***

“…my job isn't to know why she's crazy, my job is to stop her. It's why I'm here: this is just the wrong Equestria.”
David Elliot, The Avatar of Albion.

***

Pinkie Pie.

"You’re a meanie."

"I think I’m a bit more than that."

***

Canterlot Palace, May 6th. Year 3 of the New Diarchy Calendar.

Dr Tender Care, a female unicorn with electric blue fur and a darker blue mane and tail, sighed as she examined the creature - a ‘human’, Princess Celestia had said it was called - that the Princess had presented her for a patient. It was a strange case no doubt - it was a sort of creature that nopony in the entire assembled medical records of Canterlot had ever seen before, much less attempted to examine or heal - but Tender Care was proud of her skill as a physician, and she was determined not to let Princess Celestia down.

Having said that, the shivering, weak 'human' before her seemed to be very ill. From what little Tender Care could discern from examination - only vaguely helped by antiquated anatomy books the Princesses had dragged from the Canterlot Archives that must have been written thousands of years ago (for the White Horse’s sake, they still talked about humours and leeches) - the creature’s body was massively overtaxed. Celestia had told Tender Care what had happened. A fight of some sort - this thing had channeled magic powerful enough to stand against both the Diarchs of Equestria, albeit not overcome them.

“Hard to imagine,” she muttered to herself, as she trotted to the other side of the creature. All her tests were providing the same results, but she felt diligence was necessary. Her horn glowed as she repeated the diagnostic spell. After a few moments, she stepped back again, before sighing and shaking her head. She performed a basic healing spell, enough to heal his superficial damage, then stepped back and left the room.

“Well?” the Princess asked her.

“I've stabilised him,” Tender Care said softly. “But there's not all that much I can do.”

“What do you mean?” the Princess asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.

“Well, he's dying,” Tender Care said simply.

Celestia's eyes widened in surprise at the simple pronouncement.

“Dying?” she repeated. “But surely Luna’s spell didn't damage him that much.”

“It didn't,” Tender Care said quietly. “There's not way for me to confirm this without consulting with somepony who knows more about this poor thing’s anatomy, but…”

She trailed off.

“But?” Celestia prompted.

“I think whatever he was using to fight you wears his body out far faster than his normal lifespan would,” Tender Care said, her voice tinged with sadness: she never liked her patients dying on her. “If I had to guess, using the power he demonstrated wears his body out at an accelerated rate because it's somehow foreign to his body.”

“You mean that his body isn't adapted to use magic?” the Princess summarised.

“Exactly,” Tender Care said with a sad smile. “As of right now I'd say he has a few years left before he dies, but that might decrease to a year or even a few months - all depending on the use of those abilities. And of course all my estimates could be off - this is an entirely new creature, and nothing I say could be accurate.”

“Thank you Doctor,” Celestia said quietly, looking thoughtful. “I understand.”

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Your Highness?” Tender Care asked softly.

“You can wake him up for me,” Celestia said quietly.

Tender Care shook her head. “More magic might exacerbate the problem. I suspect he’ll wake up soon anyway.”

Celestia nodded. “Very well. I will summon you again if I require your help.”

Tender Care left quietly, leaving Celestia alone to ponder the mystery of this creature further.

A human. It had been an age or more since she had seen one, and she had been convinced that they had been obliterated in the Discordant ages. To see one now was like seeing a ghost from the past stroll up to her and challenge her to a duel.

“A surprisingly apt metaphor,” a familiar - and entirely unwelcome - voice said quietly.

Celestia started, then glanced behind her at the mismatched, surprisingly somber form of Discord. He had his arms folded as he stared at the unconscious human, his eyes narrowed.

“Discord,” Celestia greeted quietly. “Why are you here?”

Discord glanced at her before looking back at the human. “The answer to that seems fairly obvious.”

“Did you have something to do with this?” Celestia asked quietly.

Discord shook his head. “This was nothing to do with me, and frankly I'd not get involved with this kind of dimension hopping. It's no fun.”

“It certainly seems to have caused its share of chaos,” Celestia said dryly.

“Yeah - boring chaos,” Discord said grimly. “‘Unpleasant things are about to happen’ chaos. I do pink clouds and chocolate rain, not ‘the end of the world’.”

Celestia blinked. “Is… is it that serious?”

“Yes,” Discord said without hesitation. “It is. You're looking at events that could rival the First Discordant Age for all the not-fun chaos about to happen.”

Celestia turned back to look at the unconscious human, feeling herself wrestling with her conscience. Part of her almost wanted to send this being away - protect her ponies from the possibility of anything resembling the Discordant Age. She closed her eyes, fighting back a small swell of memories that threatened to return: hulking monsters that could crush a pony like nothing, hordes of gibbering demons…

Calm yourself, Gloriana, she told herself. We aren't facing that yet.

Even as she thought it, she had a horrible sense of foreboding. Maybe she wasn't facing it yet - but she had a feeling she would.

“I need to speak with him,” she decided. “Gather more information. That's the only way I can make a decision about… any of this.”

Discord sighed. “Whatever decision you make, make it snappy.”

Celestia frowned. “Why?”

Discord raised an eyebrow. “Because time isn't just passing here, Celestia. It's passing there too.”

And with that, he disappeared, leaving Celestia alone with her thoughts.

***

Ponyville Library, May 6th. Year 3 of the New Diarchy Calendar.

Twilight sighed as she put another book down onto the ‘rejects’ pile: said pile was getting bigger and bigger by the moment.

She had searched every book she could find that might have had information about ‘humans’, but so far nothing useful had popped up. In fact, there weren't even that many references to them at all, and most references were archaic at best (the Jorogumo book, for example, referenced them as the mythological husbands/fathers/prey that Lyra had mentioned). There were also legends of the lost last ape-kindred from some ancient pre-sundered Primatian literature, and a few poems from ancient Horssia.

In short - nothing helpful. Despite every note she’d scribbled, she had found nothing useful at all.

“Spike?” she asked her assistant as he grabbed a cup of milk. “Could you try and find our copy of ‘4,000 More Legends of Sumareia’ please?”

“Twilight, you already read that one,” he pointed out with a slight smile.

Twilight blinked. “Oh.” She chuckled. “Oh. Well, then I guess I didn't find anything.”

“I guess not,” Spike said, his smile fading. “Twilight… what's all this about?”

Twilight’s face fell. She hadn’t told him what had happened yet. Truth be told, she didn't know how to. ‘Something big and important might be happening involving a mythical race that there's nothing in the history books about but I’m not certain yet’ wasn't enough of an explanation, in her mind, to justify potentially worrying Spike.

“It's something for the Princess,” she said, as honestly as she could. “I don't know how important it is yet.”

Spike frowned slightly. “If it's important, Twilight, do you need me to do anything else?”

She smiled. “Thank you Spike. If you could maybe make an effort to find anything we have on ancient cryptozoology, that’d be a start.”

“Cryptozoology?” Spike repeated with a raised eyebrow. “Uh… ok. I'll have a look, but I’m not sure what I’ll find.”

“Anything you can would be good,” Twilight said with a smile. “I think there were some older texts in the lower shelves.”

Spike nodded and headed off, leaving Twilight alone. Suddenly she found herself pondering what all this might mean for her little assistant - to all intents and purposes, her brother. What would happen if the worst did come to pass?

“Twilight?” a slightly timid voice called into the library, startling Twilight from her thoughts. The librarian smiled as she recognised the owner of the voice.

“Hey, Ditzy!” she called back. “Come in!”

A grey Pegasus mare with a blonde mane entered, her eyes facing in different directions and a saddlebag slung over her shoulder. She smiled as she entered.

“How’re you?” the friendly Pegasus asked.

“Oh, not so bad,” Twilight said. “A little flummoxed, all things considered, but not so bad. What brings you here?”

“Just wanted to return a book I borrowed,” Ditzy said quietly. She pulled a book from her saddlebag - ‘100 Uses for Cheese’. “It was really helpful, thanks.”

Twilight smiled. “Glad to be of help.”

Ditzy put the book down on Twilight’s desk, a slight frown gracing her features. “What's a ‘human’?”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “What?”

“A ‘human’,” Ditzy repeated. “This word in your notes - is it a new creature?”

Twilight cursed inwardly - this wasn't supposed to get this far out. She frowned slightly, wondering what to say to the innocent looking mare.

“A human is… a kind of magical creature, one Princess Celestia’s… making contact with for the first time,” she said quietly. “Does that make sense?”

“Yeah,” Ditzy said with a quick nod. “But why hasn't anypony heard about it?”

“The Princess is being careful, in case they're not all that friendly,” Twilight said carefully. “We… don't know much. Hence the research.”

“Have you tried asking Lyra?” Ditzy asked. “She's an expert on cryptozoology.”

Twilight blinked. “Uh, how d’you know that?”

“I went to her lecture,” Ditzy said cheerfully. “I think I might have missed most of it - I read a ‘2’ as a ‘7’ - but I know it was about strange creatures.”

“Uh, well,” Twilight said, surprised, “Lyra’s helping with the research, but it's slow going.”

Ditzy nodded thoughtfully, before a bright smile lit up her face. “I know somepony who might know something!”

Twilight smiled wryly. “Somehow, I don't think they would.”

“I’m sure he would,” Ditzy said with a grin. “I’ll go ask him right now!”

Twilight sighed as Ditzy bounded off - that hadn't been quite what she had been expecting, and she was certain that Ditzy would start asking random ponies… but she couldn't exactly stop her now, save by chasing her down. Twilight only hoped whoever she told had some grasp of how important it was not to go running off at the mouth.

***

Canterlot Palace, May 6th. Year 3 of the New Diarchy Calendar.

This is what it is like to be David Elliot, right now.

Your dreams are full of fire and pain. Memories of old friends, long since lost, permeate your mind. Your thoughts are laden with the responsibility of your place - as ‘Force Commander’ of the loosely termed ‘British Defence Force’. As leader of an army. As symbol to the people… a role you feel like you're never going to be comfortable with.

In your dreams, a grand figure in armour, wielding a longsword, is standing before you, as though beckoning.

And then you wake up, eyes snapping open. You do not sit up: your waking hours are too dangerous to let such obvious signs of waking show too quickly. You glance around a well-lit, beautifully decorated room that has clear signs of being built for ponies, and memory comes rushing back.

You remember being confused. Too much. Too strange. Too many questions. It isn’t right - any of it. Commander Sparkle, but not Commander Sparkle. Solamina - but not Solamina, or at least doing a damn good job of acting like she’s not Solamina.

And then…

Getting taken out by a cheap shot when you weren’t looking. You are an idiot, David Elliot.

You find yourself thankful that your friends weren’t here to see what an utter arse you made of yourself.

“Hello?” a female voice asks, cutting into your thoughts. The voice is… familiar. “Are you awake?”

You sit up now, turning your head to face her - the white mare with the rainbow mane, her eyes narrowed at you slightly in thoughtful appraisal. You take a slow breath, calming yourself, remembering the inconsistencies.

“Where am I?” you ask, your voice hoarse slightly (you wonder if Lyra would appreciate that pun).

“Canterlot,” she replies slowly. “I was wondering if you could talk to me. I have a few questions.”

You don't reply immediately, struck by a sudden urge to laugh. You are sat in the heart of your enemy’s land, and it is not. You are sat in front of your enemy, and she is not.

You are David Elliot, and you are very, very confused.

***

Celestia had begun the conversation as politely as she could. “Hello? Are you awake?”

He sat up slowly, tense and cautious. She supposed she couldn't blame him for that.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“Canterlot,” Celestia replied carefully. She had no way of knowing how he would react to that information. “I was wondering if you could talk to me. I have a few questions.”

He looked right at her for a few moments, as though trying to decide if she was serious. She couldn't tell (she’d never been good at human facial expressions when there had been brief diplomatic relations with humans in the old days, many thousands of years ago), but he looked… bemused.

“This is a joke, right?” he asked in a slightly odd tone. “Like… you're gonna try and stab me at some point, aren't you?”

“N… no,” Celestia said, blinking in shock. “Why would I?”

The human laughed at her. It was a short laugh, full of bitterness and some sort of gallows humour Celestia couldn't quite place.

“Lady, if you knew the answer to that question…” he said after a moment, his voice still full of that dead mirth.

“I know some of it,” Celestia said softly. “You have fought some kind of war. A war against my people.”

The human frowned. “How d’you know that?”

“I’ve seen glimpses of your memories,” Celestia said. “You left an imprint upon Twilight Sparkle’s mind - glimpses were all I could see.” She paused, closing her eyes for a moment before looking at him. “It was… evocative.”

The human smiled, almost with real mirth. “You should try living it. That's more than ‘evocative’.”

“Then maybe you could fill in the gaps,” Celestia said quietly. “Tell me about your world.”

“You don't want to know,” he said blandly.

“Perhaps I do want to know,” Celestia said suddenly, taking a step forward. “I… you came to this place, my world, and you said that did so to kill me.”

The man’s lips pursed for a moment, before he nodded once. “That’s correct.”

“Why?” Celestia asked. “Who are you? Where do you come from?”

He looked thoughtful for a long moment, before sighing.

“You’re… really not her, are you?” he asked.

“No,” she said quietly. “I’m really not.”

A tired smile graced his features. “Alright, fine.”

He stood up slowly, before throwing his hand up to his forehead sharply, palm outward, in a salute.

“Major David Elliot, Force Commander, British Defence Force,” he said smartly. He dropped the hand. “And also, for the last three and a half years, the Avatar of Albion.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “The other form you had.”

Elliot smiled mirthlessly. “Yeah, the ‘other form’. That's a word.”

“And this ‘Solamina’?” Celestia asked, frowning. “She’s…”

“You,” Elliot said quietly. “Or rather, Celestia. I’m not so sure that that's you, anymore - or, that you're her.” He smiled again. “Kinda wish the Doctor was here to explain things - he’s always been better than I have at making these things… make sense.”

Celestia frowned thoughtfully for a moment.

“It seems to me,” she said quietly, “that you have come to this world from another.”

Elliot nodded slowly. “That was the idea. I must’ve got lost.”

“‘Lost’,” Celestia repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Elliot smiled sheepishly. “Well… yeah. I guess I must’ve. I was sent here by a kind of experimental portal spell, but it must have gone wrong somehow.”

Celestia frowned. “Why?”

“Why?” Elliot repeated.

“Why would you risk so much to come to Equestria?” Celestia clarified. “What could you possibly hope to gain?”

“I’d have thought that was obvious,” Elliot said. “I came to kill you - or rather, her.”

“But… that's suicide!” Celestia said, shocked at the idea.

“Yup,” Elliot said with a nod. “We're that desperate.”

Celestia blinked in shock at this. She had heard of such desperation, had felt it herself (especially during the darkest hours of the Discordant Age) but… to countenance a plan like this, to be sent alone into the heart of what you perceived to be your enemy’s territory…

“What happened?” She asked quietly.

He seemed to ponder the question for a moment, but not as though it were difficult - more because he seemed to be trying to decide whether he really should answer it. Finally, he sighed.

“The year for us is 2032,” he said quietly. “This war started in 2024, but the crisis began in 2022. Two years prior to that, in 2020, a mysterious island appeared… Portal Island, it ended up being called.”

“The place where the portal from Equestria to your world existed,” Celestia surmised.

“Correct,” Elliot said quietly. “Suffice it to say, stuff went well for a while then went to shit. A sort of magical energy field - we called it the Barrier - began expanding outward from Portal Island. It consumed the entire planet - the Pacific went first: Asia, Australia, Japan, then America went mad… more and more nations and landmasses fell, and all the while Equestria was silent. Embassies emptied. No messages could get through, and no messages returned. Finally there was only one nation left. In two years, almost the entire planet was consumed.”

Celestia balked, the scale of such destruction almost impossible for her mind to register.

“Your people…?” she asked tentatively.

“There were seven and a half billion, at the start,” he said quietly. “We don’t know the exact numbers either way - probably for the best - but conservative guesses indicate that of that number, two billion died, either to the Barrier or to the chaos that surrounded it as it expanded across the planet.”

“Two billion…” Celestia murmured. “And the rest?”

“That’s… complicated,” Elliot said. “Anyway… the land I’m from, Britain, was the last place to go. I was… I was actually on a ship, watching the Barrier approach. We were going to try and slow it down. Futile - nothing we had was any different to what anyone else had had over the last two years - but we weren’t going to die without trying.” Strangely, he smiled. “And then a miracle happened.”

“A miracle?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. “What miracle?”

Elliot looked up at her, and there was something shining in his eyes - maybe the first glimmer of hope that Celestia had seen in them since she had started speaking with him.

“The Barrier was stopped by another one,” he said, still smiling. “A great blue wall of energy that shot up from nowhere and blocked the bloody thing in its tracks. We thought that was it… the end of our struggles. We thought… for a moment… that brighter days might finally be ahead of us…”

His smile faded slightly, and Celestia found herself feeling a sudden sense of foreboding.

“That wasn’t the case,” she stated more than asked.

“No,” he replied. “It wasn’t.” Taking a breath, he stood up, moving to the little window of his room. After a moment he looked back at her. “We had one hundred and fifty million people on a set of islands that could maybe hold half that without being overtaxed, but we were alive. We thought, after the Barrier stopped, that maybe you - maybe Celestia - would contact us. Express relief that humanity hadn’t been wiped out, promise help… explain something. But there was nothing… until the Exodus.”

At Celestia’s prompting expression, the man turned and looked out the window. “Hundreds of ponies… thousands even… were fleeing Equestria. They’d closed their land borders, but these ponies were finding a way. This group - about thirteen thousand all told in that first wave - came to us led by a stallion who called himself Doctor Hooves, and they came with a warning.”

He turned to look back at Celestia. “Celestia had gone mad. She had declared Equestria an Empire, called herself ‘Astra Solamina Maxima’... and was coming to wage war on the last of humanity.”

***

Doctor Hooves’ home, May 6th. Year 3 of the New Diarchy Calendar.

“Hey Doc!” the chipper voice of Ditzy Doo rang through the home of ‘Doctor Hooves’. A clang of something sounded from the depths of the home-come-laboratory.

“One moment!” he called out.

The stallion himself, a brown-maned and tan-coated stallion with his name swept backwards and a perpetual frown of combined thought and concern, was stood in his lounge, pondering a small device that seemed to consist of a gauge set into a box with a small hoof-grip and a little red light. The gauge was pushing into the red and the light was on.

“What's that, Doc?” Ditzy asked as she came into the lounge.

“A device for detecting dimensional disturbances!” the Doctor said with a little grin. “I built it myself. Haven't actually had to use it since that time six months ago when I had Starswirl the Bearded camped on my sofa. Awkward trying to keep that one from Twilight.”

“Huh,” Ditzy said, frowning at the red light. “Why’s it doing that?”

“Because there's been some sort of dimensional disturbance,” the Doctor replied, still engrossed in the little machine. “Couldn't tell you what, but it must have been pretty big.”

“Oh, that's cool,” Ditzy said with a smile.

“Anyway, enough blather,” the Doctor said with a smile, turning to look at her. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, yeah!” Ditzy said with a smile. “I saw Twilight looking something up today and I was wondering if you knew what it was?”

“Oh?” the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow. “What?”

“‘Humans’,” Ditzy said with a puzzled expression. “I’ve never heard of…”

She trailed off at the Doctor’s dumbfounded expression. His mouth had dropped wide open, and his eyes were wide with shock.

“Great… wickering… stallions,” he said quietly.

***

Canterlot Palace, May 6th. Year 3 of the New Diarchy Calendar.

“I couldn't tell you much about the war that would make sense,” Elliot said blandly. “I'm not even sure it made sense to me. Just know that we fought pretty damn hard - there are millions of Equestrian dead… and we’ve lost over a hundred million ourselves.”

Celestia blinked in surprise at that. “Then… if there were only one hundred and fifty million to start with, there can only be -”

“Estimates are at about twenty,” Elliot said grimly. “But those are conservative. Could be as low as fifteen.” He took a deep breath and sat back on the bed. “As you can maybe guess, we’re desperate.”

“Indeed,” Celestia said quietly. “So desperate it seems, that you came to slay this ‘Solamina’ in what amounts to a suicide mission.”

“Leaving behind all my friends at the battle in the process,” Elliot said quietly. “By now, they're probably all dead.”

Celestia took a breath, taking a moment to digest everything she had heard thus far. Though it all sounded preposterous, she found herself believing this human.

“How did your Celestia… this… Astra Solamina… how did she fall so far?” she asked Elliot.

Elliot shrugged casually.

“No one knows,” he said, sounding somewhat unconcerned. “By all accounts from our pony refugees, the craziness only started when Equestria's portal opened.”

“Curious,” Celestia said, turning away slightly, her mind roiling with thought.

How stressful was the meeting with humanity? Would that be enough to…? She stopped that train of thought. No. No. I have to believe I am stronger than that. I know I am.

“In any case,” Elliot said, still sounding unconcerned. “There’s no way to know now, and it's not why I’m here. I just have to stop her.”

Celestia thought for a long moment about everything she had seen, the horror the man had experienced - more to the point, the horror he had experienced at the hooves of her and her subjects. This was... she knew it wasn't really her fault, that she had done nothing to cause the horrors he had seen and fought against... but all the same, the fact that it was her people, in a way, that were responsible for this... that was something she could barely stand to think about for too long.

“What…” she asked slowly, hesitantly. “What can I do to help you?”

“Send me back?” Elliot replied at once, as though this were an obvious answer.

“Back?” she repeated, shocked. “To this nightmare you've spoken of?!”

Elliot smiled wryly. “Nightmare or not, my place is there.”

The Sun Princess blinked in disbelief at the simple request, and then shook her head.

“Is there nothing more?” she asked, her tone almost desperate. "I wish to help however I can... and if you don't mind my saying so, it would seem you need it.”

“By doing what, giving me an army?” Elliot asked, smirking slightly. “You happen to have one?”

His laughter died at the serious expression on her face.

“Yes,” she said. “I do. And there are others - alliances I can call upon -”

“And risk lives on your world that you don't need to?” Elliot asked. “No - send me back, and I can -”

“I’m not willing to simply send you away and sweep this under the carpet like inconvenient dirt!” Celestia snapped suddenly. “You've brought me a tale of a war beyond anything I've seen for millennia, and now you're asking me to send you back with no help?!”

“Yes!” he snapped in return. “You… you don’t know what it’s like. I’ve heard stories about how peaceful your world used to be -”

“Then you know a lot of ponies who like to forget our history,” Celestia cut him off, a scathing expression on her face. “I have no doubt that your war is horrific. I have seen horrific.” Screaming, burning, and monsters unlike anything she had ever seen tearing through her ponies like they were soft cloth. “I do not pretend that this is a choice I can make lightly - but I will not stand by and do nothing.”

Elliot paused, not reacting to the outburst for a moment. Finally, he stood up again, an odd expression on his face.

“If…” he began slowly, “if somehow you can help… if you… if you can do something that might help us win…”

“I will battle this Tyrant Empress myself if that is what it requires,” Celestia promised grimly. She laid a hoof on Elliot’s shoulder in a comforting gesture. “You will not need to fight this war alone, not any more. I promise you that.”

Elliot nodded slowly, then winced, before sitting down. “I… don’t think I know what to say to that.”

Celestia nodded slowly in response. “I know this will not be easy - but the right thing often isn’t.”

“How well I know,” he said with a rueful smile and another wince.

“You should rest,” Celestia said quietly. “I will no doubt need your help soon.”

“Yeah,” Elliot said quietly, nodding. “When you do, I’ll… probably be here.”

With that, he laid himself down and closed his eyes. With a determined expression, Celestia exited the room, her wings beginning to flex involuntarily. She found Discord waiting for her, his arms folded.

“Well?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Please go to Luna and tell her to meet me in the throne room,” Celestia said quietly. “We have work to do.”

With widening eyes, he disappeared, and Celestia took a breath to steady herself.

I am doing the right thing, she thought to herself. I can't let this atrocity stand without doing something. She snorted, her eyes narrowing in contempt. Let us see if this ‘Solamina’ is as resolved.

***