Chapters Prologue, and The Eve of War
Prologue:
The same dream, always the same dream.
The desert seemed to stretch on forever, all but one cave.
The heavy armour on the paladin made the heat of this wasteland even less bearable.
The blood dripping from his wound sizzled on the sand.
We came to this place to share God with these heathens, damn shame they'd prefer to share their blades.
As the paladin neared the cave a bright yellow figure stepped into view.
"Hello, old friend, I've came to you, for one final favour"
Then there was nothing but sunlight.
This is a fictional story.
A story about redemption.
Of how when two worlds collide, and the only forseeable outcome is conflict, a ray of hope can stand for peace.
Of how a heart darkend by bitterness can still be taught how to forgive.
Of how a friendship can be forged in the tides of war.
And of course, of Ponies.
This is a fictional story.
But then again, aren't they all?
Wilson:
The sun blazed relentlessly through the crack in Wilson's curtain, seemingly able to catch his aching eyes from half the solar system away. He groaned and pulled the thin hotel duvet over his sickly green face. Why on Earth do I do this to myself, and more importantly, where did I leave that glass? A hand emerged from underneath the covers and fumbled for the pint of water that he had prepared before leaving his room the night before, eventually it felt the sharp coldness of the glass and grasped it without hesitation, withdrawing it back into the warmth of the duvet.
Gulp, gulp, gulp. Even the sound of drinking hurts, how bad was I last night? The empty glass returned from under the sheets, followed by Wilson himself, his usual large countenance looking considerably diminished this morning, who headed straight towards his small pack to begin his bi-monthly game of hunt the painkillers. This particular bout was shockingly quick, he found the white box in the first pouch he checked, and immediately threw three in his mouth. Let's see, any major mistakes yesterday? He thought to himself as the jumbled memories of the prior night began to seep into his consciousness, Went out, met up with Si, all good so far, went to the Miller's for a couple before going into town, oh dear, town. That was where it went wrong, The shots at Hexa...Until the thought of shots at Hexa, the local nightclub, Wilson's thoughts had all made sense.
After the shots though, it became a jumble of pounding music, flaming drinks, and loose women. Then people started to panic, there was screaming, running, and something else. Something purple . Wilson shook his head, as if to clear it of the confusing jumble of the night before, it'd come back to him soon enough, and if not, then it mustn't have been that important.
Wilson made his way to the window and threw back the curtains, allowing the warm light of the summer sun into the room. What time is it anyway, I've got to be on the train for five, Glancing at the clock on the table told him it was only midday allowing him plenty of time before he needed to make the trip back to his station. He eyed the laptop in the corner, Maybe Facebook can shed some light on things? Without a moment's hesitation he flipped the lid and opened his browser.
What was filling Wilson's newsfeed was entirely unexpected, lots of talk of aliens, some people claiming it's the end of the world, the young man felt some creeping memory begin to surface. Apparently it was all over the news, the internet, and anywhere else you could find information. Aliens had arrived on earth, around the globe, at exactly 2:14 AM, nobody knew where they came from, and what purpose they had, no sooner had they appeared, they vanished through great rifts in space. Wilson clicked a link, and saw a blurred image of one of the "aliens" next to a man around his build.
The memory stopped creeping, it had surfaced, and was starting to sprint.
That little purple horse thing.
I must have been spiked.
Like someone had tore open a hole in the sky.
It must have been a hallucination .
But it seemed so real.
It can't be real.
But it was.
Twilight something?
Twilight Sparkle.
The Unicorn.
The memory had reached it's destination, and Wilson was bombarded with the truth of what happened after the shots, first contact.
Wilson was at the bar, wobbling slightly and attempting to engage anyone in conversation, his drinks laid out in front of him, three lagers and chasers for the kicker. Halfway down the first of three pints it started.
A loud noise. less than a bang, but more than a crack, it could possibly be called a crang or a back, split the room, and then the screaming happened, people flocked to the exit of the dingy club, fleeing from some unknown terror. Someone knocked Wilson who span drunkenly round to confront whatever miscreant had the audacity to spill his alcohol, but was greeted instead by a great tear in the middle of reality. And something was coming out.
I remember the fear, I was frozen, all I could do was stare at the rip and pray that whatever horror emerged would find some other prey.
But it wasn't a horror that emerged, it was something small and purple.
"Hey there! My name's Twilight Sparkle, what's yours?" Whatever unearthly beast this was, it could talk English.
"Mine?" The thing from the tear was staring straight at the dumbfounded Wilson
"Well everypony else seems to be crazier than Pinkie when she's been in Sugarcube Corner's pantry for too long, so who else?" A horse, that's what this Twilight Sparkle was. A purple horse, I was afraid of that?
"I'm Wilson, ummm, what are you here for? Are you going to eat me?" Wilson's alcohol ridden mind could focus on only two things, his thirst for the remaining beers behind him, and not being eaten by the thing in front of him. Clearing his thoughts, and arranging his priorities, he turned and grasped the two glasses from the bar.
"Not unless you're made of flowers" The little horse laughed, putting his mind at ease.
"Beer?" offered Wilson, and the memory became hazy.
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 .
It was inescapable, no matter who he saw, what he watched, the same issue was dominating daily life. Returning home really did lose its edge when everyone seemed to be a clone of the same propaganda spewing dullard, duped by that box in the corner.
"They've come to enslave us." The world would say at Wilson. "The only reason anything would visit this planet is to take our resources." The world would whine. It was almost as if humans over the past however long it's been since we found out that there aren't any different coloured humans to hate and fear had been praying for a new race to demonise. Fortunately for us, these horses came bundled with terrifying tears in reality.
Wilson on the other hand was unconvinced. more memories of his night with Twilight had came into focus, she was just as scared as him, and more inquisitive that bloodthirsty, and she was able to hold her cider better than most men he'd met.
Minus the hysteria though, it had been a good week away from his post, he'd seen his father and brother, started a new brew with the two. Catching up with his old friends had been the best part though, Storey was engaged, and to a great guy too What was his name? , Luke had finally gotten out of education, and was planning on starting a nursery, Liam's daughter had just had her first birthday, it seemed like everyone around him had matured so much since he was shipped out to that arid waste we we used to call the Holy Land. To think he'd always dreamed of visiting the cities Madoran had fought to win.
Wilson was drawn back to reality by the slip of paper between his thumb and index finger It really is inescapable. A resigned sigh slipped past his lips as he read through the letter for what felt like the thousandth time, and finally accepting what it entailed, he set it on the counter next to his breakfast of coffee and nicotine. Perhaps we'll be able to not start a war? I'm sure all the unicorns will want is some sort of trade agreement, they're always better than having to fight not very scary things.
Halfway down his fourth cigarette the screaming started, some woman with far too much lung capacity coupled with the ability to hit notes high enough to be only audible to people below a certain age range, unfortunately for Wilson, he was just about dead in that Twenty-to-senile bracket. Not another one, not right now, I'm far too tired and, even worse, far too sober to deal with panicked civilians. Sure enough, when he gathered up the motivation to drag himself to the window Wilson saw exactly what he expected to see, that familiar blue-purple nothingness staring hungrily back towards him. Shit, at least that damn woman's had the courtesy to run away. For a while the pulsating void did a large amount of the same thing they usually do, aside from scintillate hypnotically, that is to say, a large amount of looming forebodingly and not a great deal else, that was until, just for a second or possibly less, the colourless blue of the void became a mess of pastel and sweetness and a purple hoof emerged from the other side. A form began to emerge that seemed more than just familiar to Wilson, it had beguiled his dreams for a week after all. Her again, this can't be chance. After taking a few moments to adjust to her new environment Twilight looked around the world she found herself in, scanning hurriedly until her eyes settled upon what she seemed to be searching for, she began to move towards Wilson's house.
Wilson ran to the door, flinging it open before the little unicorn had a chance to raise a hoof to knock on it.
"You're real?" Wilson managed to blurt out from the jumble of thoughts that were taking hold of him.
"Last time I checked!" The unicorn giggled and tapped a hoof against her forehead theatrically.
"And you're not going to kill us all right? because that'd kinda prove me wrong about everything I've said to anyone about you little horses."
"Well. I certainly don't want to kill you, if that helps?" Twilight's tone darkened slightly, she seemed agitated at the thought of killingThat don't sound good, that sounds like someone is out for us.
"Something tells me this isn't just a social call? Come in, I'll put the tea on." With that Wilson ushered his new guest into his house and led the way towards the dining room. "Nobody else is here yet, so don't panic too much about having to explain what you are to my family, for the moment at least. Oh! Does your species drink tea, or would you prefer something less refreshing?" after a few short corridors and nervous ramblings the two reached Wilson's compact kitchen diner. A small brown table flanked by hard wooden chairs stood out against the penetrating whiteness of the rest of the room. "Take a seat, I'm not sure how much energy inter-dimensional travel takes, but I'm willing to bet it's knackering, two sugars good for you?" Pottering around between shelves and appliances, always keeping an eye on the unicorn. making sure she seemed content Wilson busied himself. If I don't sit down, I don't have to hear it, damn! Why didn't I make a more complicated drink? Peering down at the two mugs of brownish liquid he sighed and resigned himself to hearing it. "So." sitting down was the hardest part, it was always hard to find a reason to stand back up. "What brings you to my world?"
Twilight inhaled deeply. "It all started the day after we first met, I was summoned to Canterlot by th-"
"I'm sorry, Canterlot?" Wilson interrupted, a broad grin on his face
"Yes, what's wrong with that?"
"It's a thing, don't panic, probably just coincidence. By all means, carry on."
That's exactly what Twilight did, she told him of the portals opening around the world she came from, "Equestria" apparently. Then she told him about the council, and how everyone, sorry, everypony was in a panic about them. Then she told him about Celestia, and how she had personally signed the death warrants of every human on her planet, and her plans to do the same to his. For a moment Wilson sat silently, processing exactly what exactly he had just heard.
"So, it seems to me, that we're in quite a jam. You see, it's not too often that sun gods try to wipe out this species, kind of a giveaway in that we're still about. Why on earth did you come to me about this? I'm just a mook!"
A confused expression crossed Twilight's face. "Mook?"
"You know! The bloke in charge points, and we run in shooting, for Queen and country and all that bollocks, I'm disposable, hell, ninety percent of us are disposable."
"You're in the army?" The pony asked far too excitedly for Wilson's liking. "That's perfect! All we need to do is speak to your general!"
"Perfect? Speak to my general? Miss, I'm not sure how things work over in ponyland, but I don't even know my captain's name, let alone the general's" Damn it man contain yourself, Reaching over to the counter, he grabbed the letter he'd read oh so many times and threw it towards Twilight. "And does this look perfect to you?"
Now it was Twilight's turn to be struck dumb, she read the words on the caffeine stained paper over and over, each time looking more and more hurt by the words covering it. "They're massing at the portals?"
"Taking me with them too. A precautionary measure they call it, building a damn invasion force if you want my opinion, well no matter. You've got until Monday, that's three days away in case your pun filled world has some other name for it. In all honesty, I'm not really up for fighting anymore, I'm not sure I ever was up for it, we'll try getting the message out together, if the world sees a human and one of you together, then maybe they'll grow some sense."
"Then I can stay?"
"Just for a few days, I can't exactly take you to the camp with me, come on upstairs, I'll sort you a bed out, and then we get started."
"Started on what?"
"Using the most powerful weapon mankind's ever created, we're going to turn to the internet."