The Incursion
Night had fallen in the frozen north of Equestria, and in the Crystal Empire most ponies had retired for the night, resting after an eventful day of work, walking, organising, and running around panicking like headless chickens. Confused? Allow me to explain. That afternoon the inhabitants of the Crystal Empire, the Crystal Ponies, had found themselves the target of a rogue group of adolescent dragons, bandits who were looking for wild sources of gems and crystals for their food stocks.
It was by pure chance that they had come across the Crystal Empire, and it was lucky for the ponies themselves that Twilight Sparkle, former student of Princess Celestial and Equestria's newest Princess, had been visiting the palace as part of a research project. Now, these particular dragons weren't the sharpest spears in the armoury if you know what I mean, and thought that attacking one of the powerful and magically talented alicorns in Equestria was a good idea. They learned their lesson approximately 20 seconds later, where they were flying for their lives in the other direction avoiding a barrage of offensive spells cast by a very pissed off alicorn. Because in the first 5 seconds of the attack, they set the library on fire.
Anyway, after that fiasco was over (and Shining Armor had managed to calm his sister down), Twilight had returned to her previous endeavour. Ever since Sunset Shimmer had stolen her Element of Harmony and Twilight had followed her to an alternate world full of a species called 'humans', an event she and her fellow friends had referred to as 'The Equestria Girls Adventure', Twilight had secretly harboured an interest into the magic mirror that was the gateway between the two worlds. As of right now the portal was closed, and would not open again for another thirty moons. While it did stop her from going back to the other world, it didn't stop her from doing research into the mirror itself.
From the information she had gathered from various scrolls and tomes and the Royal Sisters themselves, the mirror had been acquired from Discord's personal collection once he had been defeated by Celestial and Luna all those years ago. Where it came from and how it came to be was unknown, although one thing did catch Twilight's attention in some of the older scrolls. Apparently every couple hundred years the location where the mirror would link to would change, as demonstrated in one record that described 'a metal biped' emerging from the mirror only to be incinerated by Celestia once it made clear its intentions were hostile. Along with this 'Cyber-Man', other beings had come through the gateway over the millennia. Some had peaceful intentions but didn't stay long enough to see their plans come to fruit, while the more malevolent ones had quickly been sent back through or destroyed.
Along with these, Twilight had also come across a book, written by one Stephen Hoofking, called 'The Multiverse in a Nutshell'. While fascinated by the ideals that he proposed, her excitement had only increased when she found inside a spell created by Starswirl the Bearded that, if used with the right ingredients and conditions, would allow her to use the mirror as a window to view other worlds. And that my friends, brings us to the present.
Twilight carefully placed the book onto a book stand, opening it at the page that listed the requirements needed to perform the spell. Her eyes scanned the page, drinking in the contents with gusto.
"Let's see. Step one: Make sure to have the exact quantities of the following ingredients.”
Grasping a paper and quill in her magic aura, she quickly but neatly wrote down the listed ingredients.
"25ml of alcohol…1 gram of sugar…two full rubies, uncut…6 turkey eggs…5 grams of magic sand…one mixing bowl…and one wooden spoon.“
For those of you who are curious as to why magic sand is on the list, allow me to explain. In Equestria, 'magic sand' is actually the name given to the dust generated when filing the horn of a unicorn or alicorn. This dust contains some remnant of magic that can be used by ponies of a scientific interest for fuel for their equipment, though it can turn volatile if mixed with the filing dust of another pony. Fortunately a little amount goes a long way, so it take a while before new dust is required.
Going back to the story, Twilight, after sending half a hour simply measuring the correct amounts for the alcohol, sugar and magic sand, returned with the ingredients and read the next step.
"Step 2: Mix all the ingredients together until mixture turns black. Leave for one minute before consuming all of the liquid…that can't be right. But who am I to ignore what Starswirl the Bearded wrote here? Clearly he knew what he was doing when he wrote this."
She poured the ingredients into the bowl and started mixing, eventually stopping when the mixture was an ugly black colour. Holding the bowl, he took a tentative sniff of the mixture. He couldn't smell anything, which was odd but didn't help to get rid of her uncertainness. Grimacing, she placed the bowl to her lips and downed the content in one swift movement. She gagged horribly. The liquid tasted as bad as it looked.
"Yuck! Ack…*cough cough*"
After she recovered from the awful taste (which I not even begin to describe), she returned to the book.
"Step three: After consuming the liquid, which should help to calm your senses (this is important!), simply cast the spell listed below at the frame of the mirror. Make sure to not hit the glass itself. That's it?“
Twilight was surprised by how simple the spell was. It was so easy even the weakest of unicorns could cast. Then it came to her. Maybe that was the idea of it all, so that everyone could use this spell and not just exceptionally talented magic users such as herself. Dragging her thoughts back to the experiment at hand, she trotted over to the mirror itself. She remembered the last time she had been here, about to embark on her quest to get her crown back from Sunset Shimmer. She shook her head, clearing her head of the memories. She could already fell the potion taking effect. Her heart rate slowed and breathing slowed down, focusing her as she prepared the spell. Making sure her horn was aligned with the frame of the mirror and wouldn't hit the glass, she charged up the spell. The magic quickly built up in her horn until it was ready to be discharged.
"Here goes nothing…"
She released the spell.
For the first few seconds noting happened, and Twilight began to wonder if she had done something wrong. She turned to check the book again to see what she had done wrong, when a crack appeared on the mirror. She stopped and looked at it. The crack had started from where the frame met the mirror and was only on the glass itself. But it was glowing too. A beautiful yellow light emanated from the crack, no scratch that the crack was made of the light. Then another crack appeared, and another,until there was about a dozen cracks of light coating the mirror, each moving their way towards the centre. When they connected, the glow of the light intensified, so much that it began to hurt Twilight's eyes. She put up her right foreleg and held in front of her eyes as the shield, trying to see what was going on.
"What in Eques-"
Before she could finish, there was a deafening BOOM and a magical shockwave erupted from the mirror, sending her flying backwards. Books, tomes, scrolls and other equipment were tossed into the air and thrown against the wall by the sheer force of the shockwave. Twilight, on the other hand, was smashed straight through the wall of the palace. She just managed to catch herself mid-air, spreading her wings and taking flight. He help fast as she saw the shockwave spread in all directions with no signs of stopping or dissipating. The ground below it was torn asunder, trees and rocks breaking in half like toys. The building of the empire was fortunately spared from destruction, but their residents were not. Lights flickered on inside buildings as ponies were rudely awaken by the booming noise that had accompanied the shockwave. Still it kept moving, until it was eventually out of sight.
Twilight's face was contorted with panic.
"I-I-I don't understand. This shouldn't have happened. I-I checked the spell beforehoof. Why did this-Oh!"
She was rudely interrupted by the copy of 'The Multiverse in a Nutshell' falling onto her face. Dragging it off with her magic, she noticed the page number was one after the page that the spell (which from now on shall be referred to as the World Window spell) was listed on. The following message was written in bold red ink on the other side of the page:
The following spell was not completed by the time of Starswirl the Bearded's passing, and thus remains uncompleted. This spell could not be attempted using the magic sand of an alicorn nor should it be casted by an alicorn, as it may have unintentional side-effects.
Twilght's jaw dropped. She had been so excited by the concept of the spell she hadn't bothered to check the rest of the book first. Wait a minute.Why was it on this page and not on the page with the World Window spell on it?
"WHAT THE BUCK?!?!"
She quickly put her hoof over her mouth apologetically.
"Whoops!"
The shockwave continued, not stopping. As it passed over Ponyville, the following events happened:
•Applejack's newly planted sapling, Frank, was snapped in half in front of her very eyes
•Fluttershy was in the middle of giving one of her bear friends an injection to help cure him of an infection plaguing his skin, but the shockwave started her, causing her to thrust the syringe forward and miss the bear's arm by a long shot. Suffice to say, the bear will not be having children in the future
•Rarity had just exited a saloon after having her mane restyled when the shockwave turned her mane into an indescribable mess
•Rainbow Dash was rushing back to her house with a copy of the latest Daring Do book, when the shockwave sent her tumbling out of control, causing her to lose her hold of the book, which landed in the jaws of a cragodile.
•Pinkie Pie was serving Celestia and Luna in Sugarcube Corner, who were stopping by Ponyville at the request of the older sister to purchase some of the Cake family's 'special cakes‘. The shockwave caused the cakes to splatter everywhere, including on Pinkie and the Princesses. Only Pinkie was enjoying the situation.
The shockwave keep going, until finally it collided with itself at Equestria's Southern Hemisphere.
Aetos Ocean, Griffon Kingdom
A fierce storm battered the open waters, great waves rising up and crashing agains the ocean's surface. In the midst of this the Sparrowhawk, a small two-pony fishing vessel desperately tried to pull in its catch of tuna. Like the rest of Equestria they too had witnessed the shockwave and were now rushing to get out of the storm as soon as possible. The captain, an elderly griffon by the name of Markos with graying feathers and balding spots on his head covered by his woollen hat, grasped onto the wheel for dear life as he tried to keep the boat in a straight line while his assistant Leonus pulled with all his might to bring the net full of their catch out of the sea and onto deck.
"Captain, I can't hold on much longer!"
"Keep pulling son, we're almost clear!"
They never made it. A huge wave off the port bow caught Markos by surprise and rolled the Sparrowhawk knocking both griffons into the raging waters, before the brutal waves smashed it into nothing more than a few pieces of wood. Leonus surfaced a moment later gasping for air, carrying the older griffon over his backs. Paddling with all his strength against the raging currents, he managed to reach some of the wreckage that was big enough to support them both. The young griffon hoisted the captain onto the floating driftwood first before scrambling onto it himself and holding on for dear life. He had no idea if Markos was still alive. He hoped so, as this wasn't the place to be performing CPR. Another wave crashed over them. He held his breath and hung on for dead life, trying to stop the warm water from washing him away.
'Wait warm?', the young griffon thought.
Something huge burst out of the waves behind them, the waters cresting over the rising object. The dome was ruptured by a vast number of purple jagged spires. It rose higher and higher, revealing a monstrous shape almost alien to the tiny griffons below. Dark green skin covered mountains of muscle and bone, sinewy arms that ended in terrible claws were attached to a massive chest, a long neck of rippling scales culminated into squared, sinew-laden jaws filled with hundreds of teeth, a robust tail snaking behind its imposing form, eyes of fury shone brightly with an intelligence that belied its form. Leonus knew he was going to die here, in the middle of nowhere by the claws of this monster. The beast looked around, almost in confusion, before unleashing a frightening and bone chilling roar.
"SKREEEONNNGK!"