//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Magic Effect 
// by iheartfornax 
//------------------------------//

        Celestia moved to face her magic mirror. She had raised the sun and 
dealt with her few royal duties, and now she had a chance to rest for a 
bit. Smoke and sparkles appeared and danced and swirled in the air next 
to her, congealing into a letter. It was from her faithful student 
Twilight Sparkle, but she already knew that. She also knew what its 
subject, and it read:

My Dearest Teacher,
It has come to my attention that none of the stars in the night 
sky are properly aligned. I have tried every rotation and inversion of 
the known constellations, but I can't find how they've been moved. None 
of the deep space objects I've been observing remain unchanged either. 
It's almost as if someone has replaced the sky, or, more alarmingly, we 
no longer occupy the same place in the universe as we did before. I know
your powers are great Princess, but hundreds of years of documentation 
and study of the constellations above Equestria have been undone. But 
all I ask is for your reassurance that it is all for the best. Who am I 
to question your wisdom?
I anxiously await your reply.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia began to write a response when a messenger knocked on the 
door to her room. She opened the door to greet him. The unicorn 
levitated an object in the air before his face and brought it to her. 
She moved a table to him and he set it down before reporting.
"Princess, this arrived at the palace late last night. A pony said 
she found it on her farm in a field, in the middle of a big hole in the 
ground. She also said it was smoking when she found it, and that it 
changes color when she touches it, so we've been moving it with magic 
ever since."
"Thank you. Please stay for a moment..."
Celestia looked hard at it. It looked...rough. Jagged. Dull. It was 
about half the size of a pony and somewhat oval-shaped. Bits of dirt 
still clung to it around the hairline cracks that traced its surface. 
She lifted it in the air for careful observation. One end of the grey 
thing was blackened badly and there in the center something peeked 
through behind dark glass. She rubbed a cloth over it, revealing an 
arrangement of circle- and square-shaped bubbles behind. A small red 
bubble blinked red for a moment before the square one lit up.
"Hello, Princess Celestia."
She was taken aback; the guard twitched at the sudden movement of 
the object as she jerked it away for a moment before pulling it close 
again. A figure, silhouetted by multicolored flames, looked back at her 
with glowing blue eyes.
"I'm sure you're wondering just who and what I am, but I assure you we mean no harm," the thing spoke again.
"Who am I speaking to?" she asked warily.
"People call me 'The Illusive Man,' but you can call me Tim for 
short. I represent the greater interests of humanity. I already know 
your name; we've had the cameras recording since this landed."
"I am Princess Celestia, Ruler of All Equestria." she said, 
continuing with formal introductions anyway. Faint memories nagged at 
her--something about this creature seemed familiar. "Where are you? I 
have never seen a creature like you before."
Tim raised a limb with a small white stick burning at the end near 
his eyes for a moment before responding with a puff of smoke, like a 
dragon. "Lots of people would like to know that, but where I am isn't 
really important. What's important is the safety of your people."
"What do you mean 'people'? Equestria is a land of Ponies, Tim."
"Ponies, then. When your system appeared suddenly on the fringes of 
the Traverse, we had to investigate. Do you know what happened?"
She looked at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes. He just stared back.
"I take it you do, and just aren't going to tell me." He puffed 
again. "Well, I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about in the future. 
You see, I'm trying to warn you. Your ponies are in great danger. All of
them. I think we can help each other out."
"Equestria hasn't known true danger in millennia. Are you threatening me?"
"No. Consider this a gesture of goodwill. I didn't have to send this probe out to contact you."
"Your warning, then?"
"In about a day, your time, a ship will try to land on your planet. 
The people inside are slavers and have only their own interests at 
heart." He paused again to let out another puff of smoke.
"A...ship? And what do you mean 'slavers'?"
"They're coming from the sky to take your ponies away from you; 
either to work for them for the rest of their short lives, or," another 
puff, "worse, sell them to someone else like tools."
"How do you know this?     Did you send them yourself?"
"No, our monitoring systems in this probe picked up their chatter on
the way here. They'll be heavily armed and greedy. You'll have to 
defend yourselves."
"Why should I trust you?" She asked softly.
"You can wait for them. When you see what kind of universe you've 
entered and want some help, tap on this object a few times and I'll be 
in touch."
The square bubble went dark.

Starbuck paused. He knew something was wrong. Princess Celestia had 
ordered them into the Everfree Forest without her carriage. They were 
flying low, and fast. The Princess hardly ever flew anywhere herself, 
much less with a squad of four pegusus ponies armored to the teeth. The 
light gold armor held fast to his body with straps, he could fell the 
wind rushing through the gaps faster than he had experienced since his 
entrance exam to the Royal Guard. No announcement had been made when she
left. No ponies other than her own guards there to see her off. This 
trip wasn't planned, and Princess Celesita never left Canterlot without 
notice.
This flight was testing the limits of his abilities. Taller trees 
now stabbed out of the ground below him; the Princess moved through them
almost effortlessly, but him and the rest of his group struggled to 
dodge them all. When they passed over a clearing, he took a moment to 
look at the sky above and beyond her. There, in the sky, a small grey 
and white object fell gracefully to the ground, small blue lights here 
and there on it's surface. More trees, he turned his attention back to 
the Princess in the lead, doing his best to keep up.
The Everfree forest was the sprawling untamed area of Equestria. 
Here, things worked differently than the rest of the world: strange 
animals lived here, weather acted on its own, and the creatures that 
came out from time to time were often "taken care of" by the Royal 
Guard. Here was the only place in all of Equestria that evil could occur
naturally, and from it's depths exploration teams funded by the Crown 
reported the discovery of vile things that threatened the innocence of 
Her people. There was no telling what he'd see when they got to wherever
she was leading them, but he would be ready, whatever it was.
Suddenly, she slowed and desceded under the canopy and touched down.
Her guards took up positions around her, and she motioned silently for 
them to move foward. They moved quietly, their years of hard training 
finally paying off, making not a sound as the approached an unnatural 
clearing. In the middle a very large slab of dark metal lay surrounded 
by odd--rough, really--looking creatures moved immense boxes. None of 
them stood on their forelegs. They all had rough, dark-colored hides and
small, strange things on the end of their forelimbs. He couldn't make 
out the details of what he assumed were their heads, but he could hear 
their stern tones as they yelled at each other. Each of them must be at 
least as tall as the Princess herself. They walked around buildings and 
columns as they did, moving boxes and waving around long contraptions 
that looked like a combination of sticks and boxes. She motioned for 
them to exit the trees and into the clearing. One of the creatures 
immediately noticed the Princess's brilliant white coat and flowing 
colored hair.
"Halt! Who goes there!" one of them yelled out of what Starbuck 
could only assume was its mouth. In its hand a small box with a tube 
coming out the end was pointing to Celestia. The Princess bowed her head
slightly, keeping her eyes on it. Starbuck was surprised that it spoke 
their language.
"I am Princess Celestia, Ruler of all of Equestria. May I ask what you are doing here in Everfree forest?"
"We came here for mining operations." His voice was guttural, and 
his teeth looked like a tangle of curved needles. All four of the eyes 
in his head blinked for a moment. "If you know what is good for you, 
native, you will leave this place."
"Where did you come from?" The Princess replied, unfazed by these strange sights and sounds. "Do you live in this forest?"
"Are you stupid? We do not live in an ugly place like this." The box
thing, tube still poked out at Celestia, shook at the end of his limb. 
"We did not come from this planet, we came to it! We are taking your 
natural resources, you ignorant peasant. Now leave this place before I 
have to hurt you."
The second the threat passed his bulbous, disgusting face two of 
Celestia's guards were in front of her, wings spread to cross in front 
of her. The other strange creatures pulled boxes of their own and tubes 
of all different sizes were pointed at them.
"Where are you taking them?" She asked.
"All you need to know is that we are taking them off-planet and there is nothing you can do about it!"
"Please leave. I do not want you to take our anything away from Equestria."
"What did you just ask me?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't speak loud enough. I asked you to please leave Equestria."
"You are a fool." He replied, and pointed his box at Graphite, who glared at him with practiced stillness.
Graphite's head jerked back suddenly and he fell limp, collapsing 
onto the ground. Blood poured out onto the dirt of the clearing and 
Starbuck knew now just what those small boxes did. He dug his hooves 
into the ground, keeping his bearing.
Princess Celestia looked down at the corpse by her hooves without 
moving, and for a moment he could see for the first time in his life, 
hints of anger on Princess Celestia's face. Her horn flashed and in an 
instant each small box in sight had split longways along the tubes.
"Save the one in the front!" Celestia yelled. The couple of seconds 
they inspected the dark-colored flowers in their hands, Starbuck and his
companions sprung into action. Six of the evil creatures, save the one 
who had spoken, were now their responsibility. The first one he rammed 
head-on. Standing on only two legs, the creature was easily knocked onto
the ground. Landing on his chest, Starbuck reared back on what he now 
realized was armor of their own--but the creature's face looked soft. 
The gold-plated shoes that adorned his hooves were more than just for 
show; they were very heavy, and very sharp. The angles were well-hidden 
by the sculpting, and most ponies wouldn't even know what to do with 
something like these. But he knew what they were for, and how to use 
them. It was for this he suffered through all that training, for this he
had sacrificed the single greatest thing a pony could have: to protect 
Princess Celestia, and through her, the balance of all the world. He 
held open his wings and pushed them up, increasing the downward force 
and sending his sharpened hoofwear into the thing's face. And again into
his throat. An arm swung on his side and knocked him off, but he tucked
and rolled, satisfied that this one was going to be to occupied with 
holding in all the blood coming from his head, and moved to the next 
one. The second one was using the ruined box as a club now, and moved to
swat Starbuck right out of the air. He tucked his wings in and dove for
the ground in front of it, using his forelegs as an anchor, his body 
executing the move without thought, muscle memory taking over and 
swinging him around to buck at the creature. They had joints that bent 
forward at about the right height, but he hadn't seem any of them bend 
them backwards. Using his whole body as a spring, his plated hooves met 
the plate armor with a dull thud. A crunch and scream followed and the 
huge creature collapsed in a heap, grabbing for his leg. Starbuck took 
the opportunity and bucked again, aiming for his face. His hooves caught
the thing's chin, sending its head curving back, the rest of his body 
following.

Princess Celestia strutted slowly toward the one who has spoken to her.
He panicked, looking around to see his friends getting pummeled by 
the armored pegasus. Her horn glowed again and he felt himself lifting 
off the ground. He looked back to her, her huge pink eyes boring into 
him.
"Why didn't you leave when I asked you to?" Her soft voice lilting through the cries of his friends. "I asked you nicely."
His hand shot up to his earpiece. "Get back to the ship you fools!" 
The engines fired to life, blue flames pressing against the brown earth.
The tall white creature in front of him raised an eyebrow at him. 
"Ship?" A smile spread across her face, "Oh, I don't think you're going 
anywhere." The noises from the ship died, and for a moment, there was 
complete silence, punctuated only the by the sputtering coughs of his 
comrades. The other ponies, about half her size, now hovered around her,
splatters of blood arced across their hooves, armor, and faces, all 
glaring silently at him. A low rumbling started from the ground below 
him, and for a moment of hope he thought the shuttle's engines had fired
back up again. But then she spread her large wings and lifted off the 
ground as it sunk like sand beneath her. He struggled to look around, 
but there wasn't really anything stopping him from observing the 
sinkhole below him, drawing the entire clearing to a center point 
somewhere below the ship. Voices yelled and barked at him through his 
earpiece; the shuttle was dead and they were sinking into the ground. 
Corpses and their equipment rolled and bumped into the shuttle from the 
increasing incline, and the two that still lived were clawing in 
futility at the sides of the rolling dirt, mud caking with the exposed 
blood spread across their hands and body. Eventually the ground 
swallowed them all up; dirt came to the surface like water and grass 
grew instantly. The clearing looked as if they had never even been 
there.

"This creature has requested an audience with me.” The princess 
spoke in a cheerful, matter-of-factly voice. Starbuck knew what that 
meant in this situation. "Please make sure he's prepared,” she said as 
she lowered him to the ground.
"Bow before the Princess of all Equestria!" Starbuck barked. 
Twister, his jaw hanging slack and dislocated from the fight, drooled a 
little blood as he bucked him in the knee. Starbuck followed suit, and 
the creature crumpled in howls of pain. The pegasus ponies helped him 
into a kneeling position before her, pushing him forward onto his 
forelegs. Celestia released him from her magical grip and summoned a 
scroll and quill.
"I have some questions for you. Please, try and answer them honestly,” she said through a smile, “nopony likes a liar.”