Chapter Eight: The Avatar's Request.

***

Canterlot Training Room.

The Royal Guard - True Grit was his name, or so Lyra thought (to be honest, she hadn't really been paying attention) - didn't speak much on the way to the Canterlot training room. Lyra wasn't all that fussed about that though: she was too busy wondering what exactly she would say to the human when she finally got the chance to speak to it. It was, after all, a big deal. What would she say? Would it even speak Equestrian? What would it sound like? And hands! It would have hands! It would be amazing to ask it about those. To even see them...

"Are you alright, Lyra?" Ditzy asked from next to her.

"Oh, yes Derpy," Lyra said breathlessly. She was hyperventilating slightly: she tried to calm her breathing slightly, hoping to retain some semblance of calm. After all, she didn't want to look like a total foal in front of the first human Equestria had ever had. "I'm just really, really excited."

"Oh, ok," Ditzy said with a soft - if slightly confused - smile. Lyra smiled too - this was going to be great. Finally, the chance to meet and speak with a real human!

"What's so exciting about a human anyway?" True Grit asked, breaking his silence and looking over at Lyra. She gaped at him.

"What's so exciting about a human?" she repeated. "What's so...?!" She paused, taking a breath. "For somepony who's never ever even heard of them, nothing I guess," she admitted, "but for me? It's the most awesome thing ever!"

True Grit gave her a look like he didn't believe it was all that awesome anyway, but she ignored him. Soon, she would meet a real life human properly. She just couldn't wait!

***

When Lyra and Ditzy entered the training room a few minutes later, the first thing she noticed was the disapproving frowns of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The slight guilt she felt from that was almost immediately offset, however, by another sight - what could only have been the human himself. The turquoise unicorn gasped slightly at the sight of the two-legged being in front of her. He was about Princess Celestia's height, with pink skin, two legs, and...

"Hands!" she said, looking at the appendages with glee. "You have actual hands!"

"Last time I checked," the human replied dryly, a wry smile on his face as he regarded her.

Twilight face-hoofed in the background, but Lyra ignored her, fixated on the human and the fact that all along, she had been right! Despite the naysayers and the people thinking she was insane... she had always been right! There was nothing that quite matched that feeling of validation.

"Sorry!" she said breathlessly, suddenly realising that she was already making a fool of herself in front of the first human she had ever met. "It's just... hands! They're awesome! How do they work? Do they grip things? I..."

He held up one of those hands in a gesture of quieting, forestalling any more questions from her.

"You're Lyra Heartstrings, yes?" he asked, though he sounded like he already knew the answer.

Lyra's eyes widened, and she nearly fainted from excitement. "You... you know who I am?!"

"Believe it or not, Miss Heartstrings, we've met," the human said dryly.

"Met?" Lyra repeated, frowning slightly now: that was unexpected. "I think I'd remember meeting a human, but I don't recall ever meeting you..."

"No," the human said, and he actually sounded a little sad at that, though Lyra had no idea why he would be sad. "I don't suppose you would."

***

12th June 2024.

Lyra felt ridiculous, sat here in a small waiting room while inside the meeting room nearby the fate of not only her and Bon Bon, but almost several thousand refugees from Equestria was being decided. Still, this had been Doctor Hooves' plan, and it had been Doctor Hooves who had made it possible for Lyra and Bon Bon and all those thousands to escape.

Near her, Bon Bon was sleeping. Lyra smiled softly as she regarded her, thanking whatever gods watched over the Equestrian refugees now (for Celestia certainly didn't - or should she be thinking the name 'Solamina' now?) that she had been able to convince her friend to come with her. It had been touch and go, but Bon Bon had finally been convinced by Hooves and Derpy - no, Ditzy Doo. The Pegasus had been far too serious to be called Derpy anymore, a name that belonged in innocent times.

It had all started with the death of Luna, a year into the link with Earth. Princess Celestia had blamed illness, but that made no sense: Alicorns were supposed to be free from such things... but no one at the time believed that Celestia would lie to them.

The next thing was the Barrier: the tragic incursion of the Barrier upon Earth, and the destruction of human civilisation. This was horrible: everypony was suitably horrified about what was happening. Lyra remembered Twilight Sparkle spending hours and hours in the library, trying to find some spell to fix what the Barrier was doing, but there was nothing. No spell. No hope. Lyra had even helped her then: she had wanted to save the humans so badly.

Next was the propaganda, praising the things - the "Conversion Bureaus" - and the efforts to "save" billions of humans from destruction at what many had assumed was an accidental thing by way of the "ponification potion". At first, this was seen by many, including Lyra as, while not the absolute best outcome, certainly better than the loss of million - no, billions - of lives.

But when Lyra had tried speaking to the ponies known colloquially as "the converted", they hadn't wanted to discuss being human - many of them denied even having been human, though you could tell from their blank flanks that they had been. This had confused Lyra: if the conversion was a necessity and not a choice for some of these people, as the propaganda said, then surely these ponies - though maybe sad to have lost their old lives - would be willing to discuss it.

But no.

The refugee movement had started, ironically enough, with Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Twilight had, after the ponification potion had become a reality, spoken to Lyra and a few others about the entire thing, and told them that she felt something strange was going on - some odd magic that she didn't quite understand. She had promised to speak to Celestia about it.

When she returned however, it was more than obvious to everypony that had known her that she wasn't the same Sparkle. She expounded the virtues of pony life, spoke about how Celestia had said things were much better for the humans as ponies, how it was really a blessing - not a tragedy - that their world was being scoured. Lyra had known then that something was up, and others had agreed with her - most notably Doctor Hooves, who had begun some preparations, though no one had known what.

One by one, the Element bearers fell under the same influence. Fluttershy had been the last, and before then she had confided in Lyra that she was afraid of what was happening - not just to her friends but to all of Equestria. Lyra had said that she knew what Fluttershy meant: the Royal Guard, once only ten thousand strong, was increasing in size by the day: hundreds... thousands... of ponies joining up to swell their ranks, and millions of the new converted joining as well. The increased militarisation was a real worry: that sort of thing never happened for no reason.

It was when Fluttershy fell that Doctor Hooves finally told the assembled 'doubters' of Ponyville - Lyra, Bon Bon (more for Lyra's sake than any real doubt of her own), Ditzy and Dinky, Cheerilee, Peachy Pitt, Carrot Top and over forty others - including, to everyone's surprise, Spike the dragon, upset by the change in his friends - that he was making an escape plan for those who didn't want to be part of this new, changing Equestria. He told them that there would come a moment where Earth would, as he put it, "say 'no more'", and when that happened, they had to go to the humans: beg for their protection, and offer their help in return.

Almost immediately, everypony agreed. Whatever was happening here was wrong, in a way none of them liked.

Slowly, those who were intending to leave prepared to do so. Subtle feelers were sent out to those who might not want to. Cheerilee watched as Dinky tried to convince the Cutie Mark Crusaders to leave, but they did not wish to - Sweetie Belle and Applebloom stayed for their sisters, and Scootaloo for Rainbow Dash, none of them willing to leave their families. The Cakes stayed for Pinkie and their foals. Granny Smith and Bic Macintosh seemed happy enough with this new Equestria, though it could have been that they just didn't want to leave Applejack either... So many didn't listen, ponies Lyra missed dearly.

Eventually, though, some more chose to join them: most prominently, the musician Vinyl Scratch joined them, then a unicorn named Minuette, another called Sea Swirl, a Pegasus named Parasol, another named Orange Swirl, another named Lightning Dust, a young former guard named True Grit and another called Errant Flight... slowly but surely, the ranks of what had first been called the "Equestrian Underground", but soon the “Equestrian Exodus”, began swelling, Pegasi, Unicorns and Earth Ponies joining up, slowly and surely.

And then their cue came.

One day, the barrier stopped its dreaded advance. The islands of Great Britain and Ireland were somehow protected by their own barrier, a giant blue swirl of energy.

Celestia's response was... horrible. It began with her announcement: that she would take a new name to represent the fact that she was no longer merely a Princess. She was Astra Solamina Maxima: true and rightful Empress of all Equestria. Then, the posters began appearing - propaganda expounding humans as monsters, devil worshipping destroyers who needed to be put down. Many - mostly the very young and gullible - believed this, but to the Equestrian Underground, it was proof that Celestia - Solamina - had gone off the deep end. The worst thing was, she was guiding her new, malicious Equestria into becoming a war machine. Weapons were developed, Twilight Sparkle turning her home into a weapons research lab, Rarity's clothes boutique creating uniforms for the Equestrian militia... it was clear what Solamina was planning.

The Doctor led the underground to his ship, a TARDIS. In it, he travelled across Equestria, gathering everypony he had spoken to. It was clear, over the course of many months and even years, that it was not just Ponyville he had been active in: hundreds - and soon, thousands - of ponies entered his TARDIS, fitting only thanks to the magic of the strange machine. It was then he revealed his plan.

The TARDIS could take them to the scoured Earth, specifically a little part of what had been France that he called "Dunkirk", where he had managed to set up the assembly of hundreds of Equestrian boats, fishing ships and travel vessels built by the Converted locals that he had acquired in bits and pieces using stolen and forged bits. In this makeshift, rag tag fleet, the Doctor led the Equestrian refugees, all of them praying to whatever deity still guided them that they wouldn't be stopped. Hooves had, for some reason, laughed as they travelled: he claimed this was 'déjà vu', though Lyra wasn't sure what he meant.

Amazingly, they weren't stopped or accosted. They entirely bypassed the patrol routes of the human navy by some miracle, and then they made landfall safely at Hull (a very roundabout course), where Bon Bon and Lyra, together with Doctor Hooves and Ditzy, led the refugees onto mainland Britain, where they had finally met the two guards who waited with them now...

Right now, the thousands of refugees were being catalogued and registered, a census being taken. Lyra, Ditzy and Bon Bon were allowed to be here because Doctor Hooves had insisted, but only he spoke for them.

Lyra sighed. At any other time, being surrounded by humans like this would have made her happier than she had ever been: now she felt only dread. They had to believe the Doctor when he told them what was coming. If they didn't, there was no way they could stand up to Solamina's armies, not now that she had billions of converted at her side, all eager to fight for her and her twisted cause.

"Hey," a male voice said, startling her out of her thoughts. She turned to find herself facing the dark haired soldier who had greeted her when the refugee fleet made land at Hull. He smiled softly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said softly, "just... I left a lot of friends behind."

"It must have been hard," the man said sympathetically. "But for what it's worth, I think you coming here will be a real help."

"You think so?" Lyra asked, looking up at him hopefully.

"Yeah, I think so," he said. He held out a hand - Lyra glanced down at it, a soft smile on her face: she still found hands fascinating. "My name's David Elliot."

Lyra glanced up from the hand to his face, then back down, then back up, a quizzical expression on her face. He glanced down at the hand, then back at her, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry," he said. "That's called a handshake: human greeting. Sort of a 'nice to meet you' sign."

She reached out and grasped the still proffered hand with her hoof, and he shook her hoof once. He grinned, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Nice to meet you," she said to him softly. "I'm Lyra Heartstrings."

***

The Present, Canterlot.

The man shook his head, as though clearing it of unpleasant memories. Lyra wanted to ask what was wrong with him, but the grim look on the human's face was enough to convince her not to: her enthusiasm slightly drained as she took in the dark looks on the other ponies' faces, even the look of sadness on Celestia's face. What was he thinking about?

"You said you knew me too," Ditzy put in, breaking the deathly silence. Her voice and face displayed nothing but innocent curiosity, an emotion that, though she had no way to know it, the man remembered well coming from her, though when he had known her it had not been nearly as commonly seen from her, given the times they had lived in. "Or you recognised me, anyway."

"Ditzy Doo," the man replied, smiling again, though it seemed tired, as though it came with a heavy memory. "Commonly called Derpy by your friends." His smile widened slightly, becoming warmer and less tired. "I didn't know you well, I'm afraid, but I wish I had."

"Why the past tense?" Lyra asked, narrowing her eyes in confusion. "How do you know who we are?" Her enthusiasm was dying down a little now, her curiosity about humans replaced by a curiosity about this human.

The man sighed, clearly not happy with having to answer her question, though she didn't know why he would be. Maybe if she had, she would never have asked: or maybe if she had, she would have asked all the same. To her surprise, the Element bearers and Princess Celestia also looked sad, as though... they knew what was wrong.

"What is it?" Lyra asked softly. The human sighed.

"That's gonna take some explaining," he said, his tone weary...

***

And so, slowly and filled with regret for having to explain this once more - as though even speaking of the memories hurt him - David Elliot explained everything he could in as short a time as he could.

He explained the Barrier: the destruction of almost all of his world, save for one small dingy set of damp islands where the last of humanity waited, almost futilely, for the end to descend upon them. He explained how that darkness had never come. He explained about Solamina, about how the tyrant empress had declared war on Britain and the last humans for the 'crime' of defying her. He explained how the war had begun: the battles in cities where hundreds of soldiers died defending civilians.

He explained about the Equestrian Resistance movement: the mass exodus of ponies from Equestria when Solamina had gone insane. He explained how they had warned humanity's survivors about the war, about how they had done their best to help. He explained about the battles that had been fought together... and the heavy cost - millions of humans slain or converted over the years, reducing the last humans from over one hundred and ten million to only fourteen or fifteen million, death on a scale none of the ponies had ever heard of and could not comprehend.

He explained about the battle of Dover: his ascension to the mantle of being the Avatar of Albion.

He explained about the battle of London: a massive battle, millions of Guards and converted militia descending upon the historic city. He explained about how the battle was going poorly... and he explained about Hell Blazer's plan. The transportation, the arrival in Equestria...

He didn't explain that, where he was from, Ditzy had been killed in battle, or that True Grit had bled out in his arms, or that Lyra had been near death when he last saw her. These were his friends - or ponies just like them. Hurting or worrying them like that was not on his agenda.

He also neglected to mention that the power was killing him. He didn't want pity.

Much of what he said was new to the Element bearers as well, though each of them noted that he had neglected to mention the deaths of any of the ponies in the room who had died at his hands. Still, none of them questioned it. After all, it wasn't a super-important detail.

"... so after I - shall we say, 'explained' all this to Celestia," Elliot finished, sounding very tired, "she offered her help." He looked at the Princess as if to confirm her story, and nodded once.

"What help?" Twilight Sparkle asked, looking from the human to her mentor.

"Any we are able to give, Twilight," Celestia replied, looking grim. "This war is an abomination, and this Solamina a mockery of everything we hold dear."

"Your Princess actually offered your nation's armies," Elliot added. He gave Twilight a wry grin. "But one hundred and ten thousand soldiers isn't a big number."

"Yes it is," Twilight replied. "That's..."

"Nowhere near the billions Astra Solamina has to offer," Elliot cut her off. "You're thinking about war in your terms, but Solamina has been adapting her Equestria's armies for war with us. They have super-zeppelins thousands of feet long, Crystal Golems, magic projectile launchers..."

"I don't care what they have," True Grit put in, sounding angry. He stomped a hoof on the ground to emphasise his point. "I'll put them down myself. I'm sure any Guard would say the same."

"Stand down, True Grit," Celestia said sternly. Elliot laughed, however.

"You're just like the True Grit I knew..." he said, his tone wistful. His smile faded. "Princess Celestia is right though: no army can win this war. Force of arms is not the way." He sighed, looking away from them all. "The only way to end the war is to slay Astra Solamina Maxima in her palace. We believe it is her magic that commands the barrier, her power that holds the converted in thrall. But..." and here he looked up at them, shame and self-loathing in his voice. "I'm not strong enough."

"What do you mean by that?" Rarity asked, looking confused. "From what dear Twilight says, you were easily capable of fighting her, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash: indeed, if what Dash said is true, they only subdued you because you were distracted."

"And you fought against myself and Luna as well, fought us to a standstill even, and that was both of us together," Celestia added, frowning slightly at Elliot's assessment of his strength. "Do you not think that the strength you have displayed in these is sufficient to the challenge of this Solamina?"

"No," Elliot said simply. "For one thing, you and Luna were holding me off: it would have taken everything I had - maybe more than I had - to kill you. For another thing..." He grimaced. "Solamina is more powerful than you, far more powerful. I - Albion - asked you to take to your full power, remember? You weren't nearly as powerful as... as you should have been. As she would have been. Against her, I haven't got a prayer unless I pull a massive power boost from somewhere."

“How can you know that?” Twilight asked. “Did she attack you?”

“No,” Elliot said slowly. “For the most part, she’s never set foot anywhere near the British Isles. She’s been content enough to throw her armies at us.”

“Then how do you know she’s more powerful?” Rarity asked with a frown.

Elliot gave her a look. “I know. Handy thing about being the Avatar of Albion - sometimes, you just know things.”

“‘Just knowing’ is hardly a scientific answer,” Twilight said with a scornful smirk.

“We still have ponies in Equestria, spying on the Empire’s moves for us,” Elliot said with a slight sigh. He paused. “Solamina doesn’t go to battle very often, but when she does...”

He trailed off, looking sickened.

“What?” Celestia asked, frowning.

“There were rumours of some sort of attack on Equestrian soil,” Elliot said slowly. “A being called… what was it… Tirek?”

Most of the ponies didn’t know that name, but Celestia’s eyes widened in shock.

“He returned?” she asked.

“So we heard,” Elliot said. “She killed him. His head’s mounted on a spike somewhere. She’s shown her strength enough that I can back up my feelings pretty well.”

Celestia and the other ponies allowed that to sink in for a moment: this Astra Solamina Maxima was more powerful than even their Celestia - Celestia remembered Tirek, one of many enemies of old that she had barely been able to defeat in her younger days.

No: this was not something they were particularly happy about.

"What help can we offer you then?" Celestia finally asked. "There must be something."

Elliot smiled again, this time a slightly disturbing smile, filled with the promise of death to his enemies. "Oh, there is something." He pointed at the collection of ponies, Element bearers and Lyra, Derpy and True Grit alike. "You can give me these nine."

"What?" came a cry from multiple sources, as the Element bearers began protesting. Celestia held up a hoof to silence them.

"What do you mean?" she asked Elliot, her eyes narrowing slightly. The warrior grinned, clearly almost excited by his plan.

"The Elements of Order - as they're called in my world - were trained to be some of the most devastating fighters around," he explained, gesturing at them. He pointed at Lyra and the others. "These three, on the other hand, fought alongside me - I know what each of them is capable of, how good they can be."

He straightened up, looking them all in the eye.

"I'm asking you all to come back with me. To train hard, become fighters, realise the potential you have. The war can't be won by strength of arms, but having you all will give our side access to a force of individually brilliant fighters, thinkers and tacticians, to minds that devastated Britain - and can, if we use them right, devastate the Empire. Together, I think we can find a way to stop Solamina once and for all." He stopped talking, then sighed softly, deflating. "I won't lie. It'll be hard: you'll be in a world fighting a war more hopeless and desperate than anything you've likely ever seen in your lives, but..." He paused. "But if it works, you'll have saved a world, a species, and maybe even another Equestria."

He looked at each of them, taking in their expressions: none of them looked enthusiastic.

"The choice is yours," he finished, before heading for the door. "I won't make anyone... anypony... come if they don't want to. But I won't say we don't need the help."

He walked out of the training room, leaving Celestia and the ponies behind. The Sun Princess looked at each of her little ponies, none of whom looked enthusiastic about the idea of leaving their Equestria to go and fight in a war.

"My little ponies," she said softly, trying to assuage their confusion, "this is a hard choice. I ask that you do not make a decision rashly. Though time is short to save Elliot's world, one or two days will not condemn it now. I ask that you stay the night here in Canterlot and decide for yourself what you think you should do. As Elliot will not force you, neither will I." With that, the Princess moved for the door as well.

"What would you do, Princess?" Twilight asked suddenly. Celestia turned to see Twilight looking more conflicted than she had ever seen her. The Sun Princess sighed.

"I would do what feels right," she said, her voice neutral. She walked out of the chamber, leaving the ponies to their thoughts.

Author's Notes:

A quick note to all those who have favourited and commented on this story to say thank you, thank you so much :-) I really do appreciate it.

EDIT: This chapter was edited on July 3rd, 2015.