Chapter 1
Lyra had spent the past few years alone, locked in her home with no pony ever seeing her. She never recovered from the death of her life-long friend and partner, Bon Bon. With her soulmate gone there was nopony there to keep Lyra from going insane with her obsession of mythical creatures known as humans. She had been practicing strange and powerful magic for many years now in an attempt to reach her goal of finding them, and had become a bit… odd in the process.
“This time my tracking spell will work. I just know it.” She walked around the circle of strange pictures and symbols, triple checking everything to make sure her spell circle was ready. She levitated the quill back to the table. “I think it’s good. I hope this works.”
She stood outside the circle and began chanting her spell. “I'm looking for the human species. Break the barrier between dimensions to open a portal into their world. I want to find them.” Her horn started to glow as arcane energy flowed from it towards the circle. It began following the patterns of the ink that made up the circle, turning the outlines green while the pictures and symbols turned blue. Once all the black ink had changed colors, a wind began to blow around the circle.
Lyra’s horn was now glowing brighter and she was sweating from the sheer effort it was taking to cast the spell. She chanted faster.
The pictures and symbols began alternating colors from blue to red. The wind hitting Lyra on the face was making it hard to concentrate. Lyra’s eyes widened as the floor began to move in a wave pattern, she could now see electricity sparking around. Lyra was beginning to feel weak. Her legs were going to give out soon but she continued saying her spell. “I'm looking for the human species. Break the barrier between dimensions to open a portal into their world. I want to find them.” That was as far as she got, as a bolt of electric magic surged from the center of the circle, causing time to come to a screeching halt.
The electricity began to focus in the center. The floor in the center of the circle was now turning a ocean-like blue and with the wave effect, it actually looked like water.
With a gasp, Lyra fell backwards as a huge blob of the pseudo aqueous substance shot out of the circle and quickly receded back into the apparently viscous floor with a strange sound.
Catching her breath for a moment, Lyra stared at the strange clear liquid on her floor, still gasping for air she walked up to it. “Did it work?” Reaching out with a cautious hoof, she touched the clear fluid. “It doesn't feel like water. It’s more like a goo of some sort.” Her hoof penetrated the the portal for five seconds. It seems safe, she thought to herself. With a quick sigh, she jumped into the portal.
A second later Lyra was shrouded in darkness and floating in… something. Illuminating her surroundings with her horn, she took a better look around. “I appear to be in a pond, but I don’t see any humans.” She huffed in anger. “Where are the humans? I want a pet human!” Lyra proceeded to exit the water and began shaking herself dry.
Still breathing heavily, she thought to herself. I probably should have stayed in my home and rested a little, but I have no clue on how long the portal would have stayed open. So coming here was the right idea. Lyra’s exhaustion became apparent as she yawned. "I need to find a place to rest. I need a secluded place." Looking around, she saw a small hill with some large bushes at the bottom. Walking over to the hill, she went into the large bushes to hide while she rested. “I just need to activate a protection spell and I’ll be able to sleep.” Her horn glowed, creating a green shield around her that made her invisible.
Later, as she began to wake up, Lyra’s ears twitched as she heard some quiet noises near her. She lowered her magic shield and poked her head out of the bushes. It seems to be early morning. Looking around for the source of the sounds she was hearing, she got her answer as she heard feminine voice talking. Her ears perked up in excitement as she continued to listen to her target.
Following the voice for a minute, she was now motionless as she saw the back of a human in front of her. The female human was sitting on a bench. Lyra’s eyes lit up with excitement. Wasting no time, she teleported onto the bench. Putting her her hooves around the human tightly, she smiled in happiness. “Hi, human!” Lyra only received a blank stare from her target. Lyra just hugged tighter. She could see the discomfort in the human’s face. Lyra released her hug. “You’re going to be my pet. So get used to tight hugs.”
The human girl slowly shook her head in disbelief. Lyra glared at the human. “You will be my pet! You can’t stop it. So don’t fight it.”
Thinking fast, the human leapt from the bench running at full speed. Before she could even think of where to go, she tripped over Lyra, now in front of her.
Lyra put her forehooves over the back of the human. “I told you there was no escape.” Lyra’s voice deepened. “I meant it.”
Lyra’s ears twitched as she heard strange, loud sounds in the distance. Three enclosed carriages on wheels were approaching. Two with blue and red flashing lights and one larger gray and black one. Not knowing what to expect, Lyra put up a magic shield around her and her new human. “Human! Did you ask for help!?” The human girl did not answer. Lyra began to put pressure on the humans back. “Answer me!”
The human answered in fear. “No!”
The carriages and annoying sounds came to a stop over by the park entrance. Six humans in blue clothes came out of the three smaller carriages while six more in black armor-like suits came out of the large gray and black carriage. As they ran towards her, she saw they were all holding weapons of some sort. As they got closer, Lyra could see the confusion in their faces. To stall their advance, Lyra put up a wall of green fire around her.
Now at the wall of fire, two of the humans looked a little happy, but the rest had total confusion in their faces. The human on the far right side commented. “It’s...Lyra...are you guys seeing this?”
“Who’s Lyra?” asked one of the others.
An answer was given by the same human that first talked. “Lyra is a pony from the TV cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I watch that show with my sisters.”
“I watch that show too.” Said a different human.
“You know me?” Asked Lyra curiously.
The human on the right side nodded. “Yes, I know you and your interest in humans.”
Lyra jumped as she heard an unexpected voice. “Have you found the source of the strange energy signal that we picked up last night? Is it dangerous?”
Grabbing his radio, the human that seemed to know the most about Lyra replied,“Yes we found it, sir. I know you want to know what the source is, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Lyra watched with caution as the the small box talked back. “Tell me anyway. I need to know what made the signal. Strange unexplainable gamma rays and electromagnetic signals from inside ponds are not going to be normal. So I don't expect it to be a normal thing. So entertain me.”
“If you say so. The signal was from what I assume was a portal connecting our world to another. Specifically a different dimension. That dimension is from a cartoon on TV. Have you heard of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon? Well we have a unicorn from that TV show here and she has a hostage.”
There was skepticism in the reply. “Are you being serious? I know you’re not a joker, but that sounds ridiculous.”
“Yes, I am serious. I will even show you. Open up your phone and I will send a direct video feed to it.” The human took out a small device from a pocket and held it up.
“I’m seeing it but not believing it. Try to handle the situation. You seem to know the most.”
Glaring at the humans, Lyra replied,. “I won’t give up my pet human unless you find me a different human.”
“This is not like you Lyra. You’re supposed to be nice. Wouldn't it be smart to just move in with a human? You can live together.”
Lyra’s expression turned to anger. “I did not come here to be a human's pet! I came to get a human and I will. Nothing will stop me!”
The human nodded his head. “We can make that work. We could find a kid that has no family and give them to you, but I don’t know if the government would like that.”
“You better hope your government is okay with it.”
One of the other humans began talking. “We will convince the White House to allow such a thing. We don’t want to have anyone get hurt, but we do need to protect our species.
“What's so special about some white house? asked Lyra.
“Its a special building that our government operates from. Here are your options. Let the girl go, and we’ll get you a human that wants to be with you. If you do not release the girl, we’ll have to terminate you.”
Lyra smiled. “Ha! You think you can terminate me? That’s funny. I have been given a great gift of magic, far more than a normal unicorn. I know that your whole planet could not terminate me. I can sense the lack of magic in this world.” Lyra sighed. “You lied to me. I saw it in your face. You were going to try to terminate me even if I let this human girl go. The history books were right about not trusting humans.”
“This needs to stop,” replied one of the humans in black. “Everyone, prepare your weapons. We are taking this crazy-unicorn-girl down.” A shield went up around Lyra and her pet human as all but two of the humans raised their weapons and pointed them at Lyra. “So you two pony fans are not going to help?” Asked the leader.
“No sir,” replied one of the humans. “You don’t know what you're doing. Our weapons will have no effect on her. She has magic and we have nothing to combat against that. This will only make her angry.”
“Are you going to try to stop us?”
“No sir. That would only get us killed. I’m trying to be civil about this but my patience is fading. I know you like to shoot first and do everything else later but that will not work this time.”
“Our orders are to handle this situation and we are losing control of it. So I am ending this now.”
The human verbally defending Lyra put his head down in defeat. “We never had control to begin with. I know that nothing I say will stop you. So just get on with it. Don’t be surprised when you lose.”
The other pony fan came over to comfort his friend.
Bullets hurtled toward Lyra. Ripples could be seen where they impacted. However, the projectiles disintegrated on impact of the shield.
Magic radiated from Lyra’s horn and disintegrated all of the weapons.
Shaking her head in disappointment, Lyra replied, “I will be taking over your world. I can’t trust humans and as a result, I will be their ruler. From this park I will rule your world.” She smiled evilly.
The girl still under Lyra’s hooves spoke. “Is there anything we can do to persuade you to not do that?”
“No,” she replied as she got off. “Just be happy I’m letting you live. Hey Mr. armor-human, is there a way I can talk to your whole planet with minimum magic? Tell me or I’ll hurt the girl.”
Lyra’s verbal defender replied, “You could use the satellites in space to transmit a signal to all receiving electronic devices. It should reach most of the world.”
Shock took hold of the human group. “Why are you telling her that?” Asked one of them.
“Were you not listening to the conversation I just had? We can’t stop Lyra. We just saw how well trying to resist works. She will take over our world with or without us. I want to be on her good side when she does.”
With her shield still up, Lyra asked, “Does your small rectangle device connect to one of these satellites?”
A nod was all Lyra got.
A green aura surrounded the phone as it hovered to Lyra. “Let’s see if I can do this.” Her horn glowed as her face appeared on the phone. “It works. Now to expand to all devices. “Time to make my announcement.” The other two humans got their phones out and looked at them; they now saw Lyra’s face on them.
“Attention citizens of this world. As some of you may know, my name is Lyra. I am here to take over your world using my magic. This is no joke, so don’t take it as one. I have far greater magic than you think. In twenty minutes I shall claim control of this world. All nations will announce their surrender to me before then or be destroyed. I will send all the governments a device to acknowledge their surrender. I don’t want to destroy any humans, but I will if I have too. That is the end of the first global announcement from your new empress.” A countdown timer appeared in place of Lyra’s head.
Lyra’s horn stopped glowing, and she smiled. “I can have any human I want because I am going to be in control of this world.”
“Did I really just help a unicorn take over our world?” Asked Lyra’s verbal defender.
“Yes,” replied the no longer hostage girl. “Yes, you did. How does it feel to be a traitor to your country? Does it feel good to be teamed up with a terrorist? Being cute does not stop her from being a terrorist.”
Lyra blushed.
A large scroll appeared next to Lyra as she looked over at the humans. “You can leave if you want. I won't hold you here anymore. However, if you try to terminate me with your smaller sharper weapons, I will kill you.”
The girl and all the humans in blue clothes left. The humans in armor-like clothing stayed though, two of whom were knowledgeable of Lyra. “What is that scroll for?” Asked one of them.
Lowering her shield, Lyra sat down next to the two humans that knew her. “All the world's nations' names are on here. The ones in green have surrendered and the ones in red have not. It’s nice that Scotland, Ireland and Great Britain have already accepted their fate. I wonder why they surrendered so fast. They must know more about unicorns than the rest of the world. This should persuade some more to surrender.” Lyra’s horn lit up as a beam of magic shot up into space. The sky began turning green as a huge magic shield began to surround the planet. Several beams of magic shot down toward earth but had no visual effect. Ten nations names turned green as the event took place. The United States of America was not one of them.
The voice from the radio started talking again. “Did that green unicorn girl really just announce that she’s taking over our world? What happened? You were supposed to handle the situation.”
Stealing the radio, Lyra spoke into it. “They tried to tame me, but I can not be tamed! And my name is not green unicorn girl. It’s Lyra or Empress. Empress Lyra sounds nice too. Your team tried to terminate me but failed. I chose to spare their lives because I am feeling generous.”
The normal voice through the radio sounded defeated, “Sorry, Empress Lyra.”
But then a different, more commanding feminine voice began talking.. “Did you really just call that thing Empress? Don’t be a fool.”
“Quiet, human!” Snapped Lyra. “Just cause your not here does not mean I can’t hurt you.”
“No!” replied the new voice. “I will not call some dumb unicorn an empress or even-” Lyra magically crushed the radio. Her horn glowed as anger made itself visible on her face.
A moment later, a human appeared on the ground in front of Lyra. Holding her down with magic, Lyra shoved a hoof in the girl’s face. “You listen now, human! I am your ruler, and I will enforce my rules. Do not call me dumb or insult me again.” She put her face right down in front of her captives. “I will disconnect your hands from your arms if you do. I will use my magic to stop you from bleeding, but the pain will still be there. Do you understand?”
Before the human could reply, she was teleported away.
Lyra sighed as she thought to herself. Hands are nice. “Who wants to give me a back massage?”
All the humans looked at each other in a weird way.
Tapping a hoof on the ground, Lyra said, “Your Empress is waiting.”
Choosing to entertain this weird request, one of the humans answered, “I will massage you. Just promise to not disconnect my hands if you don't like the massage.”
Lyra giggled as she laid down. “I will not remove your hands.” As she felt the hands begin to massage her back, she closed her eyes.
With Lyra’s eyes closed, the leader of the armor-wearing humans began doing a motion with his hands trying to signal the one massaging to snap Lyra’s neck. Lyra was starting to make humming sounds as the human giving the massage saw the signals from the other human and shook his head while mouthing the word “No”.
Lyra giggled a little. “You're making the right choice by ignoring your human buddy over there. I know what he is doing. It would not work because I’m protecting myself with magic. Do you really think I would leave myself open to an attack? Just keep massaging me and there will be no problems.”
Lyra was so relaxed from the massage that time seemed to go by faster than normal. There was only a minute left on the countdown. Looking at the list of nations, she asked, “Why have those two nations not surrendered yet? They better get their act together. Stop the massaging so I may make my announcement and destroy those two nations.”
Standing up, Lyra focused her magic. She began her next world announcement. “Hi again, humans. I’m sure you realized that I magically disabled your super weapons as my planetary shield went up. Most of you were smart and chose to surrender, but two nations did not. So they will be destroyed. The names of the nations are Estovakia and Erusea. Please look at the screen of whatever device you’re using and watch the destruction of these nations.” Lyra’s face vanished and an image of the planet came on. Splitting into two, both images zoomed in on two parts of the planet.
Everyone in the world could feel the planet begin to shake violently. On the screen two huge sinkholes began to engulf the nations of Estovakia and Erusea. Within a matter of seconds the two nations were now in ruins inside the huge sinkholes. Lava filled the holes as a result of the stress the planet went through.
Lyra’s face replaced the images. She was breathing heavily. “That took some effort, but those nations are gone.” Taking a few seconds to catch her breath, she continued. “Make sure you do not rebel against me, or you will face the same fate that you just watched. On that note, this is the end of the second world announcement.” All the electronic devices returned to normal. Lyra laid down exhausted. “Even with years of practicing with my newly gained magic, terraforming a planet is not easy. At least that was easier than opening a portal to this world.” Lyra got back up. “I can’t rest now. I need to start building my home. I have a planet to begin ruling.” Her horn glowed and humans began appearing all around. “You are going to help me build my home. Get used to it humans. I am Empress Lyra! Your new ruler!"
From nowhere, a large castle and many statues of Discord began rising up from the ground. A familiar voice began laughing evilly. "Oh, how wrong you are Lyra.” In a flash of light and confetti, Discord appeared. With an evil smile he said, “Thank you for doing my work for me. You’re such a good pony servant.”
“I am not your servant!” Snapped Lyra. “Now get out of here before I hurt you. This is my world.”
“That’s not very nice of you,” replied Discord. “Is that how you treat the one who let you see humans and come to their world?”
Confusion made its way onto Lyra’s face. “Don’t try to play your head games with me, Discord!”
Discord smiled with pride. “I’m not playing any games...not at this time, anyway. I’m here to take back my powers from you. You have borrowed them for long enough. Did you honestly think you could open a portal to another dimension or terraform a planet? You're just a simple unicorn.” Discord snapped his eagle talons and Lyra collapsed from sudden exhaustion.
Sitting up on her hind legs, Lyra gasped for air. “What...what did you do to me?”
“Pay more attention, Lyra,” Discord said with a wave of his eagle claw. “I took my magic back. You have been borrowing it for many years now. It's thanks to me that you had the power to come here. Being reformed is so boring,” he said with a literal roll of his eyes. “I needed some freedom but I can’t just open a portal to some other world. That would attract too much attention from certain pony Princesses, and they would make problems for me. So I slowly gave my powers to you and increased your determination to find humans, to unhealthy levels obviously. I wanted you to open a portal for me. A portal being opened by a crazy pony does not attract the Princesses' direct attention. I don’t think they’ll miss me too much though.” Discord smiled. “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Lyra let out a sigh of defeat. “I guess this means you're taking over and making me your permanent servant.”
“You're wrong,” replied Discord. “You get to be my vice president, my second in command. Just make a global announcement that there is a newer leader of this world and we will rule together. It’ll be fun.”
"Ok," replied Lyra in a flat tone.