Celestia stared at the beast before her, confident that it would not be able to escape the magical grips of two alicorns and two unicorns. The two ‘Rapids Lurkers’ had wreaked havoc in the throne room, the two having taken out three of the guards within seconds of their blonde master issuing  his attack order.

Of the seven remaining guards, six had been slain within the first twenty minutes of the battle. The last had been taken with one of the beasts when it had dissolved into manna after it was struck by the poor guards spear. Celestia was unsure why the guard had dissolved with the beast, but she had made certain to detain the last one. Of course, catching the slippery blight while dodging its teeth and surprisingly sharp body was easier said than done.

“Ready?” Celestia asked her sister and the two unicorns of the elements, their magical grips on the eel like being strong, despite its thrashing and the hate filled glare it sent all the ponies in the room.

“Ready sister/princess.” The three replied.

“Is the box prepared, Applejack?” The solar princess asked the farmer, her voice straining. A bead of sweet rolled into her eye as the rapids lurker tried to roll its body out of the four magical grips.

“Ready when you are, Princess.” The farmer replied, standing with the other three remaining elements next to a large wooden crate, fastened with the aide of four fresh royal guards. The guards had been hurriedly called to aid in containing the beast, and were all unicorns with specialization in reinforcement spells and had added as many such spells to the wooden container as possible.

“Then we move it on three.” The former nightmare tiredly said, her large magical reserves having been put under strain from the battle so soon after a summoning.

“Three!” The four said at once, lifting the thrashing water civilization creature into the crate, which was sealed inside by the wooden top as soon as it was inside.

With the job done, the two unicorns collapsed, while the alicorn sisters retreated to their thrones exhausted.

All took a few moments to rest and pay their respects to the fallen guards, all grateful for their sacrifice, and saddened that they had to make that sacrifice. A solemn Pinkie comforted Fluttershy, while Rainbow and Applejack bowed their heads, Applejacks hat removed in a sign of respect. Soldiers took the bodies solemnly, being careful not to damage the cadavers more than they already were.

The two sisters looked down sadly at their fallen guards, even having their past experiences not softening the blow. Rarity had fainted, wither out of actual distress or simple dramatics no one knew.

But the worst of them all was Twilight, the possibility that it could easily have been either her or her friends, or even her brother had he been here, kept flashing threw her mind. These dark thoughts planted a seed of rage in her heart as she softly cried at the foot of Celestia’s throne.  

When they all the cadavers had been removed, all eyes turned to the deathly still crate in the middle of the room. All eyes looked at their current source of woe, and Fluttershy decided to ask the question of the hour.

“W-what is it, were did it come from?” She hid behind her mane quickly as everyone looked at her for a moment.

All eyes looked to the two oldest ponies in the room, the obvious source of information. The shadows cast by the setting sun making the sisters look ancient.

Sighing, Celestia cast a solemn gaze at her sister, who nodded before leaving the room, magically sealing it before heading out to raise the moon. Looking at her subjects one by one, before taking a breath and began to speak.

“I will tell you what you want to know and more, my little ponies, but you must promise never to talk about it to anypony besides Princess Luna and I.” Pausing for them to confirm, she continued. “That creature, as you must have heard, is called ‘Rapids Lurker’ a beast from beyond the veil.”

“The veil?” Twilight asked quizzically. “You mean the veil of Starswirl that leads to the ‘tiny galaxy’ in the museum?”

“No, my dear student. I am talking about the veil that splits our universe in half.” At her calm response all the Element bearers gasped, not expecting the answer.

“You mean that we are living in only HALF of universe?” Pinkie questioned in an urgent voice. Celestia nodded in the confirmative and moved to answer, but Pinkie cut her off. “But that’s terrible! I mean, if everypony over there is as mean as those two meanies, then I guess it’s okay. I mean, they didn’t even want a cupcake. Everypony wants a cupcake! But that also means that I can’t throw the nice eel’s a party and-“

“We get it, Pinkie.” Rainbow said, slowly removing her hoof from the party mare’s mouth.

“It is for the best, Pinkie Pie, that the universe is split. And it is not only the rapids lurkers that dwell there, but thousands of other deadly and dangerous creatures. My sister and I, along with one other, used a powerful spell thousands of years ago to create the veil and banish the beasts over there.”

“But why?” the question was unanimous in the minds of the mares, sure the creatures the Choten  had called were definitely dangerous, but surley there had to be a better solution than banishing entire species from the dimension.

“Because the five monarchs’, the rulers over the various beings, had decided that we ponies were no better than animals. And as such, we had no rights. They would have used us nothing more than  free labor, pets or even food." All the ponies turned green at that, Flutershy even looked ready to faint.

"They, they wanted to eat us?" A disgusted Pinkie asked, " but ponies aren't food! That's wrong!"

"And that's why we fought and eventually banished them. But we couldn’t defeat the monarchs and their subjects by force of might, so we had to use magic.” She paused to breath, and glanced at her enraptured and slightly disturbed subjects.

“We searched through ancient tomes, cross examined every mage, and even interrogated some of the creature’s mystics until we had enough knowledge to create a solution. The veil. We crafted it so that a barrier would literally separate our universe in two. One side would be the ideal world for the beings you know today, and the other a land for the creatures. It was perfect, the barrier would be permanent so long as we added some magic every few years.” She paused once more.

“There was one flaw in our plan. We had a spell that would solve our problems permanently, but we lacked the magic to perform it.” Celestia saw the confused look on Twilights face.

“At the time we were not as we are now, we were all ponies. Powerful compared to are fellows, but nowhere near as powerful enough to cast the spell. So through trickery, we managed to subdue the monarchs, draining them of most of their magic into ourselves, subsequently putting them in a perpetual sleep. What you must understand is that the monarchs are behemoths, larger than even ursa majors, and that they and theirs run on magic. So when we drained them, they lacked the energy to stay awake, and we were as close to godhood that any can claim to reach.” Celestia looked out at Canterlot, a glazed look in her eye as she gazed upon her beloved city. The six were enraptured, none willing to interrupt Celestia’s tale. Twilight wished she had a quill and parchment.

“And even with all that power we nearly failed in creating the veil. We barely managed to cast it with the aide of seven objects of power. But even though the veil was created and all the creatures were banished, the monarchs remained.” A smile crept onto her face. “We hid them, I hid the king of fire and queen of light, Luna hid the queen of darkness and king of water, and our old friend hid the nature chieftain. The seven artifacts were divided and hid, one even turned into a tree to anchor the spell. We became alicorns and we guided the ponies and others to help them adjust to the new world. With a little magic the veil held. We were happy.” Celestia frowned.

“What happened next princess?” Twilight asked as her teacher paused, curiosity brimming in her voice.

“Then Discord struck, our friend fell, and the veil weakened. We used the elements to turn him to stone and patch the veil. But even then, creatures strong or smart enough began to test the veil on occasion from that point onward. And every time we would add a little magic to repel them. Only recently have the strongest and smartest of water and light creatures begun to cross the veil; but I have always been able to force back through before anypony would notice.”  

“Princess, if this is true, and no one but you and Princess Luna know about it, then how does The Choten know about the veil. And what of the ring, you told me it was a dangerous artifact that harmed and burned any non-alicorn that touched it, but he wore it with no problem. How can that be.” Twilight asked her mentor, her curiosity burning.

“I do not know my student, and that is why I am wary of him. Something is not right here, and we must be prepared for the worst.” Celestia answered her student.

Rainbow Dash scoffed, flapping her wings lightly and crossing her fore hooves. “Why should we worry about this guy? So he can summon some lame killer eels, I’m sure you can summon something WAY cooler than that, right Princess?”

“Unfortunately we are unable to breach the veil Rainbow Dash.” The voice of the lunar princess came from behind, startling the pegasus enough to cause her to fall onto her back.” We have tried before, but we have always been forced to stop as our attempts threatened to tear the veil down.” She looked to her nodding sister.

“And that is why we are weary of this ‘Choten’,” she continued,” He managed to breach the veil without destabilizing it.” Giving the wonderbolt hopeful a meaning full look, she added,” And if our theory is correct, he may not be limited to summoning those ‘lame killer eels’.” The speedster blushed.

“Why do you say that, Princess Luna?” Rarity asked from her spot next to Fluttershy.

“Because we just saw the outline of an dragon like creature with a rider on its back fly over the city walls.”

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