"......You know, I am really starting to understand why Lyra never talked much about her home life. Her parents were messed up".
Twilight's summation of the information seized from the raid of the Heartstrings residence in Canterlot (not to be confused with the residence of the heir to the family Lyra Heartstrings, currently residing in Equestria with a special somepony) in a way that did not make Twilight want to vomit.
Noting the horrified look in her students eyes, Celestia decided to spare her the trouble of having to read whatever the recovered information was to her via a levitation spell.
As she began going from page to page, her eyes went wider and wider in horror.
'Our society, hidden in secrecy and recruiting only the most trusted among the Unicorns and Pegasi, has existed for the last 20 years, surveying beyond space and time with our magic. While the spawns of the higher nobility continued their endless song and dance of posturing, pretentiousness, and pettiness, we looked to create ourselves a new future, a new power, a new nobility to rule over'.
'To obtain our goals, we studied the most advanced of magics. The field of transformation, species alteration, and protective barriers have all been researched. Our crowning achievement is a magic that can forcefully turn any race that ingests it into Equestrians, with greatly weakened abilities to resist us. With the discovery of the alternate worlds, we have found the way to create our working class, and inevitably our loyal armies to enforce our conquest of these barbaric people'.
'In our observations, we have discovered the existence of hundreds upon hundreds of alternate universes. Some are inhabited by versions of ourselves, different in some way. In some, we merely ate a different lunch, in others Celestia was the one to go mad with power and get banished by her sane sister. These worlds we will not be able to conquer. Many others, however, are not versions of us, but worlds inhabited by other races. These worlds we will attack'.
'The most common race, it appears, are humans. Humans are aggressive creatures without magic, but instead invest in advanced technologies to achieve the same results where possible. Initial testings of abducted humans show that they are quite susceptible to our methods, henceforth to be called Conversion. Other races vary: a race resembling humans found on a dying world known as Krypton were even more susceptible, while non-human races, particularly ones made of living metal, are not as affected. Experimentation of the captured creature from a race known as the Bidoof have proven fruitless in cracking why they are immune to us. Direct extermination of those races highly recommended.'
'Recent events have sent Equestrian society into a state of flux. The return, and thenceforth purification, of the Alicorn once known as Nightmare Moon has led to a shifting of Celestia's attention off the nobility to aiding her sister's recovery. Further attention of the Princess continued to be diverted. This has opened up the window to begin operations'.
'52 members, or member-families in many cases, prepare to launch the grand operation. Each member or member-family will become the rulers of the soon-to-be pacified worlds. There is no hope for advancing up the social ladders in Equestria, the nobility in position today will block any rise by ourselves tomorrow. If one cannot reign in Canterlot, one may reign over a domain all their own.'
And those were just a few of the reports detailing their pre-invasion plans.
Had all this really happened under her watch?
The Princess bowed her head in dread.
"How....how could anypony even think like this?" Her ever faithful student cried "This is.......Tirek-like behavior!"
"Tirek, like most beings Twilight, is not alone in this world. His people likely look at him, and wonder why he'd ever act as he did. The same way people have looked at my sister and wondered why Nightmare Moon ever happened" Celestia gave a worldlorn sigh as she began looking at the data detailing the invasions "The only thing we can do now is to send in the Royal Guard to take these.......wannabe rulers back to Equestria and show them what justice is".
"It's too late for that" Twilight said darkly. Celestia found the tone in her student to be worrying, and began reading the reports.
She quickly understood why her student had stated it was too late.
'We have lost contact with half of our members. This, coupled with widespread setbacks across multiple worlds has led me to a unnerving fear. Could we be, losing? It's a bitter pill to swallow, but it may in fact be the truth. We must reverse this trend immediately. Some have suggested recruiting members of radical groups to fight with us, in exchange for a universe all their own. Better to be a noble in a kingdom run by another, than beheaded by the savages who run around the lands destined to be yours after all. Feelers have been sent to determine the viability of this measure in the face of growing desperation.'
'The Heartstring Kingdom is all that remains. We have lost all contact with the others. Were they really overtaken? By these brutes?! It is inconceivable that we could lose. Why didn't humanity just give up after over a year of warfare, where does this resilience come from? They are unlike anything we have in Equestria: it is as if their race has war engraved into their very being like magic in a Unicorn. What am I kidding, they have. They have waged wars since before they even knew what war was.'
'We have had many successes. The world that the creature called a Bidoof came from is now a world without man, though the other creatures of this world fight on in a frightening fury, and they had even managed to use a version of our own tactic to turn humans into themselves and somehow retain themselves in the process. In the world where piracy runs rampant, only the two least populous seas remained in human hands. The mighty nation Britannia fell to us in no time at all. But somehow, not even these victories lasted. At the most, we triumphed in a universe for six months, then the tide turned on us. Harshly.'
'The very first lands we took in the land once known as Mizu no Kuni are now being assaulted. These humans, these Ninja....we had caught them at first in a time of civil conflict between themselves. In this confusion, we had managed to make great headway. But now.....now they have driven us back to the very start. The last stand of the Heartstrings, begins. It is inconceivable, but I see no other way my life will end, then by the hand of the man called the Raikage.'
That was the last of them.
Celestia did not like the idea of her subjects dying, she actively worked to prevent it from both brutality and old age, though the last one was done on her own time and was not as well known.
But this.......this was a crime so horrible she was not going to lose sleep over it.
"This travesty.....it must be corrected at once" Celestia stated firmly "Untold numbers of beings have been irrevocably harmed by these self-deluded conquerors. Equestrian brutality caused them pain, and it must be Equestrian kindness that heals them. Summon your friends Twilight, we are going to need all the kindness, generosity, truth......"
KRAKBOOM!
A massive sound resonated across the residence of two of the world's rather low Alicorn population, as if reality had just gotten it's door kicked down by a giant bolt of lightning.
"That....doesn't sound good" Twilight observed with quite evident nervousness in her voice.
.....
Shining Armor being in Canterlot was the only reason said town had not been destroyed yet, and even then the barrier had already taken massive damage, and if hadn't been for the power of fatherly love and the love for the beautiful mother of the foal boosting his reserves and willpower it would likely have fallen already.
Because it seemed like a few dozen universe's of really angry creatures were trying to break it down and attack Canterlot, and thus put those two in great danger.
"RASENGAN!" a blond in orange and black shouted, as he and hundreds of identical versions of himself slammed blue spheres of energy in their hands into the barrier at once. Behind him hundreds of other humans, sharing a series of odd markings on their clothing that seemed to repel magic were throwing everything from metal knives to balls of fire to giant sand fists at the barrier.
"Bombarda!" Legions of dark robed humans shouted at the barrier, pointing sticks at it and sending out energy blasts the likes of which reminded the observing Princesses of Unicorns. Around them shimmered some sort of protective runes.
"KAMEHAMEHA!" several glowing humans with yellow, really spiky hair shouted in rage as energy blasts struck the barrier full force. They apparently did not need protection. The non-glowy humans and slug people also blasting the barrier did have some protections on them though, of a mechanical nature it seemed.
Several floating boats made of metal were attacking as well, and from these heli-boats many odd humans attacked. One of which was really green, and really angry.
In a lake partially protected by the barrier, regular boats floated. Of course, regular boast did not have people hitting the barrier with seemingly elastic fists, throwing lava at it, or punching it with a fist that hit like an earthquake.
"Pika-CHU!" A massive line of non-human creatures were assaulting from all angles: electric mice, fire-breathing dogs, dragonflies big enough to eat Applebloom, a giant serpentine green dragon, etc etc. They seemed to be everywhere, and were among the most furious beings attacking them.
A legion of giant robots, all adorned with a red symbol, were blasting them with energy attacks. They seemed to be able to change forms into devices that seemed to be the evolution of carriages and move across multiple fronts.
A giant turtle with a spiked shell and red hair was breathing fire on the barrier, as metal creatures with angry faces slammed into the barrier with explosive impacts.
More and more portals around the city continued to open, as more angry universes continued to attack the people who they saw as their enemy. A giant, angry, and naked human with brown hair and pointed ears who let loose a ear-piercing shriek as it lunged at the barrier, a legion of caped men and woman who flew at the barrier at hyper sonic speed, others coming in by ground, by plane, or by giant winged fish, a legion of smaller robots seemingly piloted by humans led by a masked human making hammy motions, black garbed swordsmen who seemed to run on top of air, odd humans who seemed to be half-squid or octopus who fought with paint, and a young human with a bald head and glowing arrow tattoos who seemed to be very, very angry at them and showed this by throwing a tornado at them.
Grimacing, Celestia's horn glowed as the barrier shimmered, now bolstered by her own powers "Twilight, I'm afraid it is now up to you. I need to put all my power and concentration to keep them from breaking through and harming innocent Equestrians in their misplaced anger at us."
"Me!?" Twilight sounded terrified of the prospect.
"Yes, you. Cadence has a foal to care for, Luna's not here, and I have much more practice keeping giant barriers up for extended periods against storms, meteor strikes, and floods than you do. I have the utmost faith you'll be able to show these hurt people that we are not the same as those who had hurt them where it truly counts".
Twilight's unease quickly morphed into determination, her mind racing with 10,000 plans to try and calm the attacking worlds down. However, following the storm of Pegasi riding (though not Equestrian Pegasi) swordspeople and another swordsmen who was riding a blue dragon easily Spikezilla size times two, came another giant robot.
This one was red.....and really big, and it had a drill as wide as the Apple family barn ready to attack them with.
"TAKE THIS! GIGA-DRILL-BREAKER!"
.....Peace was not going to be easy to achieve before the barrier fell.
Author's Note
So, curious as to what earths were attacked. Here's the list of those officially mentioned. Draw your own blanks for any others.
D.C Comics
Transformers
Pokemon
One Piece
Code Geass
Naruto
Harry Potter
Dragon Ball Z
Marvel
Super Mario Bros.
Attack on Titan
Bleach
Splatoon
Avatar: the Last Airbender
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Inheritance Cycle
Gurren Laggan
