//------------------------------// // 150. Fouled // Story: Short Shorts // by Coranth //------------------------------// When the portal closed, I looked around. Ponyville, I thought, it worked, and now I'm in Ponyville! Laughing softly to myself as I wandered into town, I envisioned the things I might do here; reading books with Twilight, partying with Pinkie, extreme sports and rodeo competitions with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, along with quiet time with gentle Fluttershy... ... but as I wandered down Ponyville's main street - as I continued to look around - I began to cotton on to the fact that something was wrong here. The whole place... was trashed. Graffiti was everywhere, litter and trash ruined the ground, the buildings were worn down and fading--and nopony was here to greet me. In fact, as I continued my journey, making my way to Twilight's Castle, I could see that it, too, had been wrecked, towers and huge chunks just... missing from the once grand structure. Pollution was rife in the air, the dulled sun barely visible through thick, choking smog. Reaching into my robe I swiftly attached a filter to my nose and mouth just to be safe; then I carefully knocked on the doors of Friendship Castle. The bruised, battered, scarred mare who answered... was not the Twilight I knew. She took one look at me--and whinnied in fear, then tried to slam the door in my face, but I deftly blocked the attempt. "Oh, Luna, another one! Another human; pleasedon'thurtme!" she screamed. Turning she bolted, and I raced after her. "Twilight? Twilight Sparkle, wait! My name is David, and I just---" "NO!" she howled in terror as she ran to her room. "NO MORE HUMANS! JUST GO AWAY, GO AWAY... please..." Roughly two hours later, after a 'duel' involving dodged spells, deflected kicks, and multiple thrown objects, I held a bawling, terrified Twilight Sparkle in my lap, soothing and petting her even as I healed her hurts with my psionic ability of Healing. When I inquired as to what had happened here, she told me a heartbreaking story. "At first when the portals - like yours - opened, it was the humans that called themselves 'bronies' and 'pegasisters' who entered our world. All was fine at first; they adored us, we adored them, and Princess Celestia truly thought peace might be possible... but then the others came. Businessmen. Military. Worse. They sought to... to commercialize, weaponize, enslave, and exploit us all. And they nearly did. Celestia was killed even as she drove your kind away. Yours is the first portal opened since she cast the Great Seal, which means it's weakening..." Twilight continued her story. Of ponies used as breeders, slaves, servants and even foals being given to humans as pets, among even more horrors of exploitation, brutality, and enslavement, perpetrated by 'anti-bronies' as well as other humans, zealots and xenophobes. "We can fix this, Twi..." I murmured as the burnt out mare finally fell asleep in my lap. "We're gonna fix it..." Carefully, so as not to disturb poor Twilight, I carried her up to her bedroom in the castle, placed her on the bed then sat with her as I pulled from my robe a psi-web communicator. "Ambassador David to Hierarch Artanis; are you there?" Twilight barely stirred as his telepathic presence filled my thoughts. "I am here, Templar; you need assistance?" Inhaling a soft breath, I spoke. "The Sanctuary has been fouled; I repeat: the Sanctuary has been fouled." I psionically broadcast to him everything I had learned; no sooner had I done this then his telepathic presence in my thoughts became as cold as ice. "What would you have me do?" "Send me anything and everything you can from Aiur; and get on the horn to Earth, to any and every brony and pegasister capable of dimensional travel. And get a hold of Kerrigan, too, if you can. We've got a mission; maybe the biggest one we've had yet..." "Indeed we do. Equestria shall be restored."