Ponies weren't the first dominant race. There was a race who came before. A warlike race who vanished without a trace 3000 years ago. At least, that's what the stories say. But what if that race could speak for themselves?
"Long ago, before ponies existed, the world was ruled by another race. This race ruled the world alone for over six thousand years. Six thousand years of war and bloodshed. This race fought against each other over almost anything. They did not know harmony, only chaos.
This race nearly destroyed the world in their conflicts, before vanishing without a trace. Nopony knows if the two-legged monsters still exist somewhere in the world, but this much is certain: they were a threat to the whole world, and if they still exist, they still are."
–Excerpt from The Age of Man, by Starswirl the Bearded, published 15 CR.
"We were alone for over six thousand years. In that time, we nearly destroyed ourselves due to our own foolishness. We fought our own kind for some of the dumbest reasons, and as a result, we almost wiped ourselves out in World War III.
But praise the Almighty that we did not. Only a few hundred million survived the war, but that war finally convinced us to stop war forever. The planet was scarred, and it needed healing. There weren't enough of us to heal the planet in a timely manner, so Man did one of the most wonderful and terrible things possible: create new life. New sapient life. Gryphons, dragons and ponies. We created them to be our friends, but they became our enemies when we tried to fight again using them as weapons. They decided to destroy us, and we had made them too strong, so we did the only thing we could: we hid underground. Here, in the caverns that house the Republic of New Terra, we seek to ready ourselves to make amends for our sins against life and God after rejoining the surface world.
But that is a long time away. Humanity has a long way to go before we breach the surface. But New Terra will rise someday. Never forget that."
–Excerpt from A History of Exile: Volume I, by Trevor Williams, published 3246 AD.
"New Terra will rise."
That phrase has been repeated on billions of lips in the secret underground caverns for years now. The time has almost arrived. Will the world be able to handle the return of the humans of old? Will the humans be destroyed for their sins against the world? Or will they be forgiven and be granted peace? Humanity can only hope and pray for the latter as the Day of Return fast approaches.
The Sun rose slowly, shining its light into a cave that nopony dared to enter. The stories of the evil creatures that once ruled the world claimed that they had retreated into that very cave, and nopony wanted to see if the legends were true. Most didn’t believe the old stories, but the cave still remained unexplored due to fear alone.
However, as the light crept into the cave, unable to feel fear and thus having no qualms with entering the forbidding gloom, something flashed in the darkness of the cave, accompanied by the sound of something slamming shut.
If anypony had ever decided to actually explore the cave, they’d find that the cave was actually quite small. It only went in about fifty feet and stopped abruptly at a strangely flat wall. It was this wall that the slamming sound had come from, and unknown to anypony, there was something beyond the wall.
On the other side of the wall was a system of tunnels and caverns spanning for miles beneath the ground, where creatures that walked on two legs roamed, surrounded by buildings and machines that made anything anypony had ever constructed seem primitive in comparison. These beings were known as humans. They had once ruled the world above, but war after war had thinned their numbers from tens of billions to a few hundred million before The Usurpers came into being.
Just like how the ponies told stories of the two-legged monsters, so did the humans tell stories of The Usurpers: an attempt to create sapient life to match humanity’s level and live as humanity’s equals and friends, ending humanity’s status as a lonely race. They weren’t called The Usurpers back then. They were referred to as Gryphons, dragons, and man’s greatest creation: Equus Sapiens. Ponies.
The project to cleanse the earth went smoothly for decades, until the threat of extinction died down enough that humans wanted to fight again. Some humans tried to re-engineer their creations into creatures of war, with some success. These weaponized creations started to work for the various factions man had once again splintered into, but it wasn't long before man realized how stupid he was being the hard way.
The ponies were intended to be peaceful, and they started to rebel against those who tried to make weapons out of them. The human race started to fall in numbers again, and those who realized extinction was at hand started vanishing from society in droves, seeking shelter underground.
The humans considered rebuilding nuclear weapons, but they couldn’t bring themselves to scorch the world again, not even if it would save their lives, for they had come so close to cleansing the world. Even bloodlust wouldn't drive them that far.
After a decade of fighting and heavy losses on both sides, all the remaining humans gathered in one location and vanished. When The Usurpers arrived, mankind had simply vanished, leaving nothing but a cave.
In this cave, humans struggled to survive and rebuild their numbers. They called their home “New Terra”, and there they continued to develop technologies to help them retake the surface some day to right their many wrongs.
The humans hoped and prayed for the day when they could return to the surface and right all their wrongs. They didn’t want to destroy their creations, and they didn’t believe that destroying The Usurpers was part of their penance. However, they were ready to fight if it came to it.
Among the stories of The Usurpers were the King and Queen of the ponies who had led the attack on man: King Apollo and Queen Diana. The two were incredibly powerful, and also had two young daughters at the time. Whether the King and Queen were still around, no one knew, but no doubt would their daughters be alive and well, given how long the first two ponies were supposed to be able to live.
The year is 5101 AD. The ponies refer to the year as 1001 CR. Though the ponies view this year as the same as any other, the humans beneath the surface see things differently. They have begun sending scouts out in the dark of night to learn about the status of the surface after three thousand years of exile.
One phrase has been repeated on billions of human lips for years now: “New Terra will rise.” And the humans were finally ready to realize their dream of seeing the Sun once more. The mechanisms had been put in place, and all that remained was to activate them. The underground nation would breach the surface and rejoin the world, nine billion strong.
Unbeknownst to the surface dwellers, an old race was about to retake their place in the family of nations.
It was just another day in Canterlot for Princess Celestia as she rose the Sun. Her father had claimed that the Sun and Moon used to move on their own a very long time ago, but before she rose the Sun, her father had done it, and she didn’t remember a time when he hadn’t had to.
However, just as the Sun finished its rise over the horizon, the ground shook. The tremors were intense. Far stronger than any earthquake Celestia ever remembered, and being three thousand and one years old meant that she’d had plenty of time to see hundreds of earthquakes.
“Your Majesty, the city is in panic!” a Guardspony exclaimed as he burst into the room. “The tremors are driving the masses into hysteria!”
“I’ll need to—“
Celestia cut off as a nearby mountain started to crumble. More mountains next to that one started to crumble as well. The Canterhorn was shaking, but luckily, it wasn’t crumbling like the others.
As Celestia watched in stunned silence, something started to break the surface where the mountains had crumbled into rubble. First, there was a glint of shiny metal, and then another, and another. Soon, structures started to rise out of the ground. There were too many to count: houses, factories, buildings that resembled palaces, and more structures that she couldn’t identify.
The structures stretched beyond the horizon, so the Solar Princess was unable to see where the colossal city that had just burst from the ground ended. However, the entire mountain range had been demolished except for the Canterhorn, leaving the mountain standing alone, surrounded by structures that looked like something out of a science fiction novel.
As soon as the city stopped rising out of the ground, the tremors stopped. Celestia had her guards check on Canterlot and the surrounding area, luckily finding no damage.
What could that possibly be? She wondered, as she stared at the monstrous city.
“Princess! We intercepted this thing flying towards the palace,” a Pegasus guard informed Celestia as he struggled to keep a grip on a metal sphere that seemed to possess no means of locomotion, but was shaking in his grip nonetheless.
Just as the guard was about to ask what to do with the sphere, the ball broke free from his grip and zipped towards Celestia, stopping to hover inches from her face.
It just stood there for a few seconds before beeping and speaking in a masculine voice, though it possessed no mouth.
“You are Celestia, daughter of Apollo and Diana, are you not?” the sphere asked.
“That I am,” Celestia replied with a raised eyebrow. “But how do you know of my parents? As far as I knew, nopony remembers them anymore.”
“Oh dear Creator, has the language really warped that much in the world above?” the voice said before addressing the Princess again. “We know your parents very well, Princess. We have a kind of… history with them, you see. We have been absent from society for three thousand years, you see, so we weren’t sure if your parents would still be leading The Usurpers or not.”
“The what?” Celestia asked in confusion.
“Oh, forgive me for using that archaic term,” the sphere said. “I meant the world as a whole, of course.”
“Nopony is in charge of the entire world,” Celestia replied tersely. “Every race has at least one nation of their own.”
“Well then, this will be simpler than we expected,” the sphere announced. “I look forward to meeting you in person soon, Princess. My name is Henry Stone, President of the Republic of New Terra. I hope that on behalf of all races that our return to the world will be simple and uneventful. I bid you a good day.”
With that, the sphere spun around a few times and flew out the window, towards the mega city in the distance.
President Stone sighed as he switched off the viewing screen in his office and let the communications drone pilot itself back to Terra City.
He had heard reports that the Sun was blinding compared to the underground world he’d always known, but he had to stay in his office to talk to who he thought would be the leader of the entire planet. But if the world was divided, maybe he wouldn’t have to order the military to take a stand. They had a few nuclear missiles, but they were to be a last resort, and it looked as if they wouldn’t even need to defend themselves at all.
“Johnson, I’m heading outside,” the President told the Secret Service agent standing guard. “I want to see the Sun for myself.”
The agent just nodded and put a finger to his earpiece. “The President is heading out. Keep watch.”
“Thank you, Johnson,” President Stone said with a nod before heading down a flight of stairs.
After a few minutes of walking, he finally reached the front doors to the Executive Mansion. Pushing them open, he stepped outside into the blinding light of the Sun.
He’d heard stories about sunlight, but he’d only seen ancient photos and paintings of the fiery orb that warmed and lit the globe. Actually seeing the light for himself was overwhelming. His eyes burned, and he squinted against the intense light as the pain overwhelmed his senses, blinding him and forcing him to close his eyes.
Determined to see the Sun no matter what, Stone reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of shades. After putting them on, he cracked his eyes open slightly only to feel the pain again, only slightly less intense because of the protection he'd put on.
But as his eyes slowly adjusted, he finally got his first good look at the world of the surface before taking the shades off and enduring the pain of the Sun once more just so he could see everything properly. Sunlight was beautiful! The lawn had been grown under artificial light, but the grass was already beginning to appear more vibrant. Everything looked more alive in the rays of the Sun. He heard chirping and looked up to see birds flying overhead, free to roam, unlike the animals from the world below. The surface was wonderful.
General Michael Fletcher sighed as he leaned back in the chair at his desk. The Secretary of Defense had ordered him to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice, but so far, there had been no word from Terra City. Fort Pinedale was stationed near the edge of New Terra’s new territory on the surface, but so far, no invasion force had started to pour out of the ponies’ city, so the nearby city of New Angeles was safe.
Suddenly, his earpiece beeped, and he pushed it further into his ear before saying, “This is General Fletcher, anything to report?”
“No attacks yet, Sir,” the voice on the other end of the link replied, “but the men and women are growing restless. We’ve had to stop six from donning their armor so far, and others won’t come out of the barracks for roll call because they don’t feel safe unarmored.”
“Then just let them put on their armor if it makes them feel safer,” the general replied. “We need to keep high morale, have everyone suit up. We need to be ready for an attack, anyway. If that means having our men and women encased in radioplastic 24/7, then so be it. I’m ordering all Radioplastic Armored Troopers to suit up. Understood?"
“Sir, yes Sir,” the voice on the other end replied. “All R.A.T.s are to suit up immediately.”
“Good,” Fletcher said with a sigh of relief, “we’ll be ready if they decide to attack. Over and out.”
The General tapped his earpiece to cut the link and turned to the papers on his desk, he had a lot of work to do today, so he might as well get started sooner rather than later.
In Canterlot, ponies had stopped panicking after the tremors died down. Most ponies had taken to simply staring at the city that had popped out of the ground. Nopony knew what it was, and all sorts of theories were being exchanged while ponies continued to stare, some in confusion, some in curiosity, and others in fear.
In the palace, Princess Celestia was preparing to seek an audience with the being whom had called himself Henry Stone but a few minutes prior. She had no idea what to expect, so she was preparing her guards much more than herself.
“Remember, we don’t know what these beings are, or what they’re like. Try very hard to not provoke or frighten them.”
“Yes, Princess,” a guard replied for the fifteenth time in five minutes.
“Now, we don’t want to incite panic, so please remember to not see everything as an attempt on my life,” the princess insisted.
“Yes, Princess,” the guard replied again.
“Now, we have to make sure everypony is looking their best, so—” Celestia tried to continue, before being promptly cut off.
“Princess, the chariot is ready,” another guard said as he poked his head into the room.
“Never mind that last part, then,” Celestia said, “we have to get going.”
“Yes, Princess,” the guard answered once more.
“You sound like a broken record,” Celestia remarked, “can’t you say anything besides ‘yes, Princess’?”
“Yes, Prin—I mean, of course!” The guard spluttered as he and a few other guards escorted Celestia to the royal chariot.
Celestia face-hoofed at the guard’s response before climbing aboard the chariot.
After a few seconds, the pegasi pulling the chariot took to the air, it rising with them. They were on their way.
General Fletcher’s earpiece beeped again whilst he was filling out a form to authorize temporarily closing down barrack twelve for maintenance.
He pushed the earpiece in again and said, “This is General Fletcher. Go ahead.”
“Sir, requesting orders to engage a possible threat, Sir.” the voice on the other end replied.
“What kind of threat?” the general asked with worry.
“A small group of pegasi pulling some kind of flying chariot has entered New Angeles’ air space,” the voice explained, “the population is panicking. Should we shoot them down, sir?”
“No,” Fletcher replied.
“What was that, sir?” The voice questioned.
“I said, no.” Fletcher repeated. “You open fire, and I’ll have you court martialed, understand?”
“Yes, Sir,” the voice replied, “and what of the population of New Angeles, Sir?”
“March in there and restore order,” Fletcher commanded, “the last thing we need right now is a riot.”
“Yes, Sir. Over and out.”
Fletcher sighed and returned to his paperwork, there was just so much. One small group wasn’t enough to call an invasion force.
Besides, he had more important things to deal with. Such as preparing to update the internet server satellites for the first time in more than three thousand years. And New Angeles was going to be one of the new uplink hubs, so protecting the ground-bound servers until their data could be uploaded back into space was going to be a must.
As the chariot continued to fly over the city, Celestia suddenly heard screaming coming from below. She chanced a look over the side and saw thousands of bipedal figures staring up at her and screaming.
“The Usurpers are here!” one shouted.
“They’ll kill us all!” another cried out.
“Everyone! RUN!” another screamed.
“You idiots!” a fourth voice shouted in anger, “They’re just envoys for peace! Panicking will make us look foolish!”
And with that, the populace of the city below ignored the lone voice of reason and descended into chaos. Beings ran in every direction in panic, trying to find shelter or some other place to hide or cower in fear.
“This doesn’t look good at all...” Celestia muttered under her breath.
As they continued to fly further into the city’s airspace, panic continued to spread. Every street was filled with beings running about in fear, screaming at the top of their lungs; adults pulling young children inside, white metal carriages with red and blue flashing lights blocking off roads while bipeds in blue police uniforms climbed out and started shouting at the other bipeds, even some bipeds arguing with each other while pointing up at the chariot from time to time, as if some of them were berating the others for being afraid.
“Fly faster,” Celestia ordered, “we need to find the capital of this place, and fast.”
The guards pulling the chariot nodded and put on an extra burst of speed, heading for the cluster of colossal buildings in the distance.
“Alright, everyone, calm down!” a voice shouted to be heard over the cries of panic flooding the streets of New Angeles.
As one, the people in the streets paused and looked in the direction the voice was coming from: Fort Pinedale.
A huge battalion of soldiers covered from head to toe in gleaming lavender armor were marching towards the city, laser rifles in hand. The one at the head of the group was carrying an ultraphone, which could carry sound for miles.
“There is no need to panic!” The ultraphone boomed, “the ponies are not invading! They’ve shown no signs of hostility, and a pair of fighters have been dispatched to escort them to their destination! So everyone, just calm down!”
With that, the panic subsided, but the people were still on edge. The citizens of New Angeles returned to their homes and turned on their livingvision sets, an age old upgrade to standard television, replacing screens and diodes with holographic projectors, to watch nervously for any sign of an attack.
As the cluster of buildings slowly got closer, a pair of huge metal, bird-like machines joined the chariot on either side.
“Unidentified fliers, identify yourselves and explain your intentions,” a voice called from the machine on the right.
“I am Princess Celestia of Equestria, and we’re heading to seek an audience with Henry Stone,” the princess replied, doing her best not to seem surprised by this—undoubtedly common, strange creation.
“Understood. Your heading is off, allow us to escort you to your proper destination,” a voice replied from the flying machine on the left, “you’re heading to Neo York City, and Terra City is a few hundred miles to the north of your current location. I suggest you turn here.”
“Thank you,” Celestia said with a nod as her guards turned to the right, “I think we can find our way from here, so if you’ll excuse us—”
“Sorry, ma’am, no can do,” the voice from the machine on the right cut in, “we’re under orders to escort you to your destination to prevent the populace from panicking at the sight of you.”
“Very well,” Celestia replied, “lead on.”
“Thank you for your cooperation,” the voice from the left said, “this makes our job much easier.”
After a few hours of flying, Celestia’s chariot touched down on a well-kept lawn in front of a white marble mansion. Her guards were exhausted, but they’d made it.
Two bipeds in black suits and sunglasses approached and held up what appeared to be badges. Very ornate, and classy, badges no less.
“New Terra Secret Service,” the one on the right said, “The President has been informed of your arrival. He’s waiting for you in the Peace Gardens around back. Follow us.” He spoke curtly, and in a no nonsense tone of voice.
Celestia nodded, and her guards followed behind her as the two bipeds led them along a path to the back of the mansion, where a massive garden was in full bloom. Trees, flowers, and bushes of all kinds were displaying beautiful colored flowers and blossoms, truly, it was a sight to behold.
There was a white circular table set up in the shade of a weeping willow, where another suited biped was sitting, reading a book.
“Mr. President, your guests have arrived,” the second biped with sunglasses announced.
The being at the table looked up from his book and smiled. A kindly smile Celestia recognized, as it was similar to the one she wore naught but every day upon the throne.
“Ah, Princess Celestia! How good of you to drop by!” The being stood up and walked over to her, extending a hand. Celestia stared at it for a few moments before meeting it with her hoof and accepting the shake.
“Allow me to welcome you to Terra City, capital of the Republic of New Terra,” the being said, raising his arms to the sky and twirling about, as if to say ‘Welcome,’ directing attention to everything around, “I am President Henry Stone, the leader of New Terra and her population of nine billion human beings.”
Celestia started at the mention of the legendary humans of old, as well as at the sheer number of them this man claimed were inside his country’s borders. It occurred to her that to fit such numbers in such relatively small space was indicative of a certain level of intelligence the humans possessed.
Her guards raised their spears and glared at the humans in sunglasses, who didn’t react at all.
“Nine billion humans?” she asked in disbelief.
“Well, living underground for three thousand years with no enemies really helped increase our numbers,” President Stone replied. “I must say, though; the surface is far more beautiful than the caverns I grew up in. The sunlight just makes everything dazzling! And so much open space! I’m sure my ancestors would’ve given anything to see the beauty of this world.”
“But, humans?” Celestia asked dumbly. Whilst she had dealt with many things in her time of rule, such as ancient evils resurfacing and trying to rule the world, being told that an entire civilization had been living under her lands for thousands of years was simply too much to comprehend.
“Why, yes,” Stone replied, “I’m a human, my Secret Service agents are human, the pilots who escorted you here were human! This entire country is home to every human being on the planet.”
Celestia took a few steps back.
“But humans are wicked and vile creatures! Why haven’t you attacked?” Celestia asked in fear.
“Simple:” Stone replied, “we don’t want to fight. Our ancestors tried to explain to the early ponies that we’d left war behind us forever, but they wouldn’t listen after some fools tried to make weapons out of them. The War of Races started because some of us were fools and tried to weaponize you and the other races, but when you turned on us, we stopped fighting to destroy. We just wanted to live. And since our only choices were to either rain down destruction once again, and bathe the world in nuclear fire, or to hide from the world until we recovered enough to return to the surface, we took the latter option, and hid underground for three thousand years.” He explained, not unlike how a kindly schoolteacher would explain an arithmetic problem to a troubled student.
“Wait, you mean to tell me that humans aren’t bloodthirsty monsters?” Celestia asked, confused, all she had been taught, and all that she had read was not doing anything to serve her, for all of her knowledge on humans was now ruled obsolete and incorrect.
“Indeed, that is what I’m telling you,” Stone answered with a smile, “we’re only here to return to the world and stop hiding. We don’t want to fight anyone, we just want to live in peace. Is that acceptable, Princess?”
“How can I be sure you’re not lying?” Celestia asked, eying the human warily.
“If we wanted to fight, we’d already be doing it,” Stone replied, “we really don’t want to fight, Princess. Our people are simply terrified of you, they thought you had come to destroy them, and in spite of our best efforts, they still do.”
Stone fell silent after that and pulled a box out from underneath the table. He pushed a button on it, and a screen on the front lit up and projected a three-dimensional image of a human woman sitting at a desk and wearing a panicked expression onto the table.
“We’ve been getting reports from all over New Terra of sightings of a flying object owned by the Usurpers inside New Terran airspace,” the projection said, “panic has filled the streets as fear of an attack has started to grip the populace. Thousands of New Terran R.A.T.s have been dispatched to attempt to calm down the populace and restore order, but success has been quite limited. Bob Parker is live in Terra City with more information. What’s it look like out there, Bob?”
The image changed to a human man in a long coat holding a device near his mouth that resembled a stick with a black bulb at the end standing among screaming humans running about in all directions.
“Not good, Megan,” the man said as the humans continued to panic, “the commonly-held belief is that the Usurpers have come to destroy us, though we have yet to see any hostility from them. I’m here with John Sewell, a resident of Terra City for an interview. John, what can you tell us about what you’ve seen?”
The image shifted angles to reveal an elderly-looking human man standing next to Bob. Bob turned to face him and held out his device.
“It was horrible!” the old man wailed, “The Usurpers flew overhead in some kind of flying chariot! There were two fighters chasing it, but they didn’t open fire! They must know that we’re doomed! Why else would they not attack? The chariot headed to the Executive Mansion, and that’s the last I saw of it. What if they assassinate the President? We’re doomed, I tell you! The Usurpers are going to destroy us all! Humanity is doomed! DOOMED!”
The old man screamed and ran off, joining the panicked masses running around in the background.
“As I said, things aren’t looking good out here, Megan,” Bob said, “the military’s been doing all it can to calm the populace, but panic continues to spread. At least it hasn’t spread very far from the cites that witnessed the flying object. Unless we hear from the President soon, we may have to assume the worst. We may have to prepare to stop armed mobs like the Xenocide Brigade from forming again. Back to you in the studio, Megan.”
“Thank you, Bob,” the woman said as the image shifted back to her at her desk. “In related news, the authorities have heightened security at the facility holding former Xenocide Brigade leader, Martin Mendoza. In a previous interview with the incarcerated fear-mongerer—”
Stone pressed the same button as before and the projection vanished as the screen went dark.
“What was that?” Celestia asked, bedazzled.
“A news report,” the President replied with a sigh, “you saw what’s happening in the streets of this city as we speak. The people are scared of you, Princess. They’re scared of your entire nation, as a leader of people, please believe us, we don’t want to fight anymore, we just want to live in peace, after all these years. That’s all we ask.”
“I’ll have to speak with Luna, my sister, about this, but I see no problems with your proposal,” Celestia replied with a sigh of relief. “We’ll get a treaty written up and have it ready by tomorrow at the latest, if Luna agrees.”
“Thank you,” Stone said, “we look forward to living in peace with you for millennia to come.”
After Celestia returned to Canterlot, she headed for the throne room to think.
“This is going to change a lot of things,” the Solar Princess muttered to herself, “we’re going to have to re-educate a lot of ponies about humans. Maybe involving some of the humans would help,”
“We’re also going to have to calm ponies down, especially after those tremors,” Celestia continued, not paying any attention to her surroundings as she continued to the throne room guided by memory alone, “and then we’ll have to explain to them who exactly reappeared, which will most likely cause more panic, and then we’ll have to explain that the humans aren’t going to invade, and that they didn’t mean to cause the tremors! Not to mention that I’ll have to instruct the guards to leave the humans alone if they enter our territory!” The solar diarch continued her mutterings, pausing in her walk for a moment to raise a hoof to her temple, this was just going to be so much work.
Celestia sighed as she entered the throne room. “I hope Luna will take this easier than I did—”
“Hello, dear,” a female voice said, cutting into Celestia’s musings and causing her to pay more attention to what was in front of her, which happened to be a pair of alicorns, both slightly larger than herself.
The stallion was a brilliant orange and had the same cutie mark as she did. His mane was also made of animate magic, just like hers, and was the same colors as a sunrise. He was wearing a gold crown with a beautiful sun-shaped orange topaz embedded in it, as well as a suit of golden plate armor, rather ornate, but still with an obvious appearance of functionality.
The mare was a midnight blue, had a mane similar to Luna’s, and had the same cutie mark as well. She wore a silver crown with a similarly beautiful crescent-shaped sapphire embedded in it, as well as a set of silver and indigo robes with steel armor plate spread about.
They were her parents: King Apollo and Queen Diana.
“Mother? Father? What are you two doing here?” The Princess asked in confusion as she approached her parents.
“Some things have come up, so we’re relieving you and Luna of your duties as our regents for the time being,” Apollo replied, taking his older daughter into a hug, “the world needs us again, so we’re retaking the throne for a while.”
“When the problem is taken care of, we’ll return leadership to you and Luna, of course,” Diana continued, “but for now, Equestria needs us again.” She finished with a nod.
“What’s so important that you needed to come back?” Celestia asked as her father released her and her mother drew her into a hug.
“You did notice the cities that just popped out of the ground, right?” Apollo asked, a bemused smile tugging at his features.
Celestia nodded.
“Well, Tia, that’s why we’re here,” Diana explained, “to finish something that we should’ve three thousand years ago. Equestria’s going to war, and they’ll need our leadership and wisdom for the foe we’ll be up against.”
Celestia pushed her mother away and stared. “You’re going to attack the humans?”
“That is correct,” Apollo replied with a nod, “they are a scourge upon the world, and now that they have revealed themselves, we’re going to finish the job.” Her father finished, a serious tone overtaking the previous one of fatherly love.
“But President Stone said they don’t want to fight anymore!” Celestia protested. “They just want to live in peace!”
“You spoke with one of the fiends?” Diana growled, “you could’ve gotten hurt!”
“I spoke with their leader,” Celestia corrected, “and they’re not ‘fiends,’” she said the word with disgust, “they don’t want to fight! They just want peace!”
Apollo looked ready to object, but before he could speak, Celestia added; “and I’m meeting with him again soon, to sign a treaty between ponies and humans to demonstrate that neither side needs to fear the other.”
Apollo closed his mouth and looked lost in thought before finally nodding and saying, “Very well, Celly. We’ll see how this goes. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Humans are not to be trusted, war with them is most likely inevitable, due to their savage nature. Now, before you go anywhere, I want you to go to your room for a while to think things through very carefully. You may be a grown mare, but I’m still your father, and I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Yes, Father,” Celestia huffed before turning to return to her chambers, unaware of the glint in her father’s eyes as he whispered something to her mother. She needed to write a letter to Twilight.
And so began a series of events that could bring ruin to both the mighty empire of Equestria, and the newly risen nation of Humanity. Because war… war never changes.
As Celestia sat at the desk that she kept in her room, for the rare times she had paperwork to do, she was thinking of what should become of the humans. They had shown no hostilities, and had made very valid points on their wants for peace.
But why, then, did her parents seem so adamant about the pure evil of the humans? Celestia had trusted her parents on many occasions, as their years and experience were very useful to a new ruler. But, seeing as how she had been in power for two thousand years, she wasn’t so eager to let them come in and reinstate themselves.
Thinking up a brilliant plan that would both alleviate the tedium of a boring room, and allow for steps to be made for dealing with the humans, Celestia started writing a letter, addressed to her Faithful Student, and fellow Princess, Twilight Sparkle.
Dear Twilight,
Twilight, as you well know, I have called on you and your friends time and time again to help in the defense of our fair nation. I must call on you once more for a task of this like. Thankfully we are not once more fighting against ancient evils from the lands below or of times long past; instead I am faced with a mental query that I require assistance with. A new people have made themselves known, and I feel it unjust of myself to decide their fate alone. I would request that you and your friends make travel to the palace with utmost haste, these matters should not wait. One last thing: These discussions will probably go on for quite some time, so feel free to bring along whatever snacks you would, the same goes for your friends.
Your loving mentor and fellow Princess,
Celestia
Her letter finished, Celestia rose from her oaken chair, taking the letter in her magic she concentrated on her prize pupil as she sent waves of magical energy through her horn and unto the parchment, engulfing the note in flames and sending the ashes on their merry way to where Twilight would be.
Perhaps it would be unprofessional to say that Twilight was startled at the sound of roaring flames whilst she was standing upon a tall ladder inside her tree house library; of course, unprofessional or not, this did happen. Sending Twilight falling to the ground, although she had enough peace of mind to use her magical prowess to slow her descent, landing daintily upon the floorboards.
Turning towards her trusted assistant Spike as he grasped a rolled up piece of parchment in his claws, she gave him a small smirk in reference to the, admittedly comedic, events that had just happened.
“And here I thought we had gotten you broken of that whole roaring habit,” she said with a hint of mirth as Spike gave her a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his scale covered head with a hand.
“Well, you know, sometimes I get surprised by it. After all, the Princess hasn’t been sending you many letters,” he explained, eliciting a nod of acknowledgement from Twilight.
“Well, anyway, why don’t we find out what it is that’s important enough to break this dry streak?” And with that she gently extracted the scroll from Spike’s claws, bringing it up to eye level as she broke the red wax seal bearing the mark of the crown, letting the scroll unfurl she began reading.
Needless to say, by the end of her short read Twilight was worried. Perhaps it was just her nature, but this letter gave her a certain sense of foreboding. It wasn’t in the way it was written, there were certainly no signs that Celestia was writing urgently, nor that she was worried. No, it was more in what was not written. Perhaps intentionally, Celestia had not given any detail as to what would be discussed at their meeting.
Twilight, being the self-proclaimed genius that she was, decided the best course of action would be to run about town and gather up all her friends from whatever they were doing. After all, she could worry about their problems after whatever this was had been taken care of.
She would also have to ask Pinkie for snacks, she wouldn’t want to disappoint the Princess, of course.
Pinkie had decided that on this most glorious of days she was going to make a bunch of sugary and fattening foods for the princess, she felt that it would be called for, for some strange reason. She had been working all day and had already made over two dozen different treats and snacks for Celestia. All she had left was to put the finishing touch on her ‘quadruple triple double layeredSuper-mega-chocolate-supreme-will-instantly-give-you-diabetes’ cake, It was well over five feet tall and had eight different types and flavors of chocolate, nine if you counted the icing in the mix that had been baked to perfection. It was her masterpiece. Truly the most amazing baked good that had ever been made in the history of ever, and it was hers to present to the Solar Princess of the land.
There was only one thing left for the pink party pony to do, and that was to adorn the top of the cake with a miniature Celestia figure she just happened to have laying around. She turned around and grabbed the figure off the kitchen counter with both hooves, then swiveled back around to face the cake, she stood up on her hind hooves to reach the top. Just as the figure’s base was about to touch the icing, there was a poof of purple magic. Twilight Sparkle had teleported right in the middle of the space that the cake was currently occupying, causing the cake to explode and cover the whole room, and its occupants in an even coating of cake, icing, and chocolate. Walls, ceilings, floors and all. Once the ‘Super-mega-chocolate-supreme-will-instantly-give-you-diabetes’ cake ceased to exist, Pinkie’s eyes grew wide and her jaw actually hit the floor, because Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie Pie, meet me at the library in ten minutes, it’s very important.” Twilight said quickly as she teleported out of the cake coated room, not even noticing that she was similarly covered in cake and cake based accesories.
Pinkie, now flabbergasted, still standing on her hind hooves, front hooves still outstretched as if to put the figure on the cake that no longer existed, and jaw still on the floor, slowly turned around, walked out of the room and headed to the library, far too shocked by the events that had occurred to realize that she was also covered in cake.
Rarity had been working on her newest dress for many, many months now. It was simply ‘divine,’ as the fashionista herself would say. The fabric she used was perfect in every way, and she had stitched it with absolute perfection! The dress was perfectly colored to match any pony’s coat and mane, and the pure amount of fashion magic that went into giving it this power had left her exhausted, though she would never say as much. It was simply the perfect dress for any occasion. In truth, it was her masterpiece.
“All I need now is a model to make the final adjustments on my dress.” Rarity said as she levitated the dress in her magic, “but who to ask?”
Before she could even think of a pony to ask, there was a sudden poof of purple and Twilight Sparkle appeared perfectly in the dress. Honestly, she even looked attractive to Rarity, and she had never had an eye for mares.
“Ah marvelous timing, Twilight dear! Stand still so I can get some measurements,” Rarity said without missing a beat and turning around to retrieve her measuring tape, “now, where did I put that tape?” Rarity silently admonished herself for losing, even temporarily, one of her most important tools.
“Rarity this is very important, so stop whatever you’re doing and meet me at my library in ten minutes.” Twilight said, completely ignoring whatever Rarity had just said and not even aware of the very expensive dress she was now wearing.
“Ah ha! Found it! Now, just hold still, Darling,” the white unicorn said as she started to spin back around to face her purple friend.
Just before she completed her spin, she heard another poof of magic, and when she had finally turned around, Twilight was no longer there. After a few seconds of pondering the situation, her eyes went wide and she started swinging her head in all directions as if she were looking for something. Then it hit her as she stopped everything she was doing without even realizing Twilight had even told her to; her dress that she spent a whole three months perfecting was gone! Twilight Sparkle stole her dress!
“MY DRESS!” She cried, raising her hooves to the heavens and shouting at the top of her lungs.
Rainbow Dash was napping on a cloud she had made out of thin air after a hard day’s work. It was her masterpiece! It was the softest and fluffiest cloud she had ever made, and as soon as it was finished, she plopped down onto it and stretched out to enjoy the sun’s warm rays. After a long while of napping there was a poof of purple magic and suddenly she found herself unable to breathe. Upon investigation of the reason she now lacked such a basic feature of life, she found Twilight Sparkle standing on her chest.
“Twi- can’t- breathe,” Dash managed to choke out as she started to flail her limbs about in a desperate attempt for air.
“Rainbow Dash, you need to meet me at the library in ten minutes with the rest of the girls, this is very important.” Twilight said, completely oblivious to the fact that she was currently suffocating Rainbow Dash.
Just as Rainbow Dash’s vision started to fail her and she was on the verge of total lung failure from lack of oxygen and the pressure on her chest, Twilight teleported away in another puff of purple magic after she was finished saying whatever she was saying. As soon as she was able to inhale O2 again, she started to take in deep breaths of that glorious thing called ‘air’.
“Breathing is good, so awesome!” Dash choked out as as her lungs finally started working again. “I’m gonna make a habit of it!”
Fluttershy was in the kitchen of her cottage making herself some tea, her bear friend Harry nearby. As the kettle on the stove sounded off, telling her the tea was ready, she took it off the stove and poured it into her teapot. She then proceeded to pour a cup of tea for Harry the Bear, however, just as she was about to, there was a poof of purple magic, and Twilight Sparkle was now standing on the coffee table. The sudden appearance of the purple mare scared the dickens out of Fluttershy, causing her to drop the teapot and spill its piping hot contents all over the bear’s lap, which in turn caused said bear to roar in pain and rampage through Fluttershy’s cottage, wrecking the place.
“Harry, stop! Please!” Fluttershy said, trying to get the angry bear under control, but to no avail. “It’ll be alright.” She tried to calm the ferocious beast whom not a second ago had been a well mannered houseguest.
“Fluttershy, stop whatever you’re doing and meet at the library in ten minutes.” Twilight said, completely oblivious to the rampaging bear that just created a massive bear-shaped hole in the wall as he charged outside and continued to run wild, eventually flattening Fluttershy’s petunias as well.
Before Fluttershy could even think of a response, the havoc wreaking Twilight teleported off. Fluttershy stared, mouth agape, at the new fairly massive and drafty entrance to her house for a few moments before she started off toward the library.
A few minutes after she left, there was a another poof of magic causing Discord to appear in the living room.
Who started the chaos without me? He thought to himself as he looked around at the carnage inside the house. Something’s missing, but what?
Suddenly, he spotted the still rampaging bear through the large hole in the wall. He snapped his fingers together and a big frilly tutu materialized around the bear’s waist.
“Ah, much better!” He said as he pulled a newspaper out of one ear and a full sized couch out of the other, and proceeded to read the newspaper as he floated upside down on the couch in midair, before getting run over by the still rampaging and now tutu-clad bear. All while Angel bunny couldn’t stop laughing hysterically in the background at all the chaos.
Applejack was bucking trees as usual, it was what she did each and every day. She had made many trips back and forth to her house to drop off several bushels of apples, she had been atit for a few hours now and had made decent progress. She went from one tree to another, each time causing apples to rain down from the branches of the trees. She stopped to wipe the sweat from her brow and decided to buck a few more trees before she took a break, carefully positioning the apple baskets under the next tree to ensure all the apples would fall into them. As she turned around to buck the tree, there was a purple poof of magic that went unnoticed by the orange mare as she reared up to buck the tree, as Twilight Sparkle appeared right between her back hooves and said tree.
“Apple—.” was all Twilight could get out before the farm pony’s hooves crashed into the side of her head, causing the opposite side of her head to crash into the tree, leaving a perfect impression of her face in the bark, again.
Applejack immediately spun around when she felt her hooves contact a soft substance instead of the tree, and found Twilight on the ground, unconscious with her tongue lolling out of her mouth and a goofy expression on her face.
“Gah! Again, Twilight?” Applejack said to herself as she faced-hoofed. “This’s like the eighth time y’all’ve done this, keep it up and you’re gonna give yerself brain damage ya idiot.
Applejack got her lasso and tied one end of it to Twilight’s back hoof before beginning to drag her off to the library. Sure, it wasn’t the kindest of things to do, but after all that hard honest work Applejack was in no state of body to carry the purple mare, who was of substantial weight. Of course, she would never say that to Twilight’s face.
“Ya know Twi, if you want me tah come to yer library, just tell me, and stop gettin’ yer skull bashed in all the dang time,” Applejack said through the rope in her mouth.
“Yes mommy,” the ‘sorta-kinda-semi-conscious-but-sorta-kinda-not’ Twilight said as she was dragged through town.
“Urgh,” was Applejack’s only response.
Meanwhile, President Stone had called a meeting with his Cabinet to talk over matters concerning their return, and how to calm down the populace.
John Lynn, the Secretary of Defense, spoke first.
“Well, the people are panicking, and it’s only a matter of time before the chaos spreads further. We may see another attempt at xenocide if we don’t do something.” Lynn turned to look at the end of the table opposite from the President, where a lone unicorn stallion was seated, looking out of place among all the humans in spite of his black suit, coat and tie. “Secretary Gold, what’s your take on the situation?”
The jet-coated stallion raised a hoof to brush his messy jet and gold colored mane out of the way of his amber eyes and began speaking with a sigh. “The Department of Human-Pony Relations is trying its best, Secretary Lynn, but ever since the Xenocide Brigade massacred over five hundred million ponies thirty years ago, relations between New Terra’s two races have been quite strained.”
“But we’ve worked together for three thousand years to accomplish this goal!” The Secretary of State, Lisa Wong tried to counter, “a few fanatics couldn’t possibly drive us apart just like that!” Try as she could, Lisa simply couldn’t understand why the ponies would hold on to something that had happened so many years ago, conveniently forgetting their own lifelong grudge and fear of the Surface Ponies.
“And yet, I regret to inform you that that is indeed the case,” Black Gold sighed with a shake of his head, “we ponies have always helped you humans with our magic to speed up the process, but even so, our trust in our human friends has dwindled. When was the last time you saw a large group of ponies leave one of the pony-centric cities to visit the humans, Secretary Wong? I still have faith in you, our beloved creators, but after that bastard Mendoza and his cronies killed so many ponies in such a short time, the New Terran ponies have started to ignore how much we have accomplished by merging magic and science. The NutriNet, the fertility waves, the MP/EP converters, the radioplastic, the lasers, the life-extension treatments, the monopoles, and the many other scientific achievements that have put us where we are today, all of them are being ignored, all because of paranoia. We’ll continue to try the best we can, but I don’t know what more we can do. None of our nation’s ponies seem as if they want to desert, but even so, they may not be that willing to help, either.” Gold said with a sigh, shaking his head. It truly brought him sorrow to reminisce on the current state of affairs, especially the foregoing of the wondrous technology that was available. Perhaps that his family had made quite a deal of it played a part in that.
“Well, I may have a solution,” the President announced to his trusted advisors. “I’ve met with one of the leaders of the surface ponies earlier today, and she seemed willing to sign a peace treaty.”
“This had better not be Diana,” Secretary Gold growled. “We can’t trust the two original ponies. They just want you humans dead! Remember the stories you’ve all passed down for generations? They’re even recorded in video format so they’ll never be forgotten! It had better have not been Diana, President Stone. She’ll kill you without a second thought. That’s why the surface dwellers are called the ‘Usurpers’. That’s why everyone, both human and pony alike, are so afraid of the Usurpers. They drove us from our homes!” He spoke vehemently, had it been in his nature, he surely would have spat on the names of the Primordial Ponies.
“Well, this wasn’t Diana,” Stone assured his Cabinet. “This was one of their daughters, Princess Celestia. She and her sister are apparently in charge now. She’s seen how much our people irrationally fear her, and she’s agreed to sign a declaration of peace. Broadcasting it to all over New Terra should ease everyone’s minds on this. And allow for both of our peoples to work towards a prosperous future, an agreement we can all look back on and be proud of, one that could save us,” The President stood from his seat on his final words as if to drive them home, he was an amazing speech giver, that was for certain.
The Cabinet room suddenly burst into applause, and Stone sighed in relief. Hopefully, his next meeting with Princess Celestia would go just as well. If not better.
Twilight cracked open an eye to see that she was back in her library. Her head hurt, also, everypony was yelling at her.
“You ruined my cake!” Pinkie’s shrill voice screamed
“You stole my dress!” Rarity’s equally shrill voice accused
“You ruined my tea…” Fluttershy quietly mentioned.
“You almost killed me!” Rainbow Dash said, angrily
“Ah almost killed ya, AGAIN!” Applejack yelled, exasperated.
Twilight struggled to her hooves before taking a deep breath and yelling “Everypony! QUIET! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS!” She shouted, the absolute model of a good friend.
Her friends all quieted down after her outburst, but they all looked at her expectantly and angrily.
“Equestria is in peril, and you’re all behaving like little fillies!” Twilight exclaimed, “I’m sorry about what I did, but this is an emergency!” She explained.
“How is getting a priceless dress stolen by your best friend not relevant?” Rarity screamed, “what could possibly be so important?”
“This!” Twilight exclaimed as she floated Princess Celestia’s letter in front of Rarity’s face, even though the letter itself didn’t have any such declarations and Twilight was basically going off guesses and assumptions. “Equestria is in danger! I think that’s more important than a dress! But if you want it back so badly, here!”
Twilight lit up her horn with magic, and the dress she’d gotten rid of earlier appeared on Rarity’s face.
“Now, Princess Celestia said we need to get to Canterlot as soon as possible, so we need to—”
Twilight stopped talking as she realized she and her friends were suddenly inside Canterlot Castle.
“Pinkie!” Twilight exclaimed as she turned to glare at the pink mare. “Don’t do that! It makes no sense!” Perhaps blaming Pinkie immediately was rude, but to be fair, it was usually the work of her strange powers.
“Okay, fine,” Pinkie pouted. Suddenly, they were back in Twilight’s library.
“No, no! Wait! Gah!” Twilight exclaimed in frustration. “Pinkie, do it again! We need to be there!”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie replied. In the next instant, they were surrounded by rocks and craters…
“Pinkie! This is the Moon!” Twilight screamed.
“How’re we breathin’ up here?” Applejack said in confusion as she reached for her hat as it started floating away.
“Pinkie! Get us back to Canterlot!” Twilight snapped.
“Hey, look at this!” Pinkie exclaimed, completely ignoring Twilight. “What’re these doing here?”
She pointed a hoof at a red, white and blue flag, a plaque, and an octagonal box, originally covered in some kind of golden foil, which had been ripped off in sections to make way for the writing which now adorned one of the sides: “N.M. WAS HERE. CELESTIA SUCKS EGGS!”
“No time for that, Pinkie!” Twilight huffed. “Get us back to Canterlot!”
“Aww…” Pinkie moped. “Fine.”
The next second, they were back in Canterlot Castle, through the amazing fourth wall powers of Pinkieus Pieus.
“That was one small step for six ponies, and a huge leap for ponykind!” Rainbow Dash cheered, “that was awesome!”
“Shh! You’ll get us sued for copyright infringement!” Pinkie said with a shake of her head.
“What did I miss, Darlings?” Rarity asked while setting her dress carefully on her back, “I had to inspect the dress for damage.”
“How did you not notice any of that?” Twilight screamed, “we were on the Moon!”
“Twilight! Thank goodness you’re here!” a voice exclaimed, cutting into the absurd conversation.
The six mares and one dumbstruck baby dragon turned around to see Princess Celestia approaching them.
“You won’t believe the day I’ve had!” Celestia exclaimed, a small chuckle following up.
“After what Pinkie just did, I think I can believe anything right now,” Twilight replied, provoking nods from Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, a look of confusion from Rarity, a giggle from Pinkie, and finally breaking Spike out of his stupor.
“Pinkie! How’d you do that?” Spike exclaimed, “that’d make for an awesome comic!” The rather artistically inclined drake questioned.
“Not now!” Twilight huffed before addressing the Solar Princess, “Princess, what’s going on? Is Equestria in danger? What new race did you mean? What’s with you not sending any letters? Are we going to have to defend the country again?”
“All in due time dear Twilight, first let us retire to somewhere more comfortable for conversing,” Celestia said with a shake of her head.
With yet another sigh, Twilight gave a nod and Celestia began leading them off. Deep into the castle they walked, eventually arriving at a rather lush and comfortable meeting room, Luna was also there, already reclining in a plush-looking loveseat. Luna had been informed of the situation prior and agreed with Celestia that peace was to be the best answer to this situation.
“So, why is Equestria in danger, Princess?” Twilight asked.
“When did I ever say Equestria was in danger? In fact, didn’t I make exactly the opposite point?” Celestia asked, a slightly confuzzled look on her face before realizing Twilight had probably overreacted again.
“Oh, nevermind Twilight. Anyway, it’s nothing quite so serious as that at current, though if we don’t do anything, it could probably reach such problematic proportions,” with a slight sigh Celestia sank down into a plush seat of her own, motioning for the others to make themselves comfortable as Pinkie pulled a tray of confections from her mane and set them upon the table.
As she waited for everypony to be seated, Celestia inspected the sweets, finding them to be amazingly clean, she deigned to have herself a snack. She had missed dinner, after all. Pulling a small tea cake from the tray she began munching away until finally everypony was ready to talk.
“Now, you all remember the tremors we had upon the rising of the sun, yes?” Celestia questioned, to which she received nought but nods.
“Well, an entire nation—” Celestia paused to take a bite out of her small baked treat, “—rose out of the ground during the quake, these people are devastatingly afraid of us, and so I’ve brought you all here to help Luna and I write up a treaty that should calm everyone down.” Celestia finished, reaching for another cake as she had finished her first.
“Alright, but why do you need all of us for this? It seems like the kind of thing that you usually do,” Twilight said, to which the others gave concurring nods.
“Because these new people are humans, yes, the same from the fables. Although much of what we know has been proven wrong, they are a peaceful people who want no more conflict with us. Sadly, our people had, at one point, almost rendered them extinct, and as such they are not so inclined to be calm around us. When I visited not but three hours ago, the streets were filled with screams and cries of doom…” Celestia finished, a forlorn look of sorrow on her face as she thought back to her visit.
“Humans?” all seven exclaimed.
“But all the books we have on them paint them to be horrible, irredeemable monsters! Books that your own parents wrote! Surely they couldn’t have been wrong!” Twilight protested.
“They’re not monsters!” Celestia snapped, “like I said, I’ve met them myself and they are a peaceful and kind people, if a bit terrified of us. And, while I regret to admit it, I fear that my parents might just be wrong. It has been many years since these humans have roamed the surface, three thousand years in fact. As you all know, time can change many, many things. Who are we to condemn a people to death for their past sins?” Celestia questioned them, sighing as another look of sorrow came across her face, her eyes seemingly begging for all those present to understand what these people had been through.
“Well… if you’re giving them a chance, then you have my trust. I’ve followed you for a long time, Celestia, and you’ve never steered me wrong. These people shouldn’t have to pay for what their forefathers did, and even if your parents say otherwise, I’ll stand by you. And I’m sure all the rest of us here will as well,” Twilight said, turning to look at all her friends as they gave nods of agreement, before she turned back to Celestia, “so, what is it that we need to get done, Princess?”
“Well, the first thing we need to do is decide who goes along. I’m almost certain having all of us go would be a bad idea, the humans reacted… worse than hoped for when there were only three of us, myself included, I’m sure bringing along the six of you and my sister would just make things worse,” Celestia explained, taking a moment to allow for others to speak as she took a bite of her pastry. Naturally, Twilight was the first to respond.
“Hmm, well that does make things a bit more complicated. You have to come along for obvious reasons, and you should have at least one other pony with you. No offense Luna, but I don’t think it should be you,” Twilight paused as Luna looked over at her motioning for explanation, “well, it’s just that both you and Celestia look similar to King Apollo and Queen Diana, and of course, they were the ones who almost brought these people to extinction,” Twilight finished, to which Luna replied with an understanding nod.
“Very well,” Luna replied. “I must admit that I look quite alike my mother, and that could incite panic, especially if some of the old battle tales are to be held for truth.”
“Well, we need somepony with diplomatic skills besides Celestia,” Twilight mused. “But who can we ask?”
“Why not yourself, Twilight?” Rarity suggested. “You are a Princess, after all. You must have had some training after your ascension, right?”
“Me?” Twilight gasped, blinking in surprise. “I’ve had a little training, sure, but I can’t go. I just can’t! I’m not ready for something like this!”
“But you have some training, while all of us have none!” Rarity snapped, provoking nods from the others, including Spike. “We don’t have time to consider other ponies, Twilight! Who else can we ask on such a short notice?”
Twilight sighed in defeat. “I guess I’ll go, then. I’m still a little scared, though.”
“It will be all right, my faithful student,” Celestia assured Twilight. “Now, we’ll need to write up the treaty first, and then you and I will get ready while Luna speaks with your friends on how they will play into this plan.”
Celestia levitated two elaborately pressed scrolls of cream colored paper, emblazoned with her royal sigil in the corners, as well as two bottles of the finest raven ink, to the table in the center of the room and motioned for everypony—and dragon—to gather around the table. “Now, what should we say?” Celestia asked the group, before turning to Twilight with a secondary question, “Twilight, could you serve as scribe?”
“Of course,” Twilight replied, taking the quill, formed from the feather of some long dead majestic bird from olden times, in her telekinetic grip and dipping it into the inkwell, quickly retracting the carefully sharpened tip so as not to cause splotches from over-filling. “So, does anypony have any ideas to start us off? We should probably write down suggestions before we actually get to writing the treaty.”
“Well, if it’s a treaty, why not give them a bunch of candy as a peace offering?” Pinkie piped up, energetic and bubbly as usual. “You can’t have treats without candy!”
Twilight smiled a tad, before explaining to her cotton candy-maned friend. “No, Pinkie, a ‘treaty’ has nothing to do with treats, although that could be rather funny. It’s an agreement between two or more nations on all sorts of various issues, ranging from small ones to large ones, right now we’re working on a rather large problem.”
“How about a some kind of tournament?” Rainbow suggested, “whoever loses in the competition has to watch out for whoever wins and keep out of their way!”
“Rainbow, that’s more like a declaration of war than a peace agreement!” Twilight sighed in frustration as she gave the prismatic mare a look that just screamed that there couldn’t possibly be a dumber suggestion than that, “we’re trying to make friends, not enemies!”
“Um, Twi,” Applejack cut in, placing a hoof on the lavender mare’s withers, “ah don’ think she meant actually hurtin’ anyone. More like… just showin’ off who can do what, an’ whoever’s weaker gets protected by whoever’s stronger. Ya get me?”
“Still, a show of military strength is a bad idea,” Twilight said firmly, “neither side needs to flex any military muscle for this. And what about being on equal terms with them, a military pact is one thing, but one side pretty much coddling the other? No, that won’t work, Applejack.”
“Well then, how about something like the Gala? We could throw a ball, and show them how refined we are. It could be like a high-culture exchange!” Rarity suggested, a grin spreading across her face as she thought about all the dresses she could make for important ponies that would go to such a party. “It would also be nice to see how their development in the more refined arts is, compared to our own.”
“Okay, a diplomatic cultural exchange doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Twilight partially agreed before jotting down some notes on the suggestion, right under the heavily crossed out lines of Rainbow’s. “Any other ideas?” The lavender unicorn asked once more, looking up from the parchment.
“Ummm… Let’s just be really nice to them?” Fluttershy suggested quietly, for it seemed like such a simple solution, that she couldn’t just be silent and let it never be spoken.
“Well, that is what we’re aiming for, so with a bit of rewording, that part will work, I suppose,” Twilight replied before jotting down some more notes, perhaps an excessive amount, but for Twilight there was no such thing.
“Ah’d like tah know how them humans grew food with no sun,” Applejack quipped. “Maybe an exchange of farmin’ techniques?”
“No offense AJ, but farming is a bit limited. A more general technological exchange could probably work, though,” Twilight admitted. “Who knows? Maybe we know some things they don’t! And learning about all the achievements they’ve made sounds very educational, too!” With that, Twilight jotted down a few more notes before turning to Spike, who was reading a comic, and the Princesses, who had watched the whole exchange in silence so far.
“Princesses? Do you have any ideas?” Twilight asked hopefully. Surely her mentor would have something to add, at least. They were the practically everlasting rulers of the country for thousands of years, after all.
“Whoa, that’s cool!” Spike suddenly exclaimed, his young voice filled with excitement. “Look, Twilight!” He ran over to the table and shoved the comic he was reading in Twilight’s face, thankfully she was quite used to the little Drake’s eccentricity. “The Red Knight and the Pale Knight just teamed up!”
“Not now, Spike,” Twilight groaned, pushing the comic away. “We’re trying to—” She looked back at the comic and saw what Spike was talking about: a pony in red armor, decorated with rose engravings of the same color was being attacked by a manticore, and a pony in white armor with similar motifs to the other suddenly galloped into the fray to protect the other pony. “Spike, you’re a genius!” She exclaimed, drawing the baby dragon into a hug.
“Wait, I am?” Spike asked as he struggled to get free before Twilight suddenly released him.
“Yes! A mutual protection pact!” Twilight exclaimed before jotting down notes frantically. “It’s like AJ’s, Rainbow’s and Fluttershy’s ideas, but all rolled into one! And it helps out the both of us! We get attacked, they help us, they get attacked, we help them!”
“Twilight,” Luna suddenly cut in, “I don’t think a pact like that is as good as you think. Yes, we’d protect each other. But what if either of us started a war with another nation? The other would be dragged into it.”
“That may be the case,” Twilight sighed, “but at least it would soothe the humans’ fears a bit. Besides, why can’t we just add a clause that makes it where both nations will only help with defense?”
“I think that would work, Twilight,” Celestia said with a nod. “And as for myself, why not a trade agreement? They’ve been underground for three thousand years, so they’ll probably have things we don’t, and vice-versa. It’d show that we’re willing to help them, and that they’re willing to help us as well.” The Solar Princess looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding.
“That’s a wonderful idea, Princess!” Twilight exclaimed as she jotted down more notes, her writing a tad sloppier than usual as she desperately wrote down the idea of her previous mentor. “Each side is bound to have some resources the other doesn’t, so that’s perfect!”
“Alright, I think we have enough ideas to write up a treaty,” Twilight announced as she smoothed out the now slightly wrinkled parchment she had been writing on, spreading the fresh sheet of alabaster paper alongside the original. “I’ll just get it started right away!”
