The Equestrian Reconquista: Connection

On The Planet Of Small Horses

Meanwhile in Canterlot

Celestia stood on her Balcony and glanced at the remains of Equestria. The country where once you had to travel for months to even reach it‘s borders was now a small little area of resistance ranging from Trottingham over Canterlot up to Manehattan. The axis of bitter resistance for almost more than 17 years.

17 years since king Stver united the deer, buffalo, changelings and the north ponies. 17 years since he invaded the northern borders of Equestria. And for 17 years her sister had been in a coma. And one mournful year since the counter attack with the Elements of Harmony failed. Everyone of the elements except for her most faithful student Twilight was put into a Crystalline prison and taken away

Equestria was practically broken. Hundreds of thousand, even millions of her ponies lay slain on the battlefield and even more in the cities.

The soldiers of the north didn‘t halt or showed any patience as they butchered whole families, especially in the first years.
But even Stver realized that in order to conquer the planet, he needed work forces. Many ponies, mares and stallions alike have to work in the labour camps or have to pay humongous taxes in the cities.

Still occasional massacres among the Equestrian population are a widespread thing, mostly due to the large resistance network that commits sabotage acts or assassinations and even smaller ambushes against his armies.

At least the normal citizens are left in peace, but under the watchful eyes of the northern soldier who guide the cities both day and night

To Celestia all of it became to much. Dead ponies that she frowned deeply upon years ago, were now nothing more than a number on the statistic.

To her luck the Minister of the Equestrian Army, Shining Armor is helping her out with governing issues that had been bothering her, although Shining held a deep grudge against Celestia for sending his now 17 year old sister to the front lines.

She looked upon what was left and observed the huge seas of tents and ponies in the distance.

There were four large refugee camps around Canterlot, holding in up to 2.000.000 ponies and sometimes griffins. The latter one‘s weren‘t really welcomed as they were seen as parasites, strangers who took the bare supplies from the ponies.

They faced a similar fate, but made themselves known as fierce and strong warriors who defeated wave upon wave of Stver’s armies, but even the Griffons were washed away at some point.

She looked into the horizon with her heavy, sleepless eyes and then back into her room where her beloved sister was laying in her bed in a comatose condition up to 17 years now. Celestia trotted over to her sister and nuzzled her unconscious form.

„Oh Lulu...I wish to get back to the time when we were just fillies without any responsibilities or fears of what might become of our kingdom.“ They were pleasant memories, but were pregnant by a bitter aftertaste of sadness and regret.

She heard hoofsteps from the hall and recoiled from her sister.

“Princess?“ It was her personal assistant Silver Plate.

“Yes?“

“Minister Armor is asking for you, your majesty.“

She nodded and went off to find the only still hard working pony of the government. She didn‘t say much on her way, but what was there to say in the times of sorrow and agony?

Minister Shining Armor stood in front of a table keeping a lost, shocked and desperate look in his eyes.

She sensed bad news.

“Princess….“ He began holding his notes up with a shaky hoof.

Celestia prepared herself for the incoming message. Was there a traitor? Was there another defeat of an ally?

The latter would be the most possible. Words have spread that the Griffon Empires resistance group fought it‘s last battles and Saddle Arabia is slowly losing against the southern armies of the northern king.

Stver had many names. The Uniter, the Northern Storm, King of the North, King of Deerkind and the list went on.

“There was a major attack on Trottingham….They broke through our defences….32.000 were killed while facing 400.000 opponents... They are currently fighting inside Trottingham...it‘s...it‘s as good as fallen.“

Celestia gasped. These truly are some bad news. The defences kept Stver at bay for more than a decade.

“What should we do!“ - Shining cried out - „We are next to dead, everything we know...just dead! We can‘t possibly stop him! He will continue with raping, pillaging and burning down our lands and families! We should just already accept our faith and surrender….“ He was on the brink of tears and he sat his head on the table covering it with his hooves of which one was damaged in combat.

A heavy silence filled the room for many minutes. Celestia couldn't do more than just watch his captain

“My wife is pregnant...“ He whispered barely audible.

“E-excuse me?“ Forced Celestia out of here. Did she hear it right? Is her niece giving birth? Is Twilight going to be an aunt?

“My wife is fucking pregnant!“ He screamed at her and threw the reports and notes from the table, making her recoil quickly.

Tears began now to roll down his cheek.

“My daughter will be born in a world ruled by some Tyran….That comes if they even let Cadance live when they enter these fucking walls and kill everything in their fucking way!“ He pressed his head into the table again and began crying again.

The spark of happiness got extinguished as fast as it came.
It took him a while to recover from his outburst, the comforting wing of Princess Celestia visibly helping him.

“I‘m..I‘m sorry, Celestia. I let my feelings take a hold of me.“ He apologized and wiped his tears away.

“Don‘t be. We all are very stressed in times like these.“ - She paused - “But is it true? Will you be a father?“ She asked carefully. She still was after all on his bad side for what she had done to Twilight and she still felt immensely guilty because of it.

He nodded weakly.

“At least we have some good news. Congratulation.“ She said with a genuine smile.
But he again gritted his teeth.

“That‘ s all you have to say!?“- She shrank away again and her heart sank. - “She will grow up in the middle of a genocide against us.“ He paused swallowing the lump in his throat.

Celestia now got a stern look on her face. “It won‘t come to this! We will defeat this mysterious king and- “

Shining began to laugh. “Defeat….“

“That‘ s the same thing the Zebras said….or the Griffins….or the Thestral tribes of the north east. But now there are next to no Zebra‘ s left in the world! The Griffins live a life in slavery and torture and the Thestrals are now objects to these genetic experiments that they are up to!“

He paused...she didn’t say anything. She couldn‘t deny that he was right.

“It seems as if...as if...Operation Seapony is the only way….“
Operation Seapony….setting the entire remaining population on large ships and sail to undiscovered lands and build a new civilization on it.

Shining, now visibly calmer, grabbed his reports with the mouth again.

“Thank you for coming, Princess, but if you would excuse me I have a war to lose.“
She again just nodded and stepped out of the room.

“Everytime when I thought that it couldn‘t get any worse It got much worse...“ She continued wandering through the halls, without a thought, without a destination, she just walked with tears coming from her eyes.

“Horseapples!” Twilight Sparkle cursed under her breath. „Again...nothing.“ she closed book number 223. She read through the dark magic wing of the Canterlot library for a year now in the hope of finding a game changing spell or strategy or whatever.

Her assistant Spike was helping her wherever he could with finding solutions. He currently was away picking up their share of the daily rations.

“AJ, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie….I‘ ll take you out of there.“She repeated the same thought that has been keeping her working for almost over a year.
They were now imprisoned in the Crystals of the Crystal Empire.She saw them being carried away by deer guards and are probably now a display of prestige on the marketplace of their capital.

Nightmares were haunting her, always confronting her with their failure.

It should’ve been the final attack. The one to finally end the gruesome war, unmask Stver and defeat him

It failed on a spectacular level.

Heck, even after 17 years, they’re not sure on whether Stver is male or female. He sounds male, but that’s it.

A big offensive was initiated. Almost 60.000 soldiers broke out of the Equestrian sphere of security and charged in to the Crystal Empire‘ s lands that were once Equestrian.

The distraction should have helped the elements to defeat the Northern king, who was residing in the former Crystal Empire. .

He defeated the elements and imprisoned them in Crystal. Only Twilight could flee because of the brave sacrifice of her friends. Almost every Equestrian soldier died. Around 40.000 were killed and the rest got lost in the cold blizzard that occurred.

Only 600 ponies managed to return home.

The guilt was tearing her apart. She made herself responsible for what happened to her friends, but she also declared herself to be the one to rescue them.
She strolled around the library halls that she came to know really well even since before she practically locked herself up in it.

The place was not allowed for fillies, but her brother used to smuggle her into the library on some occasions. These moments had been the peak of her week when she was younger.
These were the happy times for her, although the war was lasting for almost 10 years then. She was born short after the outbreak of the war after all.

“Where should I search further?” She rubbed her mane, unkempt for a long time. Even blinking hurt her sleepy eyes.

She often studied far into the night and suffered from sleepless nights. She traced her hoof among the backs of the books but shook her head.

“I really should go and walk for a while.” She thought and began wandering through the famous library.
The Canterlot library. A dream of every scholar and egghead. Millions of books and scrolls stacked upon and held organized by a staff of 200 ponies.
She wandered through these halls countless times, but it didn’t fail to amaze her every single time.

Old Legends & Mythical Creatures

She stopped at the large bookshelf containing century old story books and fairytales. She’d never been particularly interested in ancient fiction especially in the last year, but one special book caught her attention.

The Lost History of Man

“What in the hay is a ‘man’?” She asked herself and cocked an eyebrow. She had a vast knowledge of Equestrian legends and it’s creatures, real or not.
She levitated it down with her magic and a surge of dust rained down on her, making her cough in response.

“It looks as if it wasn’t touched in at least a thousand years.” She thought with teary eyes and carried it away to her desk.

Her desk was a mess to say the least crumpled papers were scattered everywhere between the stacks of read books.

She opened it carefully, being fully aware on how sensitive these old books can be. She recognized the letters as old Equestrian and translated them in her head.

“They brought us food, they brought us peace, they came with the ocean breeze. They gave us the tongue, they gave us a home…..the...Ay-gay-yiss...is from where they come. First two verses of an ancient Griffonian poem.”

“This..seems very interesting….” She said to herself and opened the next page.

“Maritnius Antiochus, Paulus Armenius were the names of the two two-legged who came with lady Meriad, or later known as ‘Flavia’.”

“That just seems like an ordinary Latin name.” She thought as she continued reading.

“10 years after the unification of the races there was a horrible plague that came with a drought and years of failed harvests of the Equestrian corn.”

“That’s….just not true, a time of peace and harmony followed afterwards.” Nevertheless she continued reading loudly.

“Uncertainty and fear was spread among the ponies as the bipedal landed on the shore at what is today the little village of Manehattan. After a few days they started to notice the curious ponies and gave them presents, presents of gold and silver. She said: ‘Thank you, but money can’t feed my children.’ But they couldn’t understand her. After weeks of careful conversations the humans were invited to the castle, where the 3 unifiers ruled from. On their way they saw the suffering among the ponies. They offered crops in exchange of repairing their boat. The new crops ‘Cepa’, ‘far’, ‘frumentum’, ‘alium’, ‘malum’, ‘carota’, they called, grew quickly under the magic of the earthponies and showed resistance against the icy, magical winter. The ponies weren’t hungry anymore and man was known as a saviour and hero. As they stayed for months, they taught the ponies how to conquer the seas, built chariots and aqueducts that span from the mountains across the whole land. They taught how to use water to power the most powerful machines, like large powerful wheels. Even the fields of magic, of which man hasn’t seen ever before, were changed forever.”

“This basically goes against everything we know.” She felt as if her head was hurting. “I should just stop reading this crap. I have better things to do.”

She decided to skim through it a last time before putting it back into the shelf. But one sentence caught her eye.

The tactics and technology they brought to the Equestrians wasn’t to be surpassed, except for the Griffon Kingdom that man visited 300 years prior and also shared it’s knowledge with.

She thought deeply about it.

“Pretending it to be true. ‘Man’ seemed to be a very advanced species. There might be military tactics or technologies made by them we still haven’t discovered or simply got...lost.”
She turned the page. Countless depictions of battle tactics and formations were displayed on the page.

She didn’t know military tactics very well, but she was sure that the ‘Testudo’ wasn’t anything she had ever seen before.
She smiled.

“Maybe that would help my brother!” She cheered from her inside and skipped a few pages. Pictures of the anatomy of a so called ‘human’ revealed themselves in front of her.
She was flabbergasted. They were next to hairless except for their heads and a few other spots. Right next to it was a female human. She compared the strange creature with the species of her own and was amazed by the effort that was put into the drawings.

“...strange.” She thought. “Very detailed and serious for a collection of legends. What pony would write such things? Either they really mean it or are just completely nuts.”
She skipped to the next page and searched for the name of the author.

Written by

Starswirl the Bearded; dictated by King Helios

Her eyes widened on the first two names. She didn't know who the other two were, but King Helios the Great was the Grandfather of Celestia and Luna!

“Why in the hay would Starswirl write such things?...or perhaps...”
No it just couldn't be. Starswirl the bearded was never known to write fantasy or nonsense, except it really is true.

Or did the author fake it?

So many thoughts shot through her head that it started to hurt. She carefully closed the book and took it to her beloved mentor.