Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Starlight Glimmer, Pinkie Pie, and Spike stepped off the train into the windy streets of Canterlot. Almost everypony was indoors already; even if it hadn’t been the middle of the night, the darkening clouds in the sky, as well as the building winds forced what few ponies that were still out attending to something to race about, while getting buffeted by the gale. A quartet of royal guards took up positions around the six friends as they all rushed towards the castle.

High above them, a large, barely-visible, fully enclosed chariot flew the unconscious forms of Twilight and Rainbow Dash to the castle, pulled by four more pegasi guards. Two nurses inside watched over the two mares, as everyone made their way to the center of the city. Running through the city, the guards didn’t make them go at a breakneck pace, but neither would they let the mares (and Spike) slow down.

Reaching the main gates, the first fat droplets of summer rain began to hit the ground around the six friends, while the chariot landed on one of the landing pads at the back of the castle, out of sight. The guardsponies on duty opened the gates just long enough for the Elements of Harmony and their entourage to enter the palace grounds before the metal bars slammed shut again.

Running across the massive front courtyard, their hooves splashing through quickly-forming puddles, the five mares and one dragon raced for the shelter of the royal palace as it loomed large ahead of them. Reaching the main doors, the friends were ushered inside while the guardsponies took up positions outside the door.

Shaking some of the rain out of her fur, Applejack took the lead, with the others following close behind, striding purposefully through the halls of the great castle. Glancing to the sides occasionally as they walked, Applejack noticed that there seemed to be far more guards in the halls and standing at balconies than her previous visits.

Focusing back to their goal, a set of guards opened the doors to the diarchy’s main audience chamber, where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were sitting in their respective thrones. The Lunar Princess wore a stony expression; hard and unreadable, while the Solar Princess had a distant look in her eyes, and a serious expression the girls had seen only a few times before.

Bowing before the rulers, the mares (and Spike) waited until they heard the princess’ voice before looking up.

“It is alright, my little ponies. You do not need to behave in such a way. We’re all friends here.”

Celestia’s face had cracked a serene, if somewhat forced, smile in an effort to ease the tensions of the subjects standing before her.

“Forgive us princess,” Rarity replied as they straightened up. “It’s just, your letter was so urgent, we got here as fast as we could. What have you and Princess Luna decided?”

For a moment, neither diarch spoke; then, after a brief glance between the two sisters, Luna offered a response.

“Seeing as we’ve never heard of any power utilizing such powered flight as Spike described, we concluded that a foreign nation from across the seas must have finally circumnavigated the massive storm belt that separates us from a large part of the world. We’re very grateful that you’ve all come here so quickly to help us with the difficult task ahead.”

“What’s that, princess?” Pinkie asked, a look of genuine confusion on her face.

“We are going to meet with these new creatures and see if we can find a way to create peaceful relations with them diplomatically. If that fails, we will need your help, as the Elements of Harmony, to send these newcomers packing. We will show them that ponies are not to be trifled with. That is why we requested that Twilight and Rainbow Dash be transferred to the hospital here in the palace. They should recover quicker here, with my sister and I to watch over them, and they are just as important to using the Elements as you all are.” Celestia sighed before continuing, “I hope that it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, I’m glad you’re all here.”

“O’ course, Princess, we’re always happy to be of help,” Applejack said, sweeping her hat off her head and holding it up to her chest. No one seemed to notice Starlight looking distinctly uncomfortable off to the side.

“But wait… if we’re all going to be here in Canterlot, then who’s going to tell the shiny metal ponies when and where you’ll meet them?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“Not to worry, we’ve already got that handled. We’ve delegated that task to a very special pony still in Ponyville.”

The grey delivery mare knocked for the third time on the small wooden door, before finally it opened and a very disgruntled and unkempt blue unicorn opened it.

“Of course I know! It’s mail time, silly! You’ve got a delivery!” the grey pegasus replied cheerfully, smiling and holding out a letter with a fancy stamp. Shoving the letter into the hands of the surprised unicorn, the mailmare skipped happily away into the night.

Blinking her eyes wearily, Trixie Lulamoon closed the door to her little traveling wagon and used her magic to light a candle, while inspecting the ornate wax seal on the letter. It looked almost like…

“This… Is this letter from one of the Princesses?!” she gasped as her brain finally woke up enough to register what she was seeing. Quickly opening the letter and bringing it closer to the candle to see, she began to read.

Dear Trixie Lulamoon,
As an accomplished unicorn, a good friend of my former student, Twilight Sparkle, as well as one of the recent saviours of Equestria, I have decided that I shall entrust a very important responsibility to you.

Trixie couldn’t believe her eyes. Was Princess Celestia actually writing to her? She checked the clock sitting on a shelf crammed full of magic supplies and plates. It was almost half past midnight. What was so important that it had been sent so late at night? Or, perhaps it had been sent just earlier that day and Celestia had paid for express shipping? Trixie had seen Spike leave with Starlight and Twilight’s friends earlier in the day, so perhaps Celestia had decided to write the letter after he left Ponyville, as it would have been more convenient to send it through dragonfire and simply get Spike to deliver it.

Shrugging, Trixie decided not to question the Princess, and once again moved towards the candle in order to read. Her eyes glanced to the bottom, and sure enough, the signature confirmed the author of the letter was indeed Princess Celestia. Unfortunately, it was at this time that Trixie’s eyes began to sting and water slightly. Blinking rapidly to try and clear them, she moved her gaze back to the top-

Trixie had unknowingly moved the edge of the letter right next to the candle when she had looked at the signature at the bottom, and now, a small flame was making its way across the page and devouring the words on it.

Panic gripped Trixie’s mind as she raced outside as quick as she could and headed for the small pond behind Twilight’s castle, beside which her caravan was parked. Only a moment too late did she remember that she had a glass of water right beside her bed, as well as any number of small-scale spells she could have used to douse the flames before she dunked the burning parchment into the pond.

Quickly pulling it out, she gazed at the ruined letter. One side was mostly burned away, while the other was filled with letters running down the wet page as the water destroyed the ink. Trixie’s eyes raced across the page, hoping to get some semblance of what it was Princess Celestia wanted of her, but unfortunately, most of the page was already illegible. Trixie managed to spy a few words that weren’t too damaged before they too started getting slightly distorted.

-to go to th-                                        -nd deliver the mess-
                                                        -ace is to be held. I ask-                       -ell them that-
                                       -o days at-
                                                                   -in Canterlot, but I-
                             -anic in the streets if-                                                  -now this is a difficult-
                                                        -elieve that you are the right pony for the job.

Trixie stared at the remains of the letter in silent horror. Of the entire page, the only part of the parchment that was undamaged was the bottom-right corner, where the Princess had written that she, Trixie was the right pony for the job, and where he had signed her name.

Feeling a sudden weakness in her legs, the blue unicorn collapsed onto her knees and flopped onto her back, still staring at the last few words in the light of the almost-full moon. The signature of the Princess kept fading in and out her vision as if mocking her, telling her that she indeed, was the worst pony for the job the Princess had set for her.

As she lay under the stars, clutching the ruined parchment, an idea came to her. Jumping up, she raced back to her caravan and began pulling out writing materials, and laying them on her desk. Carefully putting a glass lamp cover over her candle, she moved it to her tiny, cramped desk. She was about to start writing her letter to the Princess, explaining how the letter had been ruined and that she didn’t have time to read it, when another thought occurred to her and she almost slammed her head on the desk in frustration.

Of course, she won’t get the letter in time. If what she wanted me to do was so urgent, then by the time my letter gets through the whole process of actually getting read by Celestia, if that ever happens, then it’ll probably be too late! Taking another glance at her clock, the blue unicorn grumbled to herself and began changing out of her pyjamas into something more suitable and comfortable for travel. Packing a small knapsack of essentials, including some food, her toothbrush, a change of clothes, her clock, some smoke bombs, some fireworks, and her trusty wand, she donned her cape and hat on top of her dark purple performer’s outfit, and stepped out of her traveling wagon into the crisp and cool summer night air.

Holding her hat on her head, Trixie ran to the train station, the medallion the Princess had given her bouncing proudly (and somewhat painfully) off her chest (hey, it was heavy). I’m so glad that the train station is open all night.

Buying a ticket for the first train to Canterlot, Trixie checked the time and then the scheduled departure before boarding the platform to wait for the correct train. Only four and a half hours to go, and then I’m off to Canterlot… yippee.

Sitting down on a hard wooden bench, she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep in the flickering light of the station’s bulbs after what had happened that night, but soon enough she had dozed off, startled awake by the gentle whistle of her train as it pulled to the station.

As she boarded it and waited for the train to depart, many, many miles away, a Princess paced the floor of the medical wing in a castle, hoping against hope that her letter had reached its recipient in time. Looking over at Twilight and Rainbow as they slept, she couldn’t help but smile.

All is well, little ones. I’m sorry to have to ask so much of you, but hopefully everything goes according to plan. Just so long as Trixie tells the new creatures that the meeting will take place at Twilight’s Castle. The structure itself is quite strong, and the pony population of Ponyville is not nearly as dense as here in Canterlot, so there shouldn’t be any trouble if we have to evacuate the surrounding area.

Turning her gaze to the horizon, visible outside the window, the solar diarch wondered what exactly these newcomers were doing, and if they were planning something diabolical to do with her ponies.

“Go, Spinnerrett! Don’t let that good-for-nothing wheelie push you around!”

Down in the bowels of the dreadnaught, Dawn of Dusk, a long elliptical track ran a quarter the length of the ship, and droids crowded right to the edge of the safety rails overlooking the somewhat gloomy short drop before the track. A couple meters below the magnapeds of B1’s and B2’s zoomed droidekas, their massive bronzium wheels zipping by in the semi-light as they raced around the track.

Stepping off the lift the Captain took it all in; the dim lighting, the shouting but still small crowds of droids spread along the length of the track, the high-pitched whine and deep rumble that happened every so often whenever a destroyer droid whipped past in the lowered pit of the track.

Nicknamed the black market of the ship, most droids went there to have fun that would normally be prohibited in most other areas of the ship, as they would cause hazards, but here, where only maintenance droids crawled through vents, the track that was so often used to moving supplies discreetly throughout the massive vessel had picked up some quirks. There were some small things that had changed about it, the safety rails, for one, but the biggest change was that, whenever it wasn’t being used for logistics purposes, the track usually played host to some kind of sport (most of which included heavy betting from spectators) for the entertainment of whatever droids had either managed to sneak off duty, or otherwise had nothing else to do and didn’t want to power off just yet. Hence why the droideka race was being held at the moment.

Pushing his way through the crowd, 72624 was glad he didn’t take any guards with him now. Since there were so many droids here, he could pretend to be any commander droid on the ship, and no one would notice, nor frankly care. Making his way to the front, he saw the black accents of one of the Scrapheap Gang; one of the commando droideka units on board the vessel.

Turning to a random B1, he asked, “Hey, how many Scrappers are racing today?”

Without looking, the other droid replied, “There’s set to be six more. There’s two in this race, none in the next, then three in the one after that, and then one in the last race of the day. The ones in this race are Warper and Switch. But Roller’s currently in the lead, followed by Roadster, King, and Rotary.”

Another droideka blurred past to much cheering, followed by several others, and then, after a little while, a couple more. 72624 simply stood and watched as the wheel droids whirred past on their laps, occasionally cheering on a straggler, but otherwise keeping mainly to himself. He wasn’t big on betting, and he was only on a short break, but nevertheless he still enjoyed watching the races. Across the track, a few dozen meters farther along, the Captain spotted the black and white shape of Bones as the strange droid skipped along behind the engrossed gamblers, a bucket dangling from his grip.

“Go Watcher!” the powerful voice of a super battle droid yelled out right beside the Captain, causing him to jolt in surprise and lose track of the skeletal droid, while another of the massive wheeled droids shot past below.

Half a kilometer down the track, Cranker and Spaller cheered as King roared past near the front of the pack, vying for second place, before he was lost from sight around the curve of the wall.

“See? Didn’t I say this would cheer you up?” Cranker yelled over the assembled spectators, to which Spaller gave a thumbs-up to show he had heard, and watched as another couple droidekas zoomed along, followed shortly by the one called Watcher.

In truth, he was feeling better, but Spaller still had a somewhat suspicious feeling that all wasn’t right with the situation.

“I just hope those organics don’t do anything stupid, they were really cute and colorful,” he muttered to himself, unheard by any of the crowd as another couple droidekas wheeled past, “I’d hate to have to blast them.”

Trixie huffed and puffed her way down the main street of Canterlot, fighting against the stitch in her side as she made her was as fast as she could towards the gates of the palace. The rain that had started yesterday evening showed no signs of stopping, and she could understand why; just looking at some of the plants lining the streets of Canterlot showed many of them still needed some time to recover from the recent heat wave the pegasi had provided the week before.

Unfortunately, the rain was now making it very difficult to get to the palace quickly, and more than once Trixie accidentally stepped right into a huge puddle, soaking her pants in the process.

At least it’s still relatively warm out, she thought as she winced at the sudden cold splash of water yet again.

The sun didn’t shine through the thunderclouds, but Trixie could tell that it was starting to get close to noon. She had arrived in Canterlot just a half hour before, and yet she still had twelve blocks to go, or was it thirteen? She had no idea, but her breathing was now short and ragged, and she had to stop at the corner. Doubling over, her insides started screaming at her, and suddenly the blue unicorn threw up on the sidewalk. Thankfully, barely anypony was outside, and those that were didn’t pay attention to her as they ran to get out of the storm. Wiping her mouth, Trixie opted to follow the residents’ lead and take shelter momentarily by stepping into a nearby coffee shop. Outside, the puddle of vomit was being quickly dissolved by the pounding rain. Inside, the tiny café was packed with ponies trying to escape the weather.

Dripping wet, Trixie shook herself off slightly before heading to the restroom in the back to properly clean up her face. However, after seeing herself in the mirror, she realized just how terrible she looked. The lack of sleep during most of the night, along with her run across the city, had taken their toll on the young unicorn mare.

She had dark circles under her eyes, her mane was unkempt and dripping wet, her clothes were soggy, and she had a thin line of bile smeared on corner of her mouth. Splashing some water in her face and trying her best to wake up and wash up, she inspected herself in the mirror once more. It wasn’t much, but it was somewhat of an improvement. She looked more awake and at least she didn’t have the remains of yesterday’s supper running down her face.

Stepping back out into the coffee shop, Trixie looked at the clock set above the counter. Almost two in the afternoon, she thought grimly to herself. She only hoped whatever she was hurrying to see the Princess about wasn’t too urgent; she didn’t think she could run any more. For just a moment, Trixie wished Twilight and her friends had taken her along with them on their adventures. Pulling a cart around did build muscle, but it was always at a leisurely pace; she’d never been much for stamina.

I bet saving Equestria takes a lot more running around than I realized, she thought glumly to herself as she stood in line to get a quick cup of caffeine. If she didn’t down something quick, she’d drop of exhaustion pretty soon.

Getting to the front of the line, she ordered a small cup of whatever had the most sugar and caffeine on the menu from a scrawny-looking stallion who looked like he wasn’t even out of basic education, before standing off to the side to wait for her order. Boy I hope this little detour doesn’t mean I miss what it is the Princess wanted me to do. Glancing again at the clock, she counted off the seconds as the minute hand finally reached the two. By her calculations, running through the streets of Canterlot would take her another thirty or forty minutes, and hopefully after that she’d be able to show off the medal she’d earned a few weeks back. It was her only chance of getting to see the Princess on such short notice.

“Trixie!” the pony behind the counter shouted, and placed a cup on the counter. Stepping forward and taking a sip of her mocha-choca-latte, Trixie made her way to the door and watched the rain hammer on the outside of the glass. Taking another sip, she spied a very strange black sphere-ish object floating through an alley on the other side of the main street. She couldn’t tell exactly what it was, it was too far and too dark and raining too hard outside, but she could have sworn she had seen the dark shape moving against the wind in the direction of the castle. Looking up the road herself, she shook the thought of discovering the identity of the dark shape out of her head and focused on getting to the Princess quickly.

Downing the rest of her drink, she threw the cup away and stepped back out into the gale.

In the time she’d spent in the tiny coffee shop, the wind had picked up even more and as soon as she set hoof outside, it threatened to throw her bodily backwards. Bracing herself against the howling winds and lashing rain, she realized she’d be lucky to make it to the palace gates in an hour, as the storm was forcing her to go step by step, never faster than walking speed, lest she lose her balance and fall over.

Squinting through the torrential rain and looking down the road, Trixie couldn’t even see the outline of the castle anymore, just the grey lines of rain and the occasional flash of lightning. Holding her hat down on her head tightly to prevent it from being ripped away, the blue unicorn slowly made her way up the street.

For the first time in two days, Laugher was finally laughing. He’d been giggling on the way through the vents for almost an hour now, and Rabid was quite frankly getting sick of it.

“Shut up, Laugher, I know you’re relieved at our luck, but at the amount you’ve been laughing, we’re gonna be heard crawling through here.”

“I’m, hee hee, I’m sorry corporal, but I still can’t believe it. We would’ve been found out for sure, and then-”

“Yes, I’m fully aware of what happened, private, I was there too, remember?” Rabid sighed, and hung his head momentarily, playing back the entire scene in his head.

They had been waiting at the end of the corridor, hoping the distance from the corner would make the droids aim badly enough that the two clones could take out the droids before they were overwhelmed. Their plan never got the chance to be tested however, as just before the clankers rounded the corner, they had stopped, and the dead-end was short enough that they heard the conversation around the corner of the corridor.

“Halt! I’m getting new orders… alright, squad, we’re to report to the main hangar for a new mission. Squad 5-E will be taking over our patrol rounds back here.” Squawked one of the droids, before another spoke up.

“Are we going to finish our patrol first? We still have to check these last few corridors.”

“Negative, command wants us to report to the hangar immediately. 5-E will handle it from here. They’re just a few decks away.”

“Roger, roger!”

And with that, the droids had turned around and left the same way they’d come, their clanking and tramping echoing down the hallways for far longer than Rabid had been comfortable with. He had no idea what mission the droid squad had been pulled from patrol for, but he was grateful to whatever gods there might be, and to the force, that they had yet again eluded the attention of the droids. Whether it was just coincidence, blind luck, or divine intervention, Rabid and Laugher had stayed cemented where they were for several minutes after they noise had disappeared, before the two clones shook themselves of their shock and got moving again.

Rabid still couldn’t believe how lucky they’d gotten, and while the two had been silent and alert for most of the time afterwards, Laugher had finally gotten over the tension of the situation an hour ago and had started giggling almost nonstop since.

“Laugher, this is seriously your last warning, if you don’t shut your gob, I’ll push you out of this vent right now, and let you deal with the droids yourself!” the corporal hissed to the other soldier.

Hearing the muffled sounds of Laugher trying to reign in his mirth, another sound caught Rabid’s attention. The faint scraping and scuttling sound of sharp metal running and slipping over smooth metal. Wondering what the hell he was hearing, Rabid hissed and Laugher to shut up once more, before he heard a small bang, and felt the vent shake just a fraction.

Laugher’s giggles finally subsided as he realized the sudden change in their situation and asked, “Hey, Corporal, what do you think that noise is?”

Looking backwards with much difficulty, Rabid managed to see past himself and the other clone trooper as they were crammed into the narrow ventilation shaft, ad saw the end of the metal tube a dozen meters away. The intersection they had just crossed a short while ago was lit through a grate in the ceiling of the corridor below, and the clone Corporal could clearly see the vibrations of the tube at the intersection, moving almost in time to the metal-on-metal scuttling sound.

As soon as he looked ahead and saw another intersection a few more meters beyond, he suddenly realized what was going on.

That realization chilled him to the core. Whatever it was that was behind them seemed to be having an easier time navigating the vents than the clones were, and if it came to a firefight, the troopers were at a clear disadvantage. They could only fire towards the front, and had no room to maneuver or take cover.

Crawling forwards as quickly and as quietly as he dared, with Laugher following hot on his heels, Rabid made his way to the intersection and turned left, away from the direction the vibrations were coming from at the other intersection.

As soon as both clones had moved past the intersection, they decided to drop down out of the vents once more, into a thankfully empty corridor, and quickly moved the grate back into place, just as the clacking and scampering of something small and metal raced over their heads.

Waiting for the sound to die away, Laugher turned to his superior officer and hung his head.

“Well, looks like the vents aren’t safe for us anymore… what are we going to do now? If just keep going through the halls of this ship, then we’ll run into a patrol sooner or later. If we start taking out droids, they’ll eventually figure out we’re here and start swarming to find us.”

“I… I don’t know what to do,” Rabid replied, his voice hollow and dejected.

They had already decided that attacking the bridge directly was too risky, the communications spire was completely gone, and they were now too far from the secondary bridge to be able to feasibly get there through the corridors without being spotted.

“Sir… maybe… maybe we should just try to get out of here? The droids must have some other smaller craft on board. The hangar bay is right below us, and there’d be plenty of machines and fuel tanks and whatnot to hide behind. We’d just have to time it properly, but I think we’d be able to steal something with a hyperdrive and get out of here before the clankers realize what’s going on. We could even use the ship’s navigation computer to find out where this dreadnaught is, and send the fleet here to mop it up once we get back.”

“You know what kid? That may just be the smartest idea you’ve ever come up with. And to tell the truth… I am sick of orders. We’ll do it your way. Let’s get off this boat first and then tell the rest of the Empire where these droids are squatting. I think we’ve done enough for one day.”

Nodding to each other, the two troopers, with new determination, set off down the corridor, to the hangar. To what semblance of a plan they had left. And to freedom.

Trixie had finally reached the outer gates of Canterlot Castle through the pouring rain and shrieking winds. She had actually been knocked down and flung backwards twice and had seen the same happen to at least one other pony that too was unfortunate enough to be out in the storm. Because of this, and also the fact that she had had to stop in several other stores on the way in order to not freeze from the now-chilling torrent, she had taken just over two hours to get to the gates. Banging on the metal, she eventually managed to make out the form of a royal unicorn guard making his way towards her from the gatehouse.

“Who goes there?” he yelled hoarsely, although Trixie barely registered his words as the wind did its best to rip them away.

“I’m here to see the Princess- Princess Celestia! I need to see Princess Celestia! Immediately! It’s important!” the blue unicorn shouted back, pressed up against the bars of the gate.

“Sure it is, we get super-important messages here all the time! Why don’t you just tell what it is you want and I’ll see if I have enough time in my busy schedule to deliver it to her?”

“N-no! I can’t do that! Please, this is important! I need to see the Princess immediately! I received a letter from her yesterday!”

At this, the guard’s eyebrows furrowed, although his demeanor didn’t change.

“Listen, I don’t know who you are, but no one’s getting into the palace grounds in this storm! And the Princess is busy today, she can’t be bothered with random ponies’ requests right now! Wait out the storm and come back later, and maybe we’ll see about your message!”

Trixie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had gotten a letter from the freaking Princess, and this dolt was denying her entry? Fumbling around inside the front of her coat, she reached for the medal she’d gotten in her last visit.

“Woah, listen lady! If you try to get in here by flashing me, I will arrest you, and then you’ll never get to see the Princess!”

“I’m not- what? No! I wasn’t going to- I was getting this!” Pulling out her medal, she shoved it through the bars and practically into the guard stallion’s face, who recoiled slightly in order to get a good look at what Trixie was holding.

“No, you dolt! This is a Pink Heart of courage! My name is Trixie Lulamoon, you know, the Grrreat and Powerful Trixie! Princess Celestia gave these to me and my friends for saving Equestria from the changelings a couple months ago, remember? I really need to speak to her, it’s urgent!”

The guard took another look at the pink and gold medal, before realization opened his eyes wide, but common sense and the sheer amount of rain coming down quickly made him squint again.

Using his magic to unlock the gate, the guard opened it up just enough to let Trixie through, before slamming it back shut with visibly more effort than it took to open, due to the winds. Putting a hand on her back, he guided her to the front door and past the miserable guards standing there.

Once inside, Trixie realized just how violently she was shivering, and tried unsuccessfully to use her magic to dry herself, but instead simply caused a large plume of smoke to engulf her and the guard beside her. Coughing violently, she gave the guard a sideways glance, and with eyes watering, gave a quick “Sorry.”

“No, I was just trying to- Well, never mind that. Thank you for letting me in. I really do need to see the Princess and-”

“Hold on now, I let you in, but Princess Celestia is having a very important meeting right now, and asked not to be disturbed. You’ll have to wait just a bit.”

Leading her through the halls, they eventually came to one of the far wings and a large oaken door through which muffled voices could faintly be heard. By the time they reached it, however, Trixie was shaking in anticipation. She was so nervous. Celestia was in a meeting; what if she really had made a mistake and she didn’t have to come so soon? What if she was overreacting? And what would the Princess think when Trixie told her what had happened to her letter? What if she was angry? What if she decided to give the task to somepony else?

As the guardspony directed her to sit on a bench outside the room and wait until there was a break, she pulled the clock out of her knapsack and her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she saw the time.

It’s almost five thirty in the evening! Where the Tartarus did the time go? Were we really walking through the castle for that long? Did it really take me that long to get to the front gates? Oh no, what will Celestia think? I should have gotten here sooner! Maybe she’ll think that I’m lazy and that I’m not the right pony for the job!

Again her fear of not being adequate for whatever task Celestia had planned for her nearly made her go into a panic. Catching herself, she used a breathing technique she had learned to help rid herself of nervousness whenever she had stage fright, and tried to slow her heavily beating heart.

Seconds passed like minutes, and minutes like hours, all the while thoughts raced through Trixie’s head and the guardspony simply stood beside her, stoic and statuesque, deciding that enough was enough and discontinuing answering questions after the third one.

After several more agonizingly slow minutes, the door opened, and several minotaurs stepped out, grumbling quietly amongst themselves, before a somewhat tired-looking Princess Luna followed them out. A moment later, Princess Celestia, in a similar state, walked out rubbing her forehead.

For just a moment, Trixie wondered if it would be awfully rude of her to bring her problem of the destroyed letter after the Princesses looked tired like that, but then, steeling herself, she stood up and stepped forward, clearing her throat.

At the sound of her voice, the Princess stopped and turned around, looking Trixie squarely in the eyes, the slightest bit of surprise on her face.

“Trixie? What… What are you doing here? Did you come to tell me you delivered my message?”

“Uh, heh, not exactly. See, I uh, well… your letter reached me very late at night, and I uh, may have um… arksandlybnedat…” Trixie replied, grumbling out the last bit.

“What was that? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,” the Princess replied, a calm and encouraging look coming across her face.

“I may have… accidentally burned it…” The blue unicorn winced as she said those last words, expecting the Princess to get angry with her. After a few seconds of nothing happening, however, she opened one eye just a crack and saw the Princess exactly where she had been before, but a worried look on her face.

“I ah, please don’t banish me, Princess!” Trixie wailed, tears forming in her eyes. Something told her that whatever was on that letter had been more important than she had realized.

“I was surprised to see that you had written to me, and in my surprise, I didn’t realize how close I was holding your letter to my candle, and… it… well, it burned. I managed to put out the flames, but the letter was ruined…”

“You… you didn’t get my message then?” The tone of her voice betrayed little, but the look on the Solar Diarch’s face spoke volumes to Trixie.

“I-I’m sorry, no, I didn’t. It was too far gone by the time I put it out…”

“Sister!” Celestia turned to Luna, who was standing a few feet away and watching the whole thing impassively, “what time is it?”

“Um, it’s about six o’clock, Princess,” Trixie said, trying to calm the alabaster alicorn.

“Six… Tia, isn’t that about the time that the newcomers said they would be waiting for our answer?” Luna said shakily.

Without another word, the solar diarch disappeared in a large flash of light, leaving Trixie and Princess Luna standing by awkwardly.

Princess Celestia teleported into the middle of Ponyville Square. It was still a very beautiful evening in Ponyville, and many ponies, shocked by her sudden presence, dropped what they were doing and gave low bows. She ignored them, looking around, before her eyes came to rest on Ponyville Hospital off in the distance. Teleporting over to the front doors, she opened up her wings and blasted off from the ground, her royal dress flapping around her as she shot through the air towards the copse of trees the Element Bearers had told her about in their recounting of their tale.

Racing towards the spot, Celestia saw something that defied explanation. A large, metal-grey ovoid with some sort of large fin on its back was rising from the trees and began accelerating, turning to point its stubby nose almost straight up before it zoomed away, leaving Celestia hovering where it had taken off from just a moment before.

“I mean, none of the creatures that were there had any idea of a time and place for meeting their rulers, so after waiting almost two hours, I decided it would be best to excuse their tardiness and simply return,” TL-90 replied, as if abandoning a first-contact scenario because one party was absent for a time was normal protocol.

“But, but, didn’t any of the creatures show up?” 72624 asked, still not believing the protocol droid.

“Oh, certainly they did. The only problem was that none of the natives assembled there had any notion of a date for the meeting of our two factions. The ones that did come seemed to be there simply to watch us more and marvel at us a bit. It was really quite uncomfortable.”

“Then what are we going to do? We have no way of figuring out who’s in charge of that nation! I guess we can just go again tomorrow, but-”

“Actually, Captain, I have found out a bit more about their social and political structure since yesterday.” Interrupted the silver droid, “Probe three seems to be in one of their larger cities, and I’ve deduced that there are two ‘Princesses’ living in that city. If my translating is correct, then I would assume that they have some semblance of control over the land and the civilian creatures that reside in them, if I may suggest, that would be a good place to start looking into a proper meeting.”

“Perfect!” the Captain replied, a slight tone of joy re-entering his voice “Maybe we can salvage something from this and get this meeting under way quickly then!” Turning to one of the bridge crew, the Captain stood up straight and tall to look more impressive and addressed the droid, “You! I want a shuttle and escort prepared for me. I want it ready to leave by the time I get down to the hangar. I’ll do this myself.”

“Sir,” the droid replied, pausing the Captain’s moment of glory, “There is currently a severe storm over that city. If you’d want to have the best visibility and the lowest chance of problems with the ships, then our imaging shows that the storm should disperse sometime tomorrow. I suggest nobody goes down there until it clears up.”

Unable to think of a response for a few seconds, 72624 held up a finger for silence until he thought of something.

“Very well!” he stated at last, “I want a shuttle and escort prepared for me and have it ready to leave by sometime tomorrow! We’ll see if we can leave at dawn, and land down in the city early in the morning. I doubt these creatures’ rulers will be able to keep us waiting if we land right on their doorstep,” he said smugly.

“Captain, may I suggest that since some of the most important officers will be going down there, that we put together a large guard to deter any hostilities from the natives?”

“You know what? Fine, we’ll bring more ground troops in this time. Whatever. I’m done arguing with you, so I’ll leave it to you to pick out the guard for this mission. Just make sure you don’t do anything too drastic, we’re trying to appear as benevolent explorers, not evil invaders.”

“As you wish.” Giving a small bow, the black tactical droid left the bridge, three super battle droids accompanying him, while Pix looked up at the Captain and tugged on his hand. Neither the Captain nor the servant droid heard the quiet laughing of the black droid as he left.

“Captain, is it really a good idea to just be inviting ourselves down into a heavily populated area like that city? Especially without being invited?”

"Quiet, underling! I have to think!” 72624 said, waving the diminutive servant droid away.

“What do you have to think about? Everything’s already figured out…” she grumbled to herself as she stepped back to avoid getting knocked over by the Captain, who was still absent-mindedly shooing her.

“They did what?” Trixie shouted, interrupting Starlight for the fourth time.

The two mares, along with the Element Bearers (both conscious and not) and Spike, were assembled in a room in the medical wing of Canterlot Castle, along with the two alicorn diarchs and several royal guard captains.

Twilight was awake and propped up in her bed with pillows, while Applejack silently watched over a sleeping Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus still hadn’t woken, but her breathing was now regular and the nurses had said that she would make a full recovery. Her face, chest, and arms still had ugly-looking burns, but the medical staff made repeated assurances that so long as they continued to apply the proper burn salve, she would heal fully.

“They said they would come back the next day at the same time for our answer on where to meet,” Starlight repeated, “And from what the Princess told us, that’s what she put in her letter to you.”

“So I was supposed to tell a new race of creatures that the Princesses would be meeting in Ponyville, and instead, I came here…”

The blue unicorn trailed off, a blank look of shock on her face. Starlight tried snapping her friend out of it by waving her hand in front of Trixie’s face, and even gave her a light pinch, but the showmare didn’t respond until a gentle hand lightly rested itself on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, my little pony. I can always send another letter to someone still in Ponyville. I’m sure the metal creatures will be back today. Although their delegates do seem a bit cold and straightforward, there’s no reason to believe that they would do anything rash just because we failed to give them an answer. They might realize that the time taken to get word across Equestria might be more than a day. I’m sure they’ll be back again.”

Just then, the first rays of morning light slipped through the large window, catching everyone’s attention. It had been raining throughout the night, and everyone was looking forward to some sunshine again.

“And look at that. It seems the storm is finally over as well. See? Everything will be fine, and now, with all the watering the city got, the flowers and trees will be growing lush and strong this year.”

As the assembled mares (and Spike) looked out the window at the rays of sunshine poking through the grey clouds, the guard nearest it looked up, and with a shaky voice said, “Princess? Those delegates you were expecting? They’re back, and they brought a much bigger ship.”

Ponies and Lasers and Clankers, Oh My!

by Tekket

Chapter 6 - Preparations