As she has done so every single day for the last several dozen moons, Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria casually raised the sun to declare the beginning of a brand new day for her subjects from all races. From the balcony of her bedroom in the Canterlot Castle, she could see the whole city slowly but surely waking up, emerging from their homes, and flooding to the streets to attend to their daily businesses. A warm smile appeared on her face as she remembered that this would be a most significant day for her entire kingdom as she was about to attend the meeting of a lifetime.
Shortly after raising the sun and watching over the city for a handful of minutes, she teleported herself to a room that contained a large round table with six chairs at different sides. Two of the chairs that were close to each other had a larger size than the rest as one of them was Twilight's seat and the other one was reserved for the guest she was supposed to meet that day. While the table itself was usually used for the meetings she held with her friends once a moon, she had decided to temporarily use it for negotiations with rulers and delegates from other realms. The said negotiations had been going on for a few weeks, and they were a necessary step in her goal of creating friendly relations with Equestria's neighbors in the cosmos. Ever since her first visit to the human world all those years ago, she had been researching the existence of other realms and by the time she received the throne of Equestria from her predecessors, Celestia and Luna, she had discovered not only several neighboring realms, but also the means of transporting herself to them.
With that said, the next meeting she was going to have was probably the most important one in her entire life as she was about to negotiate with the newly crowned empress of a realm that had a rather shaky history with Equestria.
As soon as she teleported herself to the council chambers, she made a few last minute adjustments to the table and the chairs in order to make sure that everything was orderly. This included pulling the chairs a bit closer to the table, moving the table itself a few inches towards the very center of the room, and checking to see if all the documents she had prepared the previous night were on the table. While doing so, she briefly remembered all the times she did similar things in her youth and let out a small giggle upon realizing just how enduring old habits really are.
Immediately after finishing the alterations, she used the magic being emitted from her horn to open a purple-colored portal a couple feet away from the table and, a few minutes later, she saw a female bipedal creature emerging from the said portal. She was sporting a blue and black suit with dark gloves and boots. Her hair was held up in a high bun by a mini hairpin and a blue ribbon wrapped around her head, and her mouth was covered by a blue face mask.
After she fullly emerged from the portal, Twilight used her magic again to close it before bowing before the creature and stating, "Kitana Kahn. Welcome to Equestria. It is an honor to finally make your acquaintance."
Kitana responded by bowing back and declaring, "Princess Twilight. The honor is all mine. It is high time Outworld improved its political relationship with Equestria."
"I couldn't agree more, your highness", Twilight replied. "I have no doubt that after today's meeting, our respective worlds will start a friendship that will last for an eternity. So, if you're ready, please take a seat and we can begin the negotiations."
Kitana nodded in agreement and proceeded to sit on the big chair right in front of it, with Twilight sitting on the big chair next to it. Immediately afterwards, the alicorn princess asked, "Now, how about we first go over the history between our worlds? That way, we can have a better understanding of where we stand and where we can go from there."
"Most certainly", began Kitana. "As I recall, the very first interaction between Outworld and Equestria took place when the vile emperor known as Shao Kahn attempted to conquer this land with his vast army. Despite the heavy casualties, your predecessor Princess Celestia managed to push them back before casting a spell that prevented Shao Kahn from ever stepping foot on Equestria again. Centuries later, when Shao Kahn finally died and the next emperor Kotal Kahn ascended to the throne, he tried repairing the relations between the realms and, as I understand it, there was somewhat of a friendship between him and Celestia, and they were close to forging an alliance together. Unfortunately, Kotal's commitment to the civil war with Shao Kahn's daughter Mileena interrupted the negotiations and they did not start again due to all the repairs he has made to Outworld after the end of the war. Shortly afterwards, a time merger brought a past version of Shao Kahn to the present and he tried to reclaim his throne by battling Kotal. Though he nearly succeeded in doing so, I united warriors from all races in Outworld in a final battle against his forces and, in the end, we emerged victorious. Kotal then willingly gave his throne to me and since I am now the new kahn of Outworld, I intend to forge peaceful relations with all realms so that we may be redeemed for our past sins and grow stronger through friendship instead of tyranny. Any questions before we continue?"
By the time Kitana finished recounting this backstory, Twilight's jaw had nearly dropped to the floor from hearing it all. There was simply too much information to take in all at once and parts of it had extremely confusing terms such as a time merger. Fortunately, she managed to come to her senses after shaking her head a few times and quickly decided that it was best to ask about the confusing terms at a later time and move on to the next subject.
"WOW... That, uh, that was an interesting story, alright", she managed to utter. "I think we both clearly understand where we are in terms of political relations. Now, before we move on to how we can improve them, I'd like you to clarify something, if you don't mind. Why did you decide to help Kotal Kahn in the first place? Were you two friends or did you simply think helping him was the right thing to do?"
Upon hearing that question, Kitana let out a deep sigh before answering, "I have no personal connection to him, whatsoever. He is the love interest of my best friend Jade and that's about it. However, I do have a personal connection to his predecessor, Shao Kahn. I was his 'daughter' by konquest. He invaded my realm of Edenia, merged it with Outworld, murdered my father King Jerrod, and forced my mother Sindel to marry him. After I was born, he trained me to become his personal assassin, but eventually, I discovered not just the truth about my parentage, but also the fact that he had created a vicious clone of me called Mileena in order to have a 'true daughter'. Once I learned all this, I turned against him and joined the fight to bring him down once and for all. As I said earlier, I gathered an army consisting of warriors from every corner of the empire and, with our combined might, we finished him for good. Does that answer your question?"
Twilight was once again left speechless, but thankfully, she was not as dumbfounded as she was the previous time and instead of her jaw dropping to the floor, her eyes simply widened a bit.
"Whoa... That... That sounds both really epic and really tragic at the same time", she eventually stated. "You've clearly been through a lot to get where you are at the moment. Reminds me of how I earned my throne by inspiring nearly the entire planet to take down a trio of villains who all had personal grudges against me."
It was then Kitana's turn to become shocked as her eyes widened as much as Twilight's did a while ago immediately after hearing her remark. She then asked, "Really? That's how you earned the right to become the ruler of your world? That is quite remarkable, to be honest. I would love to hear the details of this event."
"Well, actually there are a lot more events that led to my coronation, but long story short, the villainous trio tried to take their revenge for their previous failures by turning the entire population against one another", Twilight explained. "They consisted of a muscular centaur who absorbs magic to become stronger, a former Changeling queen who feeds on love from other creatures to survive, and a deranged filly who's very good at deceiving ponies for her own gains. Even though they were quite challenging to defeat at first, thanks to the ponies and other kinds of creatures me and my friends have taught the value of friendship over the years, we finally achieved the ultimate victory and permanently sealed the villains together in a stone statue."
Kitana responded by staring at Twilight in puzzlement for a handful of seconds before managing to say, "By the Elder Gods... This does sound like an extremely immense battle. I wish I was aware of it sooner so that I could experience it first hand. It would've been an honor to fight by your side against those vile beasts. Also, this centaur you have mentioned sounds rather similar to Shao Kahn and I welcome any opportunity to battle tyrants like him."
Hearing that caused Twilight to let out a small chuckle and say, "Well, I would've really appreciated your help in that battle. From what I've heard, you're a truly formidable warrior who's taken down many powerful opponents. The villains that I've faced would not have stood a chance against you. In fact, I'm positive that centaur would've started running off scared as soon as he saw what you could do."
Both of them immediately started laughing at that statement and, for the next few hours or so, they talked about various topics, ranging from past adventures to embarrassing events that took place during the first few stressful days of their respective regimes. Moreover, they discussed the terms of a treaty Twilight had prepared, which would officially make Equestria an ally of Outworld and compel both worlds to send help to one another during desperate times.
When the hour started approaching noon, though, Twilight realized just how late she was to other businesses she had to attend to that day. Therefore, she stood up from her chair and declared, "I'm sorry, Kitana, but our meeting has to be finished some other time. I have some other duties to take care of today and I'm already- "
"It's quite alright, Twilight", replied Kitana as she started standing up as well. "I completely understand what you mean. As you already know, I am going through the exact same ordeal and, to be honest, I am late for another important meeting I had scheduled for today. I better go back to Outworld to sort it all out. We should meet again before the end of this month to complete our negotiations. How about exactly two weeks from now in my palace at dawn?"
Twilight nodded in agreement and opened another portal with her magic. However, shortly after Kitana took a few steps towards it, she stopped, took a deep breath, turned her attention back to Twilight, and revealed, "Before I return to my realm, I have one more question to ask you. I probably should have asked it earlier, but it is a rather personal one and I did not know you well beforehand. Now that I do, I shall ask it.
Although Twilight was a bit confused by what Kitana had meant by this, she nevertheless replied, "Sure. Go ahead."
Kitana then explained, "A few years ago, I have made the acquaintance of a great warrior named, Liu Kang. He comes from another world called, Earthrealm, and even though he has accomplished a number of incredible feats, he is nevertheless considered an outsider in my realm. With that said, I could not help but develop feelings for him, and my people would never accept a union between their Kahn and an outsider. As you can imagine, I am immensely conflicted in this matter. I love Liu Kang, but everyone is telling me that our bond should not be. What do you think I should do?"
Twilight took a few moments to process everything Kitana had just told her and afterwards, a warm smile appeared on her face. She then closed the portal with her magic and declared, "You know what, Kitana? I know exactly what you're going through. If you could spare just a few more minutes, I'm going to show you how to solve your dilemma."
She extended her hoof towards Kitana who, despite confusedly staring at it for a short while, grabbed it and immediately after she did, Twilight teleported both of them to somewhere that looked a lot like the living room of a regular pony house.
Kitana started gazing at every single object around her in complete shock, including the wooden furniture with blue-colored cusion, the sheep's wool carpet on the floor, and the fireplace right in front of her. However, what got her attention the most was a series of framed pictures standing on a shelf directly above the said fireplace. They featured not just Twilight, but also three additional ponies she had never seen before.
One of them was a male pegasus older and larger than the other two. He had a brilliant gamboge coat, vivid cornflower blue, and a moderate sapphire blue mane. On top of all that, he was wearing an armor that the Equestrian royal guards were usually equipped with.
While the other two ponies were also pegasi, they were also female, and a lot younger and smaller in comparison. Both of them had orange coats, blue manes, and purple eyes. From their nearly identical appearances, it was impossible to not determine that they were twin sisters.
After spending nearly half a minute staring at the pictures, Kitana turned back towards Twilight and asked, "Are these ponies who I think they are?"
In response, Twilight gave her a nod and revealed, "Yep. They're exactly who you think they are. My husband, Flash Sentry, and our daughters, Nova Storm and Lightning Blaze. Flash is a member of the royal guard in the Crystal Empire and we first met each other little more than a decade ago. Even though our first interactions were a bit awkward to say the least, we eventually got to know each other better and, in a few short years, our relationship turned to marriage. Of course, we had to keep it a secret since, just like your people, mine would not look kindly to a marriage between a common soldier and the sole ruler of an entire kingdom. It was especially hard for me to hide my pregnancy, but I did discover a spell that changed my physical appearance for a few months. The only other ponies who know our secret are my best friends, who make up the Council of Friendship."
Kitana intently listened to every single word that came out of Twilight's mouth and, by the end, her eyes had widened considerably. She then managed to say, "I... I cannot believe it. You actually succeeded where I failed. You have a simple life with a loving family, despite the rigorous expectations brought on by your royal status."
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it perfect", Twilight stated. "I can only see my family once a week and there have been more than a few times that I couldn't attend our weekly gatherings due to a sudden crisis. With that said, I do love being here whenever I can and my daughters do understand the importance of my job. I know the truth must be revealed at some point, but only when the time is right. Until then, we'll have to continue living like this. We've made it work thus far and I'm pretty sure we can keep doing so for a while longer. You can try something like this too, but first you have to clarify something for yourself. Do you truly love this Liu Kang?"
Upon hearing that question, Kitana started thinking about it in complete silence. Then, a short while later, she confidently replied, "More than anyone else in the whole universe."
In response, Twilight smiled and declared, "Good. Then, go to him and tell him how you feel. If he's as great as you claim, then I'm positive you two will figure something out eventually."
Moments after she said that, Kitana suddenly ran up to Twilight and gave her a big hug, which was extremely confusing for the alicorn princess at first. However, shortly afterwards, she returned the hug and even heard Kitana utter, "Thank you."
She then softly replied, "Don't mention it."
They continued hugging each other for several more seconds until they suddenly heard the door open and a few ponies enter the house. They consisted of Twilight's family and from the saddle bags the fillies were carrying, it was clear that they were coming from school. Upon seeing them, Twilight rushed to greet them and she hugged each of her daughters very tightly before giving a kiss to her husband. As she asked the fillies how their day at the Wonderbolts show was and they started telling her about what they saw that day, Kitana could not help but shed a tiny drop of tear from watching the scene before her.
Moments later, one of the fillies noticed her and pointed right at her with a hoof before asking, "Who is that? Mom, is she one of those humans you met in another world?"
"It can't be", the one countered. "None of the humans in her story were dressed like that. She must be from another another world."
Twilight responded by letting out a nervous chuckle and revealing, "You're right, girls. She's not from the human world I've been to. This is my new friend, Kitana Kahn. She is the empress of a realm known as Outworld."
After both fillies exclaimed, "WOW!", at the same time, she turned to Kitana and said, "Kitana, I don't really think I need to introduce you to my family. You already know their names from the photos."
In response, Kitana quickly wiped away her tear, bowed before the ponies, and announced, "It is truly an honor to meet you all. Twilight has done an incredible job of creating this family and it is honestly very inspiring to me."
Flash then stepped forward, bowed before her, and then declared, "Well, thank you so much for the kind words, your highness. Any friend of Twilight is welcome here at any given time. Which reminds me... Would you like to stay for lunc? It would take me just a few minutes to prepare it."
"Thank you kindly, but I can't", Kitana replied. "I need to go back to my realm and attend an urgent matter there. I'm sure you'll understand."
Twilight gave her a nod in approval, opened yet another portal with her magic, and said, "We most certainly do. You can come back here whenever you have the time."
Kitana nodded back and walked right into the portal before disappearing from sight completely.
