“Twilight, wake up!” Spike shouted as he ran into her bedroom clutching a scroll in his claw. “I just received a letter from Princess Celestia!” The unicorn in question grunted in disapproval. “Huh?” She muttered, cracking open an eyelid to see the silhouette of her number one assistant standing next to her bed. “Ugh, give me a moment, Spike.”

Yawning to herself, Twilight begrudgingly threw her warm covers off and slightly shivered as the cool night air washed over her body. Spike stood there patiently waiting for Twilight to collect herself, before holding out the scroll from the Princess. Twilight blinked twice trying to focus on the object Spike held in front of him.

“Is that…?” Twilight quickly grabbed the scroll with her magic,”A letter from the Princess! Spike! Why didn’t you tell me!?” She practically yelled as she quickly unfurled it.

Spike crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her, “I did tell you…” He muttered under his breath.

Twilight took a deep breath, ignoring what the baby dragon said, and started reading the message out loud.

My Dearest Twilight,

I am very sorry to disturb your slumber but I have an urgent matter that I must discuss with you and the other bearers at once.

Please gather your friends at once. I have dispatched a carriage to Ponyville and it should arrive at the library within the hour. I shall explain more in detail when you and your friends arrive.

I will be awaiting your arrival.

~Celestia

The room fell silent as Twilight stared at the letter until Spike broke the silence.

“What are you waiting for, Twi? Shouldn’t we go wake up the others?” Spike questioned as he raised an eyebrow at her.

Twilight shook her head quickly back and forth. “You’re right, Spike,” she briskly stated as she furled the scroll back up, placing it on top the table next to her bed. "I need you to head on over to Carousel Boutique and Sugarcube Corner and notify the girls. Let them know that it is an urgent request from the princess and they need to be back here as quickly as possible. I'll go round up the others, and bring them here.” Twilight explained, her voice was ominously calm as she noticed Spike shuffling his feet nervously. “You think my number one assistant can handle that all by himself?" She cooed, giving him some much needed encouragement.

Spike proudly nodded then rushed out of the room. “I wonder if Rarity will be in her nightgown…” He chuckled to himself.

After hearing the downstairs door slam shut, Twilight sighed gently to herself before grabbing her saddlebag from the closet, placing it gently on her back and filled it to the brim with various objects that might be required. After triple checking to make sure everything she wanted to bring was in her saddlebag, Twilight blew out the single candle that was illuminated her room, and walked briskly downstairs.

~~~

Twilight had to practically carry Rainbow Dash back to the library after spending nearly ten minutes just getting her out of bed. The rest of her friends were much easier to rally, though they were still not happy about being woke up in the middle of the night. By the time Twilight got back to the library with Rainbow, Fluttershy and Applejack; Spike, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were already loading there things into the carriage. They all greeted each other and quickly finished loading their belongings as Twilight and nodded to the two pegasus stallions that they were now ready to depart.

The first rays of morning light had begun to illuminate the clouds as the cool pre-dawn air flowed briskly past the carriage passengers. The journey was silent except for rather loud snoring coming from a certain prismatic maned pegasus. Applejack looked around the carriage for a few moments then cleared her throat. “What do y’all think Princess Celestia needs? It must be serious if she’s summoning us this late at nigh–” AJ said, a hint of worry in her voice as she rubbed her eye and looked up to the sky. “err, morning now, I reckon.”

The girls diverted their attention to Twilight, who shrugged lightly. “The princess didn’t say what she needed us for exactly. However, I did notice that her writing that she seemed a little bit… off, like she was under some stress or hadn’t slept in a while.” Twilight replied. There was no reply for a few seconds as the girls looked nervously to each other.

“Well, whatever it is that the princess needs, we all gotta be ready to help her out. Ah’m ready to help,” Applejack announced with the rest of the mares nodding in agreement. “Just let me get some more shuteye first.” She said with a yawn as she slid her brown Stetson over her face.

As Applejack nodded off, the remaining girls made small talk to pass the time.

~~~

Morning was in full swing by the time they descended into the Royal Courtyard. The girls gathered their belongings and were escorted by the awaiting guards to the Throne Room. Celestia smiled, getting up from her throne to greet Twilight and the others as they came into the room. Twilight ran up to her mentor, and nuzzled her neck as Celestia returned the affection.

“Greetings to you all, as well, my little ponies,” the princess said, looking to each of them as they bowed to her.

“We came as soon as possible, princess.” Twilight stated as she noticed that Celestia didn't quite look like her normal self, “What is the—”

“Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! I know!” Pinkie shouted, interrupting her friend. “Are the evil changelings attacking again? The big’o meanie pants Discord up to his old tricks again? Oh! OH! You want us to stop a giant gopher—Mfftt!” Her rant was cut off by Applejack’s hoof in her mouth.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy meeped. “That poor gopher.”

“Come now Fluttershy, you don't really think there is a giant gopher on the loose,” Rarity retorted, “That would be just silly, now don’t you think?”

Celestia giggled slightly at their theatrics before speaking up. “I bet you girls are hungry,” she asked seeing them all nod, she turned, heading to a side door, “Then let’s go to the dining hall and get some breakfast while I explain the situation.”

~~~

“So what, you’re telling me is that there is an alien race attacking another alien race of, of—”

“Humans, Rainbow.” Rarity interjected as she dabbed a bit of oatmeal off the side of her mouth.

“Yea! Those things and you want us to go risk our necks just help these, hugmans?!” Rainbow was nearly spitting the food out of her mouth with each word she spoke.

“Humans, not hugmans,” Twilight sighed.

“Well, whatever. Why is it so important that we help them in the first place?” She glared at the princess.

“I’ll have to agree with her. What do these humans have to do with us, princess?” Rarity asked as she cocked an eyebrow.

“My dreams are different from normal pony’s dreams. Over the course of thousands of years, my dreams have always come true and I fear that this one is no different from the rest,” She sighed, “That is why we need to aid the humans and stop this threat before it can spread, not only to Equestria, but to other planets as well.”

“Whatever the threat is, I won’t let it harm Equestria or ma friends an family.” Applejack stated with a gleam in her eye.

“Yea! Same here!” Rainbow jumped out of her seat and did a quick hoof pump as Fluttershy hid herself behind her pink mane.

“I wholeheartedly agree,” said Twilight.

“Me too!” Pinkie exclaimed, appearing directly to the side of the princess and pointed to the stack of pancakes that remained on her plate. “You gonna eat that?” She said as her tongue darted out, wrapping around the stack of pancakes several time as she pulled them into her mouth, eating them all in one bite.

“Pinkie Pie…” Twilight facehoofed as the rest of them looked on in shock.

~~~

The group followed Celestia down a set of well worn stairs as they entered a part of the castle that looked like it hadn’t seen the presence of a pony in decades. A long hallway with a plethora of doors on either side came into view as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

I have never seen this part of the castle before, where could we be going? Twilight pondered as the disturbed dust started to tickle her nose. “Princess, where ex, ex, —Achoo— exactly are we going?” She asked rubbing her nose.

“There is a camber down here where I safely open a portal that will allow you girls and Spike to crossover to the human’s world.” Celestia spoke as a cold chill went down her spine. Being back in this part of the castle brought back some haunting memories. Twilight nodded as the group continued to make their way down the hall.

“We are here.” The princess stated. The door creaked and moaned as she pushed it open with her magic and stepped inside.

The room was pitch black until she began lighting the candles that hung on the walls. Everyone, except Celestia, stood in awe at the sight before them. To say that it was a large room would be a huge understatement. The room was large enough to fit several hundred ponies comfortable if it had not been filled with all sorts of ancient artifacts that were scattered haphazardly around the room in no apparent order and the walls were lined with dozens of massive bookcases, brimming with old tomes and scrolls.

“This is where I keep the most dangerous artifacts and forbidden knowledge,” Celestia stated, seeing the curious looks on the group’s faces as she walked over to an area of the room where the was an empty space on the floor in the shape of a circle, “I have placed a magical barrier that encompasses this entire room, blocking all spells from penetrating it, to keep these items from falling into the wrong hooves. Now,” She stated, stopping at the edge of the circle, “if you girls are ready, I will start the spell to open the portal.”

They all shook their heads yes as Celestia began channeling her magic into the floor.
Two blue-glowing lines appeared in opposite sides of the empty space on the floor as they slowly grew into semi-circles before connecting to each other making a complete circle. Smaller circles started to form inside the larger one, making intricate patterns as the lines criss-crossed one another. Twilight watched in amazement as her mentor continued casting a spell that was, as far as she could tell, a whole new class of spells that she never knew existed before this point.

The aura around Celestia’s horn faded as a blinding flash filled the room making them turn away and shield their eyes. They turned back to see a large rectangular door, that was made of pure light, had materialized in the middle of the runes.

“This door will take you to the human’s home world, close to the area in my dreams. Help the humans defeat the Zin and return as quickly as possible.” She nuzzled each of them as she walked past, “Please be careful, my little ponies, this could prove to be the most dangerous mission you have faced yet.”

“Don’t worry, princess. We will stop those Zin guys in ten secon-” Rainbow had started to say only to be cut off mid sentence.

“Please, Rainbow. Must you use that incessant phrase all the time?” Rarity scoffed at her friend.

“Whatever, Rars. I happen to like that saying.” Rainbow huffed as she rolled her eyes.

“Come on, y’all. Them humans need our help, not us fightin’ amongst ourselves.” Applejack reminded them.

“You’re right, Applejack,” Rarity stated as she turned to the pegasus, “I’m sorry Rainbow; we shouldn’t bickering at a time like this, forgive me?”

“You must hurry now, the fate of our world and others rest in your hooves.” Celestia quickly interjected.

“Come on everypony, let’s not waste another second.” Twilight said as she walked through the portal, Spike hot on her heels with the rest of the group close behind.

Author's Note

I'm tired as fuck. -Soarin'

Chapter Author: ReFro