Twilight Sparkle woke up early today. She had a big day ahead, for she needed to go to Canterlot alongside three of her friends since princess Celestia had asked to meet them in person. Albeit very unusual friends compared to those who wielded the Elements of Harmony. As she trotted down the stairs, she noticed that Spike had already packed her bags for the trip and was waiting for her to leave. “Good work Spike! I can always count on you. We’re leaving now to get the others.” Twilight said to her apprentice, who was very thrilled to do something different for once. She walked up to the front door and used her magic to lif the bags on her back. The baby dragon hopped on the unicorn and they both left the library, making sure to lock the door as they walked around in the nearly empty Ponyville.

“I’ve never gotten up at such an early hour, it feels weird to see Ponyville like this. It’s as if the town is abandoned... almost like the kinds of town we see in zombie movies.” Spike noted, feeling a slight shiver at this rather uneasy sight.

“I’ve been up pretty early a couple of times already, it's always this quiet in the early morning. You know ponies usually don’t leave their houses when the sun is still rising. That's a fact brought to you by the early bird, Twilight.” responded Twilight.

It was indeed very early in the morning; the sun had barely risen, so the city was mostly in darkness. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw that one of her friends was also ready to make the trip, waiting in the center of the town for her. He was a paladin named Drag. He came from a planet known as Azeroth where he was born. He belonged to the race of the Tauren, which greatly resembled the mythical minotaur while also being different from those seen in Equestria like Iron Will. His skin was black, and he was wearing a full set of plate armor blessed by the light itself, or so he affirmed. On his back was his usual holy great sword that he always keeps close to him.

The paladin quickly took notice of the approaching unicorn. “Hey Twilight, as you can see, I'm already fully prepared for our journey. The same cannot be said for the others apparently. Where the hell are they?” said the Tauren as he looked around him in impatience.

Another one of Twilight’s newer friends came in view as soon as Drag was done talking. He was named Pink, in reference to his skin color. He was a strange humanoid being with large arms and small legs. His head was a perfect circle with two white oval shaped eyes, but no nose and no ears. he was wearing a Viking helmet and was always seen with a diamond shovel on him as well as brass knuckles with his name on it, albeit hilariously mispelled. Don't ask me how you can misspell pink.

“Sorry if I'm a bit late chaps; I was just making sure that I didn’t forget anything for our journey to Canterlot. I... tend to double check a little too much at times.” Twilight looked at the sky for a moment as if she was expecting something to be there. She then set her gaze back on the two, feeling a little bit agitated.

“Where’s Alduin? Wait... Don’t tell me he didn’t even bother to come?” Both Drag and Pink noticed that the unicorn was getting more and more agitated. The paladin briefly looked at the humanoid with concerned eyes before walking closer to Twilight, leaning forward to match the unicorn’s height.

“I’ll get him to come with us, that I promise. Just wait here and I'll be back in a flash.” Before Twilight could even respond, Drag ran in direction of the mountain Alduin resided in with an angry expression, every step he took sounded more like the stomping of an angry bull. He summoned a drake with his magical powers to fly up the mountain at an impressive speed.

Drag ran inside the cave only to find that Alduin, the ex-world eater was sleeping in his cave without a single care about their plans for today. This dragon was once defeated by a mighty hero in Sovngarde, causing his soul to be sent far away from the world he once terrorised, landing into Equestria and eventually he was forced into abandoning his plans to devour all life in this world by the paladin Drag and Pink as well. And now, this very paladin was coming to disturb his slumber yet again.

“Dammit Alduin! We’re supposed to go to Canterlot today! So, get up and move already! "The black dragon opened one of his eyes to look at the Tauren. He looked irritated and very displeased at the idea of going to the city of Canterlot to meet princess Celestia. The black dragon wasted no time going back to sleep which pissed off the Tauren. "Don't act like you didn't hear me!"

“Why can’t she just come to us instead? Pahlok joorre! A mere unicorn with wings cannot command that which is higher in the order of power.” Drag grabbed Alduin by the horns and started dragging him onto the floor with his impressive strength as the dragon desperately tried to slow the paladin down. It was in vein as the Tauren’s pulling strength was too much for him.

“Because we are going to stay in Canterlot for a few days too!" Drag shouted as he pointed at the castle in the distance. "If you simply listened beyond just ‘meeting the princess’, you would have remembered this fact.” He threw the dragon out of his cave. “You’re coming whether you like it or not. And don’t even try to slip out of this one, you know damn well how it went last time you tried to pull a sneaky one on me.”

The world eater grumbled in frustration. “Nivahriin joorre. Fine, I’ll go to your meeting, but know that I won't stay with you for the whole trip. I’ll fly to Canterlot and wait for you there. Hin kah fen kos bonaar.” With that, he flew away and Drag went down the mountain on his drake’s brake to rejoin Twilight and Pink who were waiting for him in Ponyville.

It was finally Saturday, a beautiful day for the Scaler Empire or as some would say; Lord Balgo's Empire. The indominable tyrant stood atop the citadel that overshadowed the city he currently stayed in, enjoying the view of his soldiers patrolling the area, of the obediant masses praising his posters littered across the city and of the rising sun. "Today calls for something new, something different, something I've never tried before. No doubts will the rebels strike once more to weaken my troops but... can I make this more interesting?"

He looked at the clock only to realize that it was only 6:05 in the morning. "Perhaps I should wait until they commence their attack." Lord Balgo moved away from the window and sat comfortably in his chair. Amongst his kind, he was very different. Firstly, he did not have a house of his own. Instead, he moved all over the planet over the months to be able to carry out his work as the emperor of the Scalers. Like all its congeners, he has a crocodile-like appearance with green scales, a long snout with a big mouth filled with teeth that can grind bones with ease. However, his eyes are purple, a color that was feared by all Scalers for its attachment to Lord Balgo. Moreover, he was 10 feet and 2 inches tall which made him a giant compared to his species that measured only about 7 feet and 1 inch on average. His stature demonstrated his power and authority amongst his people, making him one of the most feared and powerful Scalers on the planet, rivaled by no one. He was unbeatable, everywhere at once and even in the wilderness, his presence can be felt.

He wasted no time putting on his fancy black suit and his top hat to go outside, taking the time to greet the soldiers nearby as he was leaving the citadel. “Hail Lord Baglo! May you bathe in your enemies blood!” Said the small cohort, accompanied with a salute to their reptilian overlord.

“Let's not get too hasty. We don't want to end the rebellion so soon, lads. What fun would there be without them?” responded the emperor.

"Oh, uh... Okay then? In that case, h-have a good day?” One of the soldiers said in a confused tone.

“Much better.”

As the giant walked over to the front gate, he immediately saw the problem through a nearby window. A giant breach in space-time that was splitting the sky in two, like a portal. A bad sight indeed, but the emperor wasn’t really impressed for he had seen much worse before. Finally getting outside, he noticed all the inhabitants of the city were outside their homes to observe the disturbing phenomenon. Although the breach seemed quite bad, the Scalers around were not looking too anxious, mostly curious about this situation. After all, their situation was bad enough as is. Nothing can really compare to Lord Balgo in their eyes, not even a breach like this.

As he kept on observing, the emperor receives a call on his cell phone from none other than his best friend, the genie Aruba. He is a big scaler who originated from the desert in the south, nearly rivaling Balgo in sheer size. His skin is black, and the color of his eyes were a bright green just like that of an emerald. He had two golden bracelets on his forearms, an Arabian hat and shirt and he sported a short grey beard. He was always seated on a flying carpet with a mysterious chest on it that can summon just about anything he wants thanks to his cosmic powers.

"Hey wassup boss, are you seeing this right now?" the genie began in a jovial tone.

“Yes, I am. I'm in front of the citadel. I can see this curious breach from here. I have a feeling that today's going to be very, very memorable.” Lord Balgo replied, staring intently at the sky above with his purple eyes that radiated pure malice.

“Of course, I took the time to mobilize an army in front of the breach, we built a camp while we were waiting for your arrival, buddy. Oh, hold on, I think I can see through this anomaly. It may be a passageway to another world, sounds exciting, isn’t it?” His last sentence sparked something in the evil emperor.

“Interesting, I will be here in two minutes.” Lord Balgo finished, having regained all his energy at the idea of a potential new world to discover. “Tell them to be prepared in case some mean S.O. B’s come through this breach; you must always imagine the worst in these kinds of situation.” Concluded the giant reptile before ending the call. His initial boredom was gone, now replaced with a malicious excitement at the idea of finally getting himself involved in some action. He smiled to himself, imagining the fun he will be having soon enough.

And with that, he lifted himself off the ground and flew in the direction of the breach. Although he uses vehicles to get around, the emperor still prefers to get around by himself, as he is much faster than any vehicle the Scalers have ever been able to build, courtesy of his extremely strong build and his unfathomable magic. Flying through the forest, he took the opportunity to observe the breach in the sky and realized that it was touching the ground because it was simply that enormous. “Big enough to fit a whole army for a potential conquest.” he thought. He swore he could see another world on the other side of this strange phenomenon just like Aruba told him but couldn’t quite make out what it looked like. This only served to excite him even more. If there were any form of life on the other side, he will have the pleasure of conquering yet another world for the glory of the empire he had built all by himself.

Finally, he arrived at the military camp set up by Aruba. The soldiers here were all very well armed with brand new military technologies that Balgo had designed. Furthermore, he immediately spotted three important figures amongst the crowd: Terra, his personal bodyguard and an excellent female swordsman who's recently came back to life under the form of a skeleton with a furnace for a head, The Tanker, a high ranking soldier in his army who is known for piloting a gigantic tank through town and finally, Kryser, the most powerful of the Scaler's elite troops armed with a high-cry war suit to increase his strength and the toughness of his armor at any time amongst other functions. Aruba had indeed brought the "heavy-hitters" into their group. This greatly satisfied the tyrant, who is now preparing to make his speech.

He stood in front of the breach and turned his attention to all his troops, who were now staring intently at him: "Greetings to all, you are the first and most important line of defence against a phenomenon that is completely unknown to us. Exciting, isn't it? We don't know what's behind that breach, but we're certainly not going to wait to find out.” Lord Balgo paused, looking at all the soldiers who were impatiently waiting his next sentence. “We will go through it in just a few minutes and take over uncharted lands.” Lord Balgo barely had time to finish his sentence that the entire crowd gathered before him busted into excitement. “Hehe. There won’t be anything to worry about, not that I believe any of you here are worried in the slightest. But just to be safe, we have brought with you... the elite of our strong world! Terra, Tanker, Kryser, Aruba and lastly, I, your invincible emperor... I will lead you all to success as I have always done. Guts and glory to us." Balgo announced proudly before his kin. The scalers responded with unanimous cheering, excited at the idea of exploring a whole new world.

Terra sat impatiently next to Kryser in their tent. “How much longer do we have to wait? This world adventure is pointless to me for I have only one goal.” said the undead Scaler.

The soldier responded without even looking, still focused on sharpening his knives. “A couple of minutes, and don't even think about leaving Lord Balgo on a mission like this. Your selfish quest for revenge is unimportant to the glory of the empire. Try to leave, and I'll break your bones, one by one.”

“Boldly said, though I hardly believe you can even beat me. I am the greatest swordsman there will ever be while you rely solely on your guns to do the job for you. Your skills with the knife can't compete with my blades.” Terra responded as the furnace opened, revealing her red eyes glowing with perfect hatred.

“We'll see about that." Kryser didn’t find his answer all that imposing. He closed his eyes and started to meditate in hopes of calming himself down before he can make a stupid mistake. “If you join us and don't question any orders; I'll help you bring down the one who took your life. Do we have a deal?”

Terra closed her furnace, before grinning to Kryser. “Thanks... we'll gut him like a fish together.”

Kryser chuckled at the young swordsman response. “Heh, I'm looking forward to this day.”

“And then I told him to go sleep in a crib or something and the lad just pissed himself right on the spot!” said the Tanker to his unit, unable to hold in his laughter.

“Why does almost every single one of your stories have piss and cribs involved in them somehow? You literally spend your days stealing Scaler's money, how can you even get yourself in these kinds of situations?” exclaimed a Scaler in a heavy power armour.

“Hey, when you patrol the city and take a good look at the civilans there; you'll quickly realise that a lot of Scalers do piss on th-” Another Scaler violently hit the Tanker in the back of the head with a wine bottle, breaking it into millions of pieces.

“Oh shut up already! Let us prepare in silence!”

Aruba was moving around the camp to make sure everyone was preparing for the mission at hand instead of lollygagging around. He couldn’t help but notice the fact that Lord Balgo was standing deathly still in front of the breach, almost as if he was admiring it. “Oh boy, you sure are excited for this, aren’t ya?” said the genie as he approached his friend on his flying carpet.

“But of course, when was the last time we got to go on an adventure of this caliber?” asked the emperor.

“Eight months ago, if I recall correctly. Holy cow, that was a long time ago.” The tyrant summoned a small portal with his dark powers and took out a coffee mug from it.

“Shall we call this a vacation?” asked the genie with a hint of malice on his face. The emperor grinned at his friend’s proposal.

“Oh yes! We’re going on a nice vacation today. I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind a nice break from work.”

Thus, all the creatures packed their items and crossed the breach once the signal was given. Lord Balgo stayed behind to watch as all the Scalers crossed one by one through the anomaly. As they crossed to the other side, everyone was surprised at the sight before them. A world of bright color and filled with cute looking critters welcomed them. This sight removed any anxiety present in the hearts of the invading lizards, not that there was much to begin with. This conquest is going to be nice and easy they all thought. Once everyone had passed through, Lord Balgo went in, making sure the camp around was tightly secured with automatic turrets and robots on guard.

“Dude, this is just like them TV shows my daughter watches at home.” exclaimed a Scaler.

"Now, now. Let's not be fooled by appearances, the residents here could be quite powerful and provide a nice challenge for us. Oh, let's hope that this is the case, otherwise we'd have gained nothing from this endeavor." Lord Balgo said with a large toothy grin on his face.

“It's still difficult to take any of this seriously in the slightest when you find yourself in the equivalent of a children's cartoon.” Aruba replied as his entire body began to show disinterest. “I was hoping for a massive warzone. At least I get to do something more than just be a funny looking Arabian politician. Herf, I’m not feeling this vacation anymore.” sighed the genie.

“I’m sure there’s more to this place than meets the eyes. Don't lose your hopes so soon.” responded Lord Balgo.

“It’s exactly one more reason to be wary.” Kryser objected. “We do not know if this world is inhabited with powerful foes. If it happens, we would be foolishly throwing ourselves into certain death. You’d do well to take this a bit more seriously, genie.” The Scaler’s armour and muscles started to tighten in response to his growing annoyance.

“Um, yeah, listen for a moment Mr. Erected muscle. While this may be a possibility, if one where to attack everything immediately and not give the opposition any time to react, one does not need to worry about a potential counterstrike. Heh, voilà.” As he finished, the genie reached into his chest to pick up a pipe. Kryser looked at Balgo, only for the emperor to give him a look that says, “Chill out”.

“Hey! What's their currency over here? Do they even have one? Oh man, me and the boys could totally steal some of their money with threats and tanks. It's getting quite boring over at our world since every single Scaler has gotten used to us.” Yelled the Tanker while his mouth contorts into a grin big enough to nearly cover his entire face. “Come to think of it, it's been a while since I got to shoot at buildings with this bad boy.” Exclaims the Tanker enthusiastically as he was frantically looking left and right.

“I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm here, Commander Tanker. I suggest instead that we take an entire city hostage just to have a shield against all enemy forces. They will refuse to do anything against us if we have hostages. Then, we enjoy the nice scenery of this world. Oh, but don't think that you can't kill one or two if you so like. I'll always bring them back so we can have more fun. Like I always say; the torture is fun and the fun will be endless.” The tyrant said while carefully observing his surroundings, still drinking his coffee.

He continued by signaling to the others to advance into the forest present in front of them. It is very dark compared to the hills they had set foot in. During their walk, everyone found that there were no animals in sight. Perhaps because the local wildlife was frightened by the arrival of potential predators? Then again, everyone fears me. Thought the gargantuan emperor.

Finally, after several minutes of walking, he spotted some houses in the distance. Just beyond the bushes that marked the entrance to the forest was a village inhabited by a unique species of horse. These animals had very pronounced and bright colors compared to their equivalent on the Scalers home planet.

Now all the scalers can see their opponents clearly: "So is this the enemy? A bunch of baby horses.” began a soldier in a mocking tone, nearly incapable of holding in his laughter.

“Apparently yes.” Aruba replies. “They don't look very threatening, or even armed for that matter. By the looks of it, they don't even have a police force or any soldiers patrolling around. We’re gonna tear them apart real quick like the time we faced off against a bunch of living teddy bears. This is going to be a real pub-stomp... Yes, I just learned about slangs.” said the genie, being embarrassed at his cringy usage of slangs.

“I have no doubts about that, my dear hatted friend.” Said Lord Balgo. “We are not going to struggle against them at all. If they send any type of soldier at us, let’s hope it’s not going to be a bunch of little ponies. After all, what sick men would send babies to fight us?” Balgo was quite amused by how things were going now. "Oh yeah... I should mention that children are not to be killed or hurted in any way. We like to keep things a little civilised."

“Yeah, killing babies is a bad idea. These little demons can and will hold a mighty grudge against their parents murder. We'd basically be creating an army of Batmen if we did that.” said the Tanker, frowning at whatever kind of twisted thought was running through his head.

Lord Balgo chuckled at this Scaler's statment. "Ok... Now listen up, here’s the deal. We will storm the town and force everyone inside their homes. Then we can have some fun with whatever kind of circus freaks we’ll have to fight this time. Sounds good?”

The Scaler all nodded in agreement.

"Then it is time for blood."

The citizens of Ponyville were going about their business when suddenly, a frightened scream caught their attention. A pony fell on its back upon noticing the giant reptile walk in town without any warning. “Greetings everyone! Today’s a very special day, for it is my birthday of course! Here’s a special surprise that I've been saving for you all.” He moved to the side to reveal an entire horde of Scalers charging into the peaceful town.

In a short time, the lizards landed on the streets and rushed down their prey until they locked themselves in their dwelling. The town, once peaceful, is now subject to a hellish cacophony of terrified screams and furious mocking roars. The ponies of this world will soon have to call their strongest assets in to deal with a threat bigger than anything they’ve dealt with before. While observing the chaos around him, Balgo thought to himself “They won’t have anywhere to hide or run to soon enough. I think I will have a bit of fun this time around and use just a little bit of psychological warfare... and tomfoolery.” His smile grew even larger at the thought of what he was going to accomplish here. Thus, the conflict between Equestria and the Scalers began.

Aruba didn’t follow the others into the town. He had sensed something in the forest that caught his attention. He followed this strange scent of magic to arrive at a house decorated with large wooden masks. The front door opened, and a zebra left the house, stopping in her tracks when she noticed the large lizard floating on a magic carpet. “What are you?” said Zecora in shock. The genie calmly took out his pipe.

“Oh, so there are zebras too?”

“There are more than just ponies, look around and you’ll see.” Aruba took an interest in the zebra’s habitation.

“Say, what kind of wacky things are going down in your house? The whole feeling of the decorations as well as your trinkets seem to imply some sort of magical activities.” Zecora took on a more defensive stance, trying to mask any possible hint of fear.

“I do not do much other than to brew, in my cauldron lies a nice warm stew.”

“Oh shit, you speak in a certain rhythm. That’s actually kind of cool, but I really wonder why you’re even doing it when I'm basically just asking you a really simple question.” The bushes behind Aruba began to move. He looked over his shoulder to see Balgo joining in the conversation.

“What do we have here? A zebra in a forest... and with an interesting choice of decoration.” The emperor took another sip of his coffee. “Alright, we’ll invite ourselves in.” Lord Balgo grinned and took on a more comedic posture before taking exaggerated steps toward the zebra.

“What? No, I-” Before Zecora could finish her sentence, Lord Balgo pushed her out of his way, sending her straight into a wooden fence. Aruba followed closely behind, turning to make a funny face at the fallen zebra. The zebra got up despite the terrible pain in her side and rushed inside her house where the two Scalers were now thoroughly inspecting.

“Ooo! That looks nice!” Lord Balgo was placing multiple ingredients in the cauldron placed in the middle of the room while Aruba was eating the food present inside Zecora’s house like a fat man eating nuggets at 3:00 in the morning. The zebra looked on in despair, not willing to say anything as it might get the two lizards to attack her. “May I borrow your house for a moment? I just need to prepare some potions that will be useful down the line.” The genie took another puff from his pipe. The smoke that came from was in the shape of a Scaler giving the middle finger.

“This is a trick question zebra. There is only one correct answer to this question and let me help you with the answer; the answer is yes.”

Author's Note

Now that's the first chapter re-done.

Smithy is not entirely gone, but he's going to be very different from his previous version as I felt he needed to be different seeing as I already kinda have a swordsman under Lord Balgo (Terra).

The Soldier is gone forever though. The Tanker is going to play a similar role to him, but with the added bonus of being more original.