Desperate Measures

The amount of tension in the air on that day was nearly so overwhelming that you could feel it physically.

Gathered near the borders of the encampment of the stone giants, thousands of ponies anxiously watched the massive door through which Twilight Sparkle had disappeared through a good while ago... It seemed as though the crowd was about to start panicking any moment.

"D-d-d you think she's okay in there?" Fluttershy asked in a trembling voice.

Celestia replied with a firm nod. "I am certain that Twilight knows what she's doing."

"Of course she does," Applejack added. "Ain't nopony better at making friends than Twilight."

"B-b-but what if she fails?"

"Pfft!" Rainbow Dash laughed dismissively. "Since when does Twilight Sparkle ever--"

BLAM

"Aaaaaaghhh!"

Before she could finish, everypony's attention got caught by the screaming princess that just came flying through the newly-formed hole in the wall of the main giant encampment, making a crash-landing on the ground near them and tumbling all the way up to her friends and princess Celestia... Miraculously enough, her crown hadn't left her head for the duration.

"Fail..." Rainbow Dash quietly added, her voice now devoid of confidence.

"H-h-how did it go?" despite the rather obvious answer, Fluttershy asked, just in case... You can never be to sure with these creatures from other dimensions. Maybe throwing someone through a wall is some strange part of a tradition for them?

Alas, all doubts got cleared away as Twilight got up while barely lifting her head above the ground and frowned deeply.

A deathly silence claimed the air, and several hundred pairs of shocked eyes got fixed on the princess that couldn't even keep her eyes open because of the shame she felt inside of her... For she had just let down all of Equestria.

"We are all doomed!" The long awaited scream finally came, sending hordes of ponies panicking in every direction.

It was only a matter of time before that happened, so neither Twilight nor any of her friends seemed surprised, nor did they make an effort to try and stop any of them...

Hope had been erased.

Stretching her hoof out towards Twilight's shoulder to comfort her, Celestia was denied the chance as Twilight flinched away from her. "Twilight..." she said in a soothing tone.

"You're about to say it's not my fault, aren't you?" she asked, her voice calm, but her conscience killing her from the inside. "That I shouldn't blame myself..." She opened her eyes and looked upon her former mentor. "But how can I?"

"Twilight, please--"

"No!" Twilight retorted and winced from pain, a few tears escaping her eyes as she did so. "They... They trusted me... You trusted me!" She collapsed and burst into tears... Even in this moment when all hope of survival seemed extinct, her friends showed compassion and approached her slowly. Taking her crown off of her head, Twilight tried to toss it away, but Celestia caught her hoof.

"We still do," Celestia replied and placed the crown back on Twilight's head.

"But..."

"Celestia's right, Twilight," Applejack interjected. "You've gotten us through seemingly hopeless situations before, and if anypony here dares blame you for not achieving the impossible..." She left her sentence unfinished, but her tightly clenched hoof and gritted teeth said everything by themselves.

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "We'll figure something out... It's only hopeless if we give up!"

"Don't you get it!?" Twilight snapped back at her. "It already is hopeless! I was Equestria's last resort and I failed! There's nothing we can do against those things! There's no spell that can hurt them! No pony strong enough to even scratch them! And no ally that we could possibly call upon for help! Not even the dragons would be able stop them, even if by some miracle we managed to actually convince them to stand with us!" Finishing her shouting monologue, Twilight calmed her expression and sighed. Hanging her head and closing her eyes, she whispered a few more words, "And nowhere we can run..."

"But... There has to be something we can do!" Rainbow Dash insisted, but judging by her tone, she didn't even believe her own words. "We can't just sit here and wait to get stomped on!" She kept insisting, but whatever vestige of hope was still left in her faded away as she saw her friend just laying there, frowning and acting as though she didn't even hear her... Letting despair claim her senses, Rainbow Dash dropped on her haunches and screamed, "This can't be happening!"

"Now don't you go joining in on all the panicking, Rainbow." Applejack tried to calm her stressed out friend. "We got enough of those ponies as it is."

"What else is there to do!?" she shouted back at her. "We're sitting ducks without any means of escape! Even our princesses have given up hope at this point. What? Am I supposed to just lie back and hope that another rift will open and even bigger giants come out and become our friends!?"

"Uhh... No..." Applejack replied, still unsure about what to say next, but luckily for her, Celestia stepped in.

"There may be another option."

"What!?" the six ponies exclaimed in unison.

"Seriously!? Now you tell us!?"

"Hush, Rainbow!"

"Twilight? If your friends don't mind, I would like to discuss this with you in private," Celestia told her former student and took a few steps away from the rest of the pack.

Looking upon her friends with a confused look, Twilight got nothing from them aside from the exact same kind of look and a set of shrugs. Puzzled about this sudden revelation, Twilight hurried over to the other princess. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?" she immediately inquired as she caught up with her.

"Because I was hoping that we could avoid taking this path... For all I know, I might just be sending you off to your inevitable demise," Celestia reluctantly replied and hung her head. "To be honest, I'm not sure this is even an option, but rather just a desperate cling for a few more days of sunlight..." she admitted in a tone devoid of joy.

Unsure of what to make of her words, Twilight stayed silent for a good moment before saying anything. "Whatever it is, it can't possibly be worse than just freely letting ourselves get stomped to death."

"I wish I could say the same..."

Twilight's eyes widened upon hearing those words. "Princess... I don't understand... What in Equestria could possibly make you feel that way?"

Letting out a lifeless sigh, Celestia raised her head and began a monologue. "A few months before the arrival of the giants, another rift opened up in Equestria."

"What!?" Twilight shouted. "How come nopony else knows about this?"

"Me and my sister only know of this from a vision, similar to the one we had when Lord Tirek returned."

"So there are other creatures from different dimensions in Equestria..." Twilight whispered to herself.

Celestia replied with a solid but saddened nod. "There are, but only a single creature, however."

"You're not suggesting that we seek this creature out, are you?" Twilight asked, and Celestia didn't dismiss the notion. "But... What could a single creature possibly do against a horde of giants?"

"Whatever this creature is, Twilight, it is immensely powerful."

"And you believe that it would be willing to help us?"

"I doubt it... Which is exactly why I chose to not reveal this information to you unless there was no other choice."

"I see..." Twilight whispered and hung her head for a moment. "What else do you know of this creature?"

"Very little... Only that for some unknown reason it has chosen to not reveal itself to the rest of Equestria and has instead isolated itself within the darkest part of the Everfree forest..." Celestia hung her head again before finishing. "I was hoping that we could leave it undisturbed for all eternity."

"That's... Odd..." Twilight quietly added. "What does this creature look like?"

"We didn't see much of it in our vision. We only saw it moving swiftly through the forest, as if it was nothing but a shadow... Only at the very end of our vision did I and Luna manage to catch a glimpse of it as it turned to face us, but what we saw at that moment was... ominous, to say the least." She paused for a moment. Looking upon her curious former student who was still standing silent, she finished her monologue. "Blood-red eyes, as furious and malign as the fires of Tartarus, and white teeth, as sharp and vicious as the snowstorms surrounding the Crystal Empire."

Silence claimed the air for a good while after Celestia's last remark. The first sound to be heard from either of them after that was a loud and nervous gulp from Twilight.

"No wonder you chose to hide this from us... Whatever this creature is, it sure doesn't sound friendly."

"No... it doesn't," Celestia replied and leaned closer to Twilight, staring deeply into her eyes with a serious gaze. "And if you had seen it the way I did, I doubt you'd even consider this to be an option." Having said those words, Celestia turned around and took a few steps away from Twilight. "I'm not about to tell you what to do with this information, Twilight, for even under such circumstances, I can't force myself to tell you to seek such a creature out..." She spread her wings, readying herself for takeoff. "But you and your friends have always had a way of making miracles happen..." Turning her head around before flying off, Celestia graced Twilight with a very faint smile. "As long as the six of you are together, there is always hope for Equestria."

Still a bit dazed from such a strange conversation, Twilight's eyes kept following Celestia up until the moment she completely faded from her view. Afterwards shaking her head to regain her senses, Twilight slowly stood up and made her way back to her friends, all the way still thinking about what should she tell them.

Either we'll save all of Equestria, or we'll just die trying... Twilight said to herself in her thoughts. Whatever the outcome, I'm not about to just watch my home fall without even being able to say I did all I could to stop that from happening.