in all, all spaced a bit of a distance from each other. Twilight stared at them in awe before she approached one curiously. Squinting, she could see small, barely visible tinier orbs orbiting the larger ones. It suddenly hit her what she was looking at. Apparently the theories of the astrophysicists in Canterlot were correct.
"Princess, are these-"
"Stars, Twilight." The princess said. "These particular ones belong to our local cluster."
Twilight continued to gaze upon them all dumbfounded before turning back towards her mentor, "H-How are you showing me this? I've never heard of this kind of magic before."
Celestia shook her head with a slight smile, "It's not magic, Twilight. What you see before you were created by a piece of technology called a hologram projector. It's somewhat like an advanced film projector."
The young mare was taken aback by this. How in the world did a film projector create three dimensional images?She shrugged off the question for now. Hopefully her mentor would let her analyze the device. She then continued to look about the room with the wonder of a filly. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Spike was taken aback as well. After a moment of ogling, she noticed something unusual about one of the orbs. "Princess, why is this one moving?"
The princess gazed at it, "That is our own star, Twilight. Out of all in the heaven's it is the one that means the most to me, for it and I are forever bound."
Well, she wasn't the goddess of the sun for nothing. Still, Twilight wondered what made their own star so special, and why it was manually controlled. She wondered if she should ask the princess that question, but soon turned against it. Twilight moved closer to the particular orb, and gazed at another tiny one it seemed to be orbiting. Celestia then manipulated the buttons on the gray box once again. The orb their star was orbitting began to grow in size. Their star grew in size as well and was pushed backwards towards the walls of the room before it disapeared entirely. They had zoomed in on the smaller orb from what it seemed.
Immediately, more details on it became apparent. She noticed brilliant blue oceans on it and great continents of green, swirling clouds of white obscuring parts of them. So much for the theories on Trinity being flat.
"I-is that us?" Spike asked, pointing at it in disbelief.
Celestia nodded her head, "That is Trinity, home to billions of forms of life, as well as home to us, our friends and family, and the the place where their ancestors have lived and died. I myself have enjoyed it for thousands of years. I've watched it shape itself, and I've watched us shape it. This small pinpoint of light in a sea of nothing. Our oasis in the desert, and something worth caring for. Remember that, my loving student." The star map zoomed out again, this time much much further then last time. "However, it isn't the only thing of value in the universe." It then zoomed out so far that thousands of orbs appeared, then millions.
Billions.
Finally, it zoomed out far enough that a very familiar shape could be seen. It was a spiral galaxy. Twilight had seen concept images of them in her astronomy books, and she was astonished to find out that they seemed to be very realistic in depiction.
Celestia walked away from her keyboard and gestured to the magnificent formation before her, "This is the Milky Way Galaxy. Home of home. It is approximately one-hundred thousand light years in diameter, a light year being nearly six million miles. Over two hundred billion stars inhabit it.
Spike's eyes widened, "So... many... zeroes."
Celestia chuckled before pointing to a particular section, "Our solar system is located in this section." She then pointed away from it to the other side of the galaxy, "Remember the Dragan I was talking about? The quantum transporter brought them here."
The star map zoomed in on a planet, or a moon in this case, orbiting a larger planet of swirling red clouds. Twilight recognized it as well; it was a gas giant. Their own solar system had one in it, and it had been observed by telescopes before. However, she never thought she'd see one in such detail.
"This moon was once the pinnacle of those who built the transporter's civilization, and it happens to have the right conditions to sustain pony life, as was fortunate for the expedition. However, it wasn't the only gift fate had in store for them. After generations they began to tap into the technology that was left there by the ancient ones. Within five hundred years, with the help of it, they actually developed the means to emulate some of the former race's glory. Twisting the universe's laws to their will, they became able to travel between stars quickly by the means of a device called a hyperdrive."
Twilight's jaw nearly dropped at this, Spike's jaw as well. All this time, ponies had been living across the galaxy, had been travelling the stars. Why had she never known of this? Why wasn't this public knowledge? And better yet, why had their fellow ponies not shared their technology?
"They searched for Trinity for many years, but before they could find us... they found someone else."
The star map zoomed in on another planet a distance away, orbiting a bright yellow star.
"This is Earth, the homeworld of the Terrans, or humans as they sometimes call themselves. As many great wars and sacrifices have happened here as have many magnificent acts of good will and charity, its inhabitants being one of the most complex creatures there are. Some are as ferocious as a thorn beast, while others as placid and kind as your friend Fluttershy. Unfortunately, this means many among them have an affinity for war, some believing it is the means to their survival. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong."
"So... the Terrans made contact with the Dragan?"
Celestia nodded, "Correct. Five hundred years ago in fact. At first relations between them were peaceful, but as the Dragan analyzed the Terrans they began to grow paranoid of their warlike nature. After a small border war occurred, peaceful relations had all but been shattered. Eventually, both races discovered another planet formally belonging to the ancients filled with a treasure trove of technology. Both sides claimed the planet, and both sides feared the other having it and gaining a technological edge."
The star map zoomed over to this particular planet. Various other, much smaller, geometric shapes orbited the world. Rectangular shapes and smoother circular shapes seemed to be shooting at each other with similar lights Twilight had seen the aliens used before, laser fire as it was soon called by the scientific minds of Canterlot.
"It was here the Great War began, a war that lasts to this day."
Twilight eyes widened, "How is that possible?!"
"I wish it weren't, but the thing about interstellar war is that it tends to spawn more casualties then regular warfare. Sometimes it spawns enough terror that both sides back down, but other times it spawns enough hate that it never ends. Territories were lost and recaptured, ships destroyed and rebuilt, and lives lost and replaced by vengeance-filled children of fathers and mothers who fell to war. The cycle of war can take time to begin spinning, but once it is it can be hard, if not impossible to halt."
The star map zoomed into yet another planet. "The Terrans did manage to gain the upper hand three hundred years ago, and were a few planets away from being able to invade the adopted homeworld of the Dragans. However, instead of wishing to send millions of troops to their deaths trying to capture it, they decided to send the Dragan a bloody message. Orbitting this Dragan colony, a fleet of Terran ships bombarded the planet from orbit, killing everypony on it."
"W-What?!" Twilight cried.
"No way... nopony could be that evil." Spike growled.
"Do not judge the Terrans so harshly. They would have lost as many troops trying to conquer the Dragan homeworld as ponies lost on the colony."
Twilight's eyebrows narrowed in anger, "No! They could have found another way. They could have signed an armistice! Anything!"
Celestia nodded in agreement, "Perhaps, or perhaps they believed it wouldn't work. It's in the past now. However, what is certain is that this act didn't work, the Dragan did not surrender and it ensured that the two races will likely be at war until they run out of troops to fight with. It was such a heinous act in the Dragan's eyes that they actually renamed their people to that; 'Dragan', which in an older tongue means 'Spirits of Vengeance.'"
Twilight gazed at her mentor with still horrified, but eager eyes. With the tone of a child receiving a good bed time story she asked, "What happened next?"
"Two hundred years ago, the Dragan finally found us. Wisely, they didn't try to contact me in any flashy manner. We were a still somewhat primitive society at the time."
Two unicorns without cutie-marks bowed before Celestia in her throne room, them dressed no different from the rest of the ponies in Canterlot at the time, that being not dressed at all.
"Princess Celestia, it is our honor to once again gaze upon our home nation's throne."
Celestia smiled at them, "Please, bowing is not necessary. You speak as you've been on away on some long trip.Tell me of your travels."
One smiled, "Farther then you could guess, your highness."
"They took me into the woods beyond Canterlot and revealed to me a cloaked starship. I must say, I was quite impressed... unfortunately though it wasn't the first time I had dealt with 'extratrinestrials.' What the Dragan didn't know was that I had known of them for some time. You see, I've been in contact with the Terrans long before them, and through them I learned of the Dragan."
The young mare's eyes widened, "You've been dealing with those... those murderers!?" she practically screamed, forgetting for a second who she was talking to. Celestia actually shot her a stern look, forcing her to back down.
"And it was them that the Dragan begged me for help against! At that point in time Equestria had a population of nearly fifteen million ponies, four times as much as the average Dragan colony, many that could be used in battle. We also had and still have access to magical artifacts our technologically advanced counterparts could only dream of, as well as other types of resources. They were also interested in our magical abilities themselves, there own having been dampened, as well as my own abilities. In exchange they would help upgrade our technology into the space age within five years, but they would need our resources, troops, and other assets immediately. They even offered to allow me to lead our people under one body of rule. If I had accepted, we would be travelling among the stars now, and we would have likely have crushed the Terrans under our hooves."
"We have lost on several fronts, princess! The Terrans are at our doorstep. We cannot hold out much longer! Please! We're begging you!" one of the same unicorns from before pleaded.
Celestia could barely keep her guilt-filled eyes on him, "I'm sorry, but I cannot accept this offer," she said slowly, sorrowfully...
Painfully
"P-Please relay my sympathies to King Hurricane."
The unicorn growled before turning and storming out of the throne room. However, before he left, he stopped at the door and twirled about towards his former princess with a betrayed expression, "You doom us all, you damned coward! I can't believe I ever once worshiped you as my goddess! May you live forever with the blood of millions on your hooves!"
Twilight stood silent. Only after a moment did she choose to break it. "Why didn't you accept the offer?"
"The same reason I didn't accept the Terran's same offer. I wanted our technological advancements to be natural, and most importantly...." she sighed, a small cluster of tears forming in her eyes, "I didn't want the same thing that happened to them to happen to you, my precious subjects..." Her voice then began to tremble, "Equestria hadn't been in a large war in thousands of years, and I would not allow it again! I did not want you to be twisted into creatures of vengeance like the Dragan! I didn't want anypony to watch as entire fleets were wiped out, thousands of lives going with them, or see entire colonies being snuffed out as if they were nothing! I didn't want hatred festering in your hearts when mothers and fathers never came home from the front, only for you to follow in their footsteps to the gates of hell!"
She wiped a tear away as Twilight stepped forward to give her a sympathetic nuzzle. Celestia took a deep breath at that.
"Ponies are such a beautiful, peace-loving people. It was why I found them to be worth saving from Discord, and I didn't want all of that being thrown away, even if it meant me having to turn my back on my former subjects."
"You did what you had to do. However... why did you never tell anypony about the Dragan or Terrans? About what's happening in the galaxy?" Twilight asked.
Celestia sighed, "I sometimes wonder that myself, though I still believe my reasoning is sound. I did not want ponies to sympathize with the Dragan and demand we enter the war to fight alongside their brothers." she paused, before adding "It was for there own good," as if she wasn't trying to convince Twilight of anything. "I also did not think our people had advanced enough intellectually wise in order to be exposed to the bigger picture just yet, nor did I wish to shatter the perceptions of reality many held at the time. It just didn't seem... necessary that they know."
Twilight nodded solemnly, "I think I understand, however I'm still wondering why you wanted to reveal this to me now?" She gazed again at the princesses unkempt mane and weary eyes. "You seem like you're very busy."
Celestia paused a second as if she were weighing something over before manipulating the cubes again with her magic. The star map quickly faded, and the room returned to its normal blue hue. Celestia then manipulated them again.
In the middle of the room, the transparent torso and head of a humanoid creature appeared. Another hologram. She examined it curiously, It looked vaguely like the apes who resided in the lands of the zebras Twilight had read about, only it didn't seem to be covered in fur, except for what sat upon the top its head, though that resembled a short mane more then anything. Covering its torso was a black metallic looking substance, almost as if it were a light set of armor. She guessed it was their version of clothes. She had thought it was simply another image, but the young mare was soon proven wrong when it began to animate, its mouth in particular, as a somewhat deep voice filled the room. She nearly lept back in fright at this.
"Bout freakin' time you called back!" it said, grinning slightly, "Who's the little purple thing? That your student?"
Celestia turned to Twilight, whose eyes were still wide open in shock, "Twilight, this is Emperor Ventus of the Terran Empire... my brother."