Invasion of Equestria

by Yamazaki


The Warning

“Twilight. Sparkle. Did you actually think...you would win? Your ambition, impresses me.”

“Just what do you want from me?”

“I, personally, don't want anything from you, Ms. Sparkle. My employers, however, have a rather attractive...proposition they would like to put forward.”

“Oh yeah? And just what is that?”

24 hours earlier.

Much to Twilight Sparkle's surprise, Princess Celestia had shown up in Ponyville, without any warning. As Twilight approached the princess, she could see that Celestia wasn't smiling, like she usually did when she saw her. Celestia even looked tired. “Twilight Sparkle, I need you to come to Canterlot. Now!” She said, with urgency in her voice.

“What is all this about?” Twilight asked cautiously to Celestia.

“Twilight, there is something you should know. But not now!” Princess Celestia was starting to look stressed, “just wait until we get to Canterlot.”

Soon enough, they landed, and Princess Celestia began to walk into the castle without saying a word, so Twilight followed. By now, she was getting extremely concerned. Once inside the castle, Princess Luna walked up to Celestia. “Was he in Ponyville, too?” Luna asked.

“Yes, he was. I have Twilight Sparkle with me,” said Celestia.

“Good, then we can proceed,” Luna nodded as her, Celestia, about a dozen guards and Twilight Sparkle made their way through the castle. The castle at Canterlot was huge, so huge that Twilight Sparkle, having been there many times, still didn't quite know her way around it. As they rounded a corner, Twilight saw something moving. Whatever it was, moved away quickly and silently. Twilight Sparkle was feeling a little spooked by it, so she looked around at everyone else's faces to see if they had noticed it too. But it became clear to her by every other pony's facial expressions that she was the only one that saw it. Finally, deep inside the castle, they reached what looked like a sort of conference room full of ponies sitting around an oval-shaped table. One of them was her brother, Shining Armour, but he didn't look happy. Even at the sight of his little sister entering the room. It was there where Princess Celestia nodded at the guards, signalling them to leave; they left promptly and Twilight heard the sound of the door to the room being locked.

“Twilight Sparkle, this information is top secret; you are the only one in the room who doesn't know it...” Princess Celestia spoke uneasily, making Twilight feel even more nervous than she already was.

“There is an empire larger than anything we can comprehend. They have set their sights for Equestria, and all of this planet in fact,” Luna spoke.

“What?!” Twilight jumped back in shock, “Are you serious?!”

“I'm afraid so,” said Shining Armour as he stood up, “while we don't know what they are, we do know that they are not from this planet,” while his face was sad, his voice was calm and collected.

“W-wait a second. How do you know?” Twilight asked, desperately looking for a loophole in her brother's explanation that could mean her and Equestria's safety.

“Because we have witnessed their destruction, and attracted their attention,” explained an old-looking pony in a lab coat, “remember when you entered through a portal to look for Sunset Shimmer? It led to an alternate dimension?”

“Yes, I do. But I don't see what that has to do with...”

“The creatures you encountered there were called Humans, Twilight Sparkle. We have debated their existence for centuries, but now without a doubt, we can say they exist. And they aren't the only things, either...”

“Hold on a second, we don't even know where I went!”

“You were in a different dimension, Twilight,” Celestia looked into Twilight Sparkle's eyes whilst speaking in her warm voice, “somewhere that exists perfectly alongside us, but both sides are completely oblivious to one another. Imagine we are the sun and they are the moon. Both exist separately, yet both eclipse each other. And when that happens, both domains can be reached.”

“Through a portal?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“The portal they will come from will be opening soon and we we must prepare for it,” said Shining Armour. Upon hearing this, everyone else in the room nodded in agreement.

“We would like to show you a few artefacts we have found from them,” said Luna.

“Oh, um, sure,” Twilight Sparkle replied as she was led by Celestia and Luna down even more stairs towards the castle's dungeons. A guard unlocked a huge wooden door, allowing them to enter as Celestia used her horn to illuminate the room. Twilight Sparkle gasped at the strange, alien objects that were encased in glass. She saw movement in the corner of her eye, but when she looked to face it head-on, whatever was moving had disappeared.

“We believe this is the symbol used for the empire we will be fighting against,” said Luna coldly as she walked over to a piece of mangled metal. Twilight followed and stared at it. It was strange, it looked almost like a spanner on a circular bolt. She tilted her head to the side while staring at it.

“Strange,” she remarked. “How did you get all of these?” Twilight's eyes darted in all directions as she stared around the room. Organic artefacts with flesh ripped open were frozen, while there were mangled pieces of metal, strange crystals and even framed pictures of, well, she didn't quite understand what of.

“They fell,” said Celestia sharply, “just like some things from our world do.” Twilight Sparkle said nothing, racking her brain at this new information, “you see, Twilight, you could think of both reality and fiction as both the same thing. Everything exists within it's own reality...”

“...which sometimes come into contact with one another,” nodded Twilight Sparkle, who was starting to understand it.

“That's right,” continued Celestia, “if everything as we know it really is infinite, then think of the odds that there is not another version of you out there. is You saw another version of your friends, didn't you? Only their genetic make-up and evolution was slightly different to ours due to different circumstances. But it's not only parallel versions of ourselves out there. There are the true forms of all our nightmares. And what we are up against really are all of our nightmares combined. The Combine...”

“Celestia!” Luna stopped her.

“Sorry,” said Celestia. She had realised she had said too much before turning her head to look at her sister, then looked back at the bewildered Twilight Sparkle, “it will all make sense soon.”

“But there's something else you should know; since you and Sunset Shimmer helped to attract their attention, some ponies might start blaming you.”

“O-oh, well, I guess they might...”

“But it wasn't your fault! You wouldn't have seen it, but you did cross through a sort-of 'Border World' as you went through. Although too quickly for anything else to pass through, they now know of our existence.”

Upon hearing that, Twilight's hooves gave way and she felt as though she was about to cry, “So, is Equestria really doomed?” She said quietly as tears brewed in her eyes.

“Not quite, there is still hope,” Celestia said encouragingly, “we can still stop them..”

Twilight looked up and saw both Princesses smiling at her, “you can stop them, Twilight,” said Luna.

“We now ask that you co back to Ponyville and alert your friends of the oncoming danger,” Princess Celestia nodded at the door.

“Oh, yes, right, of course!” Said Twilight quickly as she left. A guard held the door open for her.

Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were left alone in the room full of alien artefacts. “There are a few things she's better off not knowing right now, isn't there,” said Luna.

“Yes,” agreed Celestia, “she still doesn't know about him.”

“Should we tell her?”

“No, Twilight Sparkle will find out soon enough.”