The Equestrian Reconquista: Connection

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Twilight entered the great halls of Canterlot castle. Coloured windows and huge frescoes depicting ancient times and the conquest of Celestia's father Helios.

It was already night as she entered the halls.

The product of the best architects of the country, close to a thousand years ago.

The princess sat on her throne, reading through pleads of Equestrian resistance groups.

“Princess...” She bowed down. Celestia's ears perked up at Twilight's voice.

“Oh Twilight. How are you?” Asked the princess in a friendly tone.
For Twilight, Celestia's reputation suffered deeply after the loss of her friends. After all she sent them to the Crystal Empire. But even if she showed a bit of menace towards her mentor, she didn't show it.

“Princess...I think I've found something interesting for you and my brother.,,,and I have questions.”

“That's great! And what exactly did you find?”

“I have found a book, likely to have never been touched for a thousand years. I think it's a simple fantasy book, but for this it's all to real.”

“What is it about?”

“It's about some kind of extraterrestrial species. He calls them 'Man'. They walk on two legs and actually lead the foundation of what's today Equestria. Even our language is actually a variation of theirs.”

“Don't you think that somepony thousands of years ago made a joke about them? And what did you mean by 'he'.”

“That's it princess. It was written by Starswirl and....your father, King Helios.”
The princess remained silent for a moment.

“My father? He wouldn't have written nonsense...not the Helios I remember.”

“Do you, by any chance, have the book with you?” Asked the princess. She was now more curious than ever.

Twilight nodded and levitated the book in front of the princess, who took it with her magic.

“Thank you.”

She skimmed the book and ogled the many depictions of these strange creatures. Descriptions of battle formations and language.
After 15 minutes she put the book aside.

“Indeed, that's quite strange...” She traced her hoof over the moldy book cover.

“And you are certain that this is not a fake?” Asked Celestia again. She seemed insecure, baffled, even scared.

“I don't know...” Said Twilight with a frown.

Sweat spread over Celestia's body. Seeing her mentor like this, was truly scary for Twilight.

“Pr-princess is everything alright?”

She nodded. “Excuse me, I have to sleep over this.”

The gracious princess stood up and trotted off to her bedchambers. Her legs were shaky.

Twilight's mouth was agape. “Whatever it is in the book, it must have hit her really hard.”

“So I didn't imagine things” Thought Celestia and entered her bedchamber.

“So you weren't just a dream. You were real.” She got on her bed and curled herself up in her bedsheets. She looked at the ceiling, eyes wide open.

“The hands....father.” She felt a bitter taste on her taste-buds as she thought about that word. “Father.” She was angry, angry at her long dead father.

King Helios the Great. Or as she preferred to call him her sire. She remembered back to the few pieces of her childhood memories left. Never once was he there.

He was at war with the Crystal Empire along with her mother. She was practically alone, until her sister was born a few years later.

But something in her mind told her that she wasn't all the time, at least not in her years as an infant. The dreams she had. Pleasant dreams.

Dreams of caring hands cradling her as a foal, until she was asleep. The creature was singing songs in an unintelligible language. The voice was male and he had a pleasant voice.

They were short dreams and she never saw the face of the creature. But she remembered it as one of the most beautiful dreams she's ever had.

She turned around in her bed and looked at the candlestand. A half-molded candle lived it's lonely life in the socket and waited to be lit again.
Eventually she fell asleep.

The pungent smell of fire and smoke hit her nostrils. That was the smoke of Canterlot. The panic, the screaming. Her castle was full of civilians who wanted to flee the upcoming terror of the Northern king’s troops.

She wore her shiny, golden battle armour, that remained almost untouched in many years.
Families were cowering in every corner of the castle. Wounded soldiers covered every square-meter of the floor, which was ridden with blood.

Groans and screams filled the room as the nurses had trouble to keep up. Some spilled organs, some were amputated, had major burns or arrows embedded into their body.
The room smelled after a sick mix of smoke, urine, blood and burnt flesh.

She galloped to the first gate of the castle. At least one hundred guards were struggling to keep the gate closed. Archers and unicorns were readying themselves for the upcoming storm through the door.

Another loud slam could be heard, followed by a row of guards getting pushed back by the impact.

They had a battering ram.

The soldiers quickly recovered and held the gate again, be it with magic or pure muscles.
They had trouble keeping it closed. Some guards were wounded to the point, where they shouldn't hold a heavy gate closed, but every single one knew that they would die a horrible death if not.

The instinct of survival gave them the strength to keep up.

Slam They hit the gate another time, followed by a cracking noise. The gate won't keep up any longer.

A frantic Shining Armour ran towards the princess.

“Princess! They are coming through! We have to get the civilians out of the castle somehow!” He had tears in his eyes. His home, burnt down, not knowing what happened to his parents. Only his wife was still in the castle, highly pregnant.

She thought fast, but there was nowhere they could go. They could go to the catacombs of Equestrian rulers, but this would just spare them some minutes before their inevitable death. Even though there might be a possibility that the huge cave system following it, will bring the ponies outside.

“There is a cave system, right past the catacombs of Equestrian rulers! But it's not fully discovered and full of wicked...”

“I don't care!”, Spat Shining Armour, “Everything is better than this place. My wife is royalty, they will kill her and my daughter with no mercy! Please, I beg you bring the civilians safely...”

“But you'll have a daughter, you can't...”

crack They both turned their faces towards the gate. It's open. A large splintered hole in the middle of the gate caused it to open.

She could see the enemy. Fierce creature, who blindly follow the orders of Sombra.

“Move away!” Yelled Shining at the stallions holding the front gate and they quickly recoiled.

“Fire!” Screamed Shining and a volley of arrows hit the first row of Sombra's soldiers, taking at least a dozen enemies down.

“Again! Fire at will! Fire! Your lives depend on it!” He commanded his troops and they fired volley after volley at the enemy.

North-Pony after North-Pony, deer after deer fell to the Equestrian arrows, at least giving them a bit of time.

Celestia wasted no time. “Everyone, quick! Follow me!” She commanded the civillians and they followed, as fast as their sick hooves could carry them.

“Infantry! Defensive line behind the archers, spears and shields at front!” They did. One hundred stallions, ready to fight the last fight.

Shields up! He heard the enemy general yelling. And they did, a large silver wall erected itself at the place where once the gate was.

The arrows ricocheted at the silver wall of metal as if they would shoot a rock.

“Archers! Melee weapons!” They took out their swords and held it either with magic or in the mouth. Every soldier upholstered his duo-glads, two short blades embedded in military horseshoes, and made themselves ready for impact. Ready to write history.

“Stallions it was a pleasure fighting with you...” Said Shining Armour and breathed in “For our families, for the crown, for Equestria! Charge!”

The Equestrians charged with a deafening battle-scream, ready to sacrifice their lives for the survival of their nation.

The soldiers of the North did the same and charged.

The impact of metal to metal was ear shattering as they clashed together.
Some were instantly impaled by the spears, be it one side or another. The Equestrians held their formation and took down enemy after enemy.

They were the elite of Equestria, the royal guards of the princess. And they want to be remembered as the biggest burden of Sombra's army.

Blood splashed into every part of their armour. The stallion left of Shining took a spear to the neck and collapsed with a gurgling noise of pure agony.
They held their formation.

Shining looked to his right. A big halberd shattered through the shield of the stallion and embedded itself in his chest. His last sound was a painful scream as the spiky appendages of the halberd pulled him into the enemy ranks, where he was hacked into tiny pieces.
Another halberd was raised and split the head of the stallion to Shining's left.

His face went warm as bits of brain and blood splattered against him. Tiny fragments of bone draining beneath his armour. He couldn't differ if either he was sweating or just drenched in the brain-water of his comrade.

“Hold!” They tried to. Stallion after stallion was slashed and crushed. The enemy brought huge sledgehammers to crash the Equestrians armour.

Every second was the sound of a bone cracking, followed by a muffled scream of terror.
Shining pushed several enemies back with his shield and slashed the throat of a hammer-carrying enemy.

Suddenly a halberd appeared from the corner of his eyes. His eyes widened and he held his shield up, only to get his leg shattered into several of bony bits.
He screamed and watched his shield fall to the ground. A huge dent embellished the middle of the metal shield.

Suddenly he felt a sting in his chest. A sword penetrated his chest almost halfway-through. The pain was of something he'd never felt before.

The world around him seemed to move slowly. He looked down at his fallen comrades. Open eyes, bloody mouths, half-ripped faces. That's the last minute of the Royal Guards.
He sat down on his haunches and took everything in. Faces of his parents, Twilight, his wife and the unknown face of his unborn daughter he will never see.
Suddenly the halberd raised again.

Celestia ran back to her bedchambers, where she knew would be Cadence tending to the wounded.

She'd already ordered the nurses and some guards to escort everyone down to the cave-system.

Only her niece and some other wounded soldiers were left.

She kicked the door open. Cadence was currently giving water to a very badly injured stallion. He had fever and was missing an eye. He already soaked her once white pillow to a deep, dark red.

On the ground were a few other soldiers with slashed limbs and burnt faces, but all of them were able to walk.

“Quick! We have to get out of here! To the catacombs!”

Cadence looked up in panic. “What! are they coming! Oh no!” Their faces were worried and full of fear.

“They broke through the door! You have to go! Now!”

“And Shining?” She asked worried.

Celestia didn't answer and Cadance's worries grew.

“Where is Shining? Where is my husband?...” Her tone was nothing more than a whisper. Tears trickled down her face and she began to sob.

Celestia kneeled down. Now was not the time to mourn Shining's likeable death.

“Listen Cadance: He's currently holding the enemy back. You know how tough he is. He will make it through and be on his way down. I'm sure he will, but these ponies need your help now.” Cadance stopped sobbing and wiped her tears away.

She nodded.

She helped the injured stallions up and they began to ascend down to the catacombs. They could hear the frightened voices of the other families downstairs.

Luckily none of the young stallions were injured on their leg and could walk at a steady pace downstairs.

It got darker and colder, the deeper they got.

After a while they reached the catacombs of the Equestrian rulers. Her ancestors were laughing at her failure.

The surviving ponies all gathered in the sepulchre of Celestia's parents. King Helios and Queen Eos. Right next to them laid the grave of her sister, Luna. She couldn't just let her remains stay here.

She looked at her subjects. They all gazed at her with fearful looks, unsure on what would happen to them and what to do.

“We follow this cave until we get out, just keep straight! Keep together! Unicorns at front and back! Support the sick and old! We will make it!”

Insecure whispers followed, until eventually they started to walk into the darkness.
Cadance turned around and caught Celestia eyeing the grave of Luna with pitiful looks.

“Celly...” Began Cadance.

“Please go ahead. I have things....to take care of.”

Cadance remained silent for a while and then nodded. “Please take care...”

“I will....I will...”

Cadance left and Celestia stood in front of the grave of her sister and parents.

“I won't come with them.” Said Celstia to the grave of her sister.

“I will die here...with you...united.” She laid her head on the grave of her sister and closed her burning eyes.

She remained silent for several minutes until she heard a shuffling behind her.

She opened her eyes to consider who or what it was. The enemy? A rat? She would have preferred the first.

But it was something else entirely. A black figure stood at the entrance of the sepulchre. A creature with two legs.

It was tall and covered in a smoke-like substance. A face could not be seen.

“This can't be.” Whispered Celestia and took a step towards the creature. It went off to the left.

“Hey wait!” Blurted Celestia and ran after the creature.
She saw it standing in the hallway. As if it was waiting for him. He turned left again and entered the grave chambers of Starswirl The Bearded.

Starswirl wasn't officially a member of the royal family, but King Helios made sure that he was buried as one.

There stood the black figure. In front of Starswirl's tomb. She approached him slowly.

“Father...is that you?” It didn't answer, but she kept going. Suddenly the creature stretched it's arms, welcoming her for an embrace.

She smiled and a tear trickled down her face. “Finally I meet you...” It said nothing. She felt safe, she felt secure.

Creak The creaking sound of crossbows didn't startle her. She kept on going, smiling. She was the happiest pony on earth.

A sharp pain spread through her flank. Then in her back...and another....and another. Four crossbow bolts penetrated her body. She tasted blood, but kept smiling.
Blood drizzled down her chin right through her grin. She continued to walk in pain.

And he reached it.

The hands enclosed her into a warm beautiful embrace.

“Finally...” She said and fell asleep.

Celestia woke up with a scream. She jumped out of bed and ran to Luna's bedroom.
There she laid, peacefully in her coma of seventeen years. She caught her breath.

“That dream...” She was to scared to go to bed now and way to awake to sleep.

“Father...” Thought Celestia. “What did you want to say to me...” She stood there for a while, still processing her dream.

She revisited the slowly fading memories of her nightmare. Or was it a nightmare?

“It can't be a coincidence......He wanted to say something.” She thought about the book Twilight brought to her earlier.

“A whole world of them....Equestria burning....the loving embrace.....father.” Her eyes widened.

She needed to find Twilight.