Incursion

Shining Armour:

A unicorn stood graceful, staring over the fine city of Canterlot. The morning sun had risen and painting the buildings gold with it’s light, Shining Armour truly appreciated what a gift Celestia bestowed every day. Today however, would not take kindly to such reverence on beauty, not with what else the sun had risen upon. Even from this distance, he could make out the rip between the worlds, its great gaping hole, rimmed with a bright corona of unkempt energy. Holding a hoof above his forehead, he squinted, focusing on the hole, allowing the power of the object to absorb his attention, watching, staring, and waiting. This is hopeless, ponies are panicking over these appearances, and I have no clue as to what to do Shining Armour thought forlorn. Glancing towards the ground below, he noticed the ponies making their way to the council. A great meeting of minds, political figures, academics and defence forces to contemplate the current crisis; if it even was a crisis, Shining Armour couldn’t be sure yet how to view the issues at hand.

The sun began it’s graceful arc across the sky, dragging the shadows back to their owners, replacing the darkness in the world with the ever encompassing glow and warmth. Thinking back to yesterday Shining Armour stifled a sigh of remorse. Seeing Twilight had been amazing, never getting enough of his little sister, but yet, she was at the root of the crisis, making contact with the creatures beyond the portals, allowing them to notice the existence of Equestria was critical in making the issue what it was, and yet, Twilight, in her arrogance and perhaps, optimism, had decided that this was an interesting academic pursuit, a chance to learn and experience the world of another, and the chance to educate outside of her usual scope. Apparently the beings beyond the rifts had been confused and unsure, even frightened of her presence. Shining Armour held a hoof against his forehead and sighed again. The filly in her keenness had engaged one of their number in conversation. A conversation that revealed they feared being attacked, destroyed even by the strange rifts, and the ponies that dwell outside of them.

Princess Celestia stared down an irate crowd of ponies. The rabble, being quite raucous and panicked, was creating tension through conversation, particularly speculation on worst case scenarios, and loudly arguing over the exact nature of the rifts.

“Ponies of Canterlot.” Celestia called loudly over the growing din. “I will have silence on this most important of occasions.” Shining Armour let this wash over him, it wasn’t important, just the formalities before a meeting occurred. He glanced across the hall to see that standing near Princess Celestia was an entourage of guards, her royal sister, and Twilight Sparkle. Shining Armour was both relieved and mortified to see his sister in attendance. While it was true she had been instrumental in solving previous crisis facing Equestria, he couldn’t help feel that the coming skirmish would be beyond Twilight’s understanding.

A silence washed over the crowd of nobles and strategists. Eveypony focused on the Sun princess and her entourage, waiting for the formalities to commence.

"You may be seated." Celestia motioned the group to a large table hitherto unseen in the throne room, at least to the captain of the guards. Without question the gathered ponies took seats around the gilded table.

"As you have undoubtedly noticed, Equestria has been beset by these portals, holes in the universe leading to another. Foremost we must remember to remain calm." The princess began

"Remain calm?" A pale grey unicorn bellowed, Blueblood, of course *you** would be the first to make your voice heard.* The unicorn reared onto his hind legs to slam his hands on the hard marble of the table "These horrific things have appeared and began terrifying the smallfolk, My earth ponies refuse to tend their crops in case whatever monsters lay beyond them come to devour them!"

"The things behind the portals aren't monsters!" This time it was Twilight's turn to raise her voice, she had afterall met the creatures beyond the portal firsthand. "They're just as scared as we are, if I was able to go across again with a te-"

"Never!" Celestia seemed to change drastically at the thought of Shining Armour's sister returning to the other world. "The monsters beyond the portals are certainly a threat, no matter how kindly the one you met seemed, that's how they are. At first they seem scared, meek even. They may try to curry your favour, and then they turn."

A chill spread across the room at her statement. Nopony knew exactly what was beyond the dark portals, but Celestia seemed to have built a clear picture from Twilight's short account of what she had experienced. She knows something, she knows what they are.

"Sister." Princess Luna's voice cut through the murmurs of the council. "How is it that you can be so sure that these creatures are the monsters you paint them as? Usually you have mercy and acceptance in your heart, but this morning you seem  so full of bitterness, of hurt. What do you know of them, and how?" Luna's pleading tone seemed so jarring to Shining, normally the princess seemed so confident, and loud. Not even Luna knows how to handle the situation, this isn't going to end well.

A frown of hurt crossed the face of Princess Celestia, she looked thoughtfully out at the distorted skyline then released a sigh.

"I hadn't imagined that you could forget them sister, perhaps the madness of Nightmare Moon had began to take hold even in those early days after Discord's fall. Well, I suppose that the imprisonment of Discord would be the best place to start." Finally some answers! Just looking at the princess gives me the feeling I'm not going to like them that much, at least we'll have some idea how to deal with the situation when we know what it is we're facing. "Not long after the chaos god was defeated by the elements, a new race began to emerge and thrive in Equestria. They called themselves Humans." Celestia spat the word "human" as if lingering to pronounce it for too long would cause her to choke, or vomit. Or both.

"At first they seemed harmless, there had been carnivores in Equestria for about as long as there had been life afterall. These were different though. Without the use of magic or wings they were able to craft civilisations, just small groups in wooden cabins, nothing close to Ponydom, but enough for them to start doing the two things that humans do best. Invention, and Subjugation." Shining armour hadn't noticed until this point, but there was not a sound in the room other than Celestia's voice, echoing her chilling recount across the throne room.

"Slowly they became more advanced, their wooden huts became stone houses, their log fires became furnaces and kilns, their sharpened sticks became blades, and with that, ponies became slaves, then once they were too frail to work, they became food." That final statement seemed to hang in the air for an eternity, it took a small purple unicorn to finally break the spell it had weaved upon the gathered ponies.

"What happened to them? Why aren't they in any of my history books, or even folklore books?"

"My dear student, what happened to the humans is my one greatest shame, and the reason you will never find any record of them. After attempting multiple times to reason with the beasts, I found myself with no other option to remove them, and anything tainted by them, from this world. The elements wouldn't have worked, as you know the effect tends to be somewhat less than permanent. I called upon the dragons, their feast did not last long, but in the end, humans and tainted ponies alike were no more. I forbade anypony from recording the existence of the monsters, and they faded into nothingness." The princess hung her head, a single tear ran down her muzzle and dropped onto the table below. The look of shame on Celestia's face was contrasted greatly by the indignant rage contorting Twilight's features.

"You killed them?" Seethed Shining's younger sister. "You're no better than the humans were, you monster." With that Twilight stormed from the hall slamming the great oak doors as heavily as her magic would allow.

Twilight, be careful.