“What do you mean Trottingham is under attack?” Princess Celestia asked.
Princess Celestia sat on her throne and listened to an exhausted messenger inform her about an attack. The messenger had just flown into the castle and was deathly tired after flying across one quarter of Equestria to tell her the news.
“It’s those Ing things. They’ve been acting like they were our friends and they attacked us in the middle of the night.” The messenger replied in between pants. “Shall I take your response?”
Celestia was stressed out. For the past two weeks she had been having trouble accepting a mysterious race that decided to start occupying Equestria. They were a dark race, not telling anypony about them, not answering any questions about them and rarely revealing their identities. They called themselves Ing. Celestia had managed to speak to their leader. She had even been able to see different types of Ing. Still, there were dozens of more that she hadn’t seen, and she assumed they were much more grotesque and frightful than those she had seen.
After seeing all the different types there were, Celestia was frightened. All types of them fought in “The War for Darkness”. That was what they called the war with a race called Gaians. The Gaians were the most hated enemy of the Ing and they would do almost anything to eradicate their whole race.
Celestia also got her hooves on one of their ‘datapads’, telling her what kinds of weapons they used and it could also show her what kinds of ing there were. It held tons of information about the Ing and was given to her by their leader. Celestia didn’t know his name.
That was the most information they could squeeze out of them. If this “Ing” race had anything else to tell, they kept it to themselves. It was this secrecy that disturbed her so.
“I never trusted them.” Celestia said under her breath. “Tell Captain Shining Armor to mobilize his troops and get the guard ready. We need to be ready for anything they throw at us.” She told the messenger.
“Yes Your Highness. Right away.” The messenger spoke. She trotted out of the door to go to inform Shining Armor.
“Luna, come here.” Celestia said after the messenger left.
“What is it, sister?” Luna asked.
“Do you think this is the beginning of the end for us?” Celestia questioned her.
Luna put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “I do not think we are going to end, Tia, but we think a miracle must happen if we are to come out of this war as the victor.”
“Their forces are much stronger, much bigger. How do we repel an enemy that is five times our size?” Celestia asked as she raised the sun over the Canterlot skyline.
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Luna answered forthrightly. It was her bluntness that Celestia needed sometimes when others would only be her yes-ponies.
“But they won’t fall. Luna, the only hope we have of surviving is the Elements of Harmony. The Ing don’t even use weapons like us. They have much more powerful weapons and we can’t get the elements to work on them at a safe distance. It would be too far!”
“Twilight and her friends aren’t even soldiers anyway, so why does it matter?” Luna knew where this was going, but she asked anyway.
“It matters because if they can’t do it, we will.” Luna’s eyes went wide as the side of a barn. The sisters had not used the Elements of Harmony, the strongest weapon in the Royal Equestrian Army, for over a thousand years. Luna knew now that Celestia was serious if she was thinking that.
“You know, Tia, we could always find this Gaia race. They would probably help us.” Luna suggested uneasily, “In case the Elements do not…”
“I am quite certain we can use the Elements together, sister.” Celestia said, “But, to be safe, I would think that is a prudent suggestion. But, have you any idea as to how we contact them?”
“I have no idea.” Luna lowered her head in despair.
Celestia used her telekinesis to grab a piece of paper and a quill.
“What art thou doing?” Luna asked.
“Writing a letter to my student,” Celestia replied.
“What makes you think that she can help?” Luna asked.
“Well since she is the smartest pupil I have seen since Starswirl the Bearded, I believe she would have a faint idea as to how we contact these Gaia.”
She sat down at a desk, where she began to write to Twilight Sparkle, her most faithful student in all of Equestria.
Dear Twilight Sparkle…
***
“Does it really have to be reshelving day? Can’t we just-” Spike, Twilight’s dragon assistant, was stopped short as a letter came out of his mouth.
“Yes, Spike. All the books have been placed out of order so we need to put them back.” She turned, and asked, “What’s that you got there?”
Spike picked up the letter. “Dear Twilight Sparkle,” spike read, “There is an important matter that I wish to discuss with you and your friends. It concerns the dark and mysterious race that has appeared in Equestria. We will talk more about this when you and your friends arrive. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.”
“The Princess needs to speak with me?” Twilight said nervously, “Hurry, Spike! We can still catch the train to Canterlot!”
***
“I hope they come soon. It’s been two hours since I sent the letter.” Princess Celestia said.
“Well the train ride will take some time. Approximately two hours, I would think.” Luna said.
Suddenly the door burst open, revealing Twilight, and her five friends: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. All of them were the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and had used them time and time again to vanquish foes to Equestria.
“Princess Celestia,” Twilight and her friends bowed in reverence, “You wished to speak with us?”
“Yes,” Celestia said. “You wouldn’t know anything about a race called ‘Ing’, would you?”
“Ing?” Twilight cocked her head in confusion, “No, I haven’t.”
“They are a dark race,” Luna explained, “That has appeared out of nowhere. They extended an olive branch, and has now burned it in our hooves. Trottingham is already under siege. We can’t possibly defeat them.”
“So you need the Elements of Harmony then.” Rainbow Dash replied, “To kick their hinds, right?”
“Rainbow!” Twilight hissed, elbowing her friend in the ribs.
“Oh, it’s quite alright.” Luna replied, “I would use that terminology if I was not bound by my royal duties. Come, Twilight Sparkle, I wish to show you something.”
Luna trotted over towards the table, and reached for a gray rectangular device. She activated it, and showed it to Twilight.
“This device shows us where the Ing hide,” Luna explained. “This screen shows large concentrations in and around Trottingham.”
“Wait just a darn minute y’all.” Applejack interrupted, “How did ya get yer hooves on somein’ like that?”
“It was a gift from their leader.” Celestia explained, “I now see it is a way to mock us. There is nothing we can do for Trottingham. It is lost.”
All of the Element Bearers’ eyes went wide. They then closed their eyes, and bowed their heads in pity. It was then that the doors flew open again, this time showing Captain Shining Armor, who just happened to be Twilight’s brother.
“It seems their leader had the audacity to show his face in Canterlot, Your Highnesses.” He dragged the leader of the Ing, who looked distressed, into the Throne Room, bound by an iron chain and ball.
“Your Highnesses,” he pleaded, “You have to listen to me. I did not order the attack. There has been a coup d’état against my rule. They have attacked Trottingham to show their willingness to shed innocent blood!”
“How can we tell that you’re not lying?” Rainbow Dash said. “It takes a lot of nerve to think we would believe that!”
“But you have to!” He cried. He then hung his head, and said, “Though you could always execute me, and have the rebels run amok in your country, destroying you city by city. It is up to you.”
Luna looked over at Celestia disbelievingly. Celestia couldn’t help but feel pity for him, and decided to believe him.
“Free him,” she instructed, “If he is a pony of his word, he will stop this at once.”
“You’re just going to believe him!?” Shining Armor asked, but silenced himself after receiving harsh glares from everypony in the room.
“Yes, of course Your Highness.” He replied.
Once free, the Ing reached into his pocket. He grabbed a silver circular object, and placed it onto the floor.
“I believe this should help.” He said. Suddenly, multiple screens appeared around him. He navigated through the database, until he opened a file, and stepped back, making the one screen enlarge and place itself on the wall.
Everypony in the room stared at him, dumbfounded.
“It’s quite wonderful, isn’t it?” He asked. “Although we are working on smaller and more powerful models right now, this is the best I can get at the moment.”
“It can get smaller?” Twilight asked. “How did you make that?”
“Twilli, I wish we had the time,” Shining Armor said, “But there is no time to talk about their tech.”
After he said that, the screen began to flash red with yellow characters spread across the screen. The leader of the Ing rushed to the console, and tried to find out what went wrong. His facial expression blanked as he soon found out.
“Don’t be freaked out,” he said, “But there’s something called a ‘time relay’ about to happen near Canterlot.”
“What’s a time relay?” Celestia asked him. “You can’t just say things like that and not explain it.”
“I can’t really delve into it right now,” the Ing said as his fingers raced across the holographic screen.
“Well tell us what hath happened, then.” Luna ordered.
“A time relay is a source of power the Ing use.” The leader explained, “But when it gets overheated, it begins to take one universe and rocket it into another, and it is possible that we appear during different time periods. That’s how we got here.”
“Are you saying we’re going to be time travelers?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Cool!”
“I wouldn’t think that,” the leader said, “When we jumped here, massive amounts of us died.”
“Oh,” Dash replied. “Well, can’t you fix it?”
“I can see if I can lessen the impact,” the leader explained, “But I can’t stop it. It’s already too late.”
The console closed, and he looked outside the window. He watched as a large, spiraling black and blue hole appeared over Canterlot. It began to suck in the mountains and plains surrounding Canterlot. The ponies in the room panicked as they watched Equestria be swallowed up by the hole.
“It’s here.” The Ing said.
“Oh really,” Dash said, “You think?!”
“Rainbow!” Twilight scolded, “What’s going to happen?”
“We’re going to get swallowed up,” the leader said, “And spit out in another universe. It’s not too bad after the first time.”
That was the last thing anypony heard before the hole, which was growing exponentially, swallowed up the castle.