On the train ride (which took most of the day), Josephine started to learn Ponish, and progressed far quicker than Applejack had expected. By the time the train crossed the Ghastly Gorge (about halfway to Ponyville), she had learned enough to hold a simple conversation, though she frequently mispronounced words.
"Perhaps her special talent was something to do with language, and the weird triangle was a letter in their tongue? In any case, they should probably be left alone so that she can learn as much of the language as possible," Applejack thought to herself.
As such, Applejack spent most of the train ride just watching the two foreigners talk. They mostly spoke in Ponish, but they occasionally switched to their language, presumably to explain what a word means.
The train arrived at the Ponyville station. As she got off of the train, Applejack noticed that Granny Smith and Big Mac were there to meet her.
"Ready to get back to work, Applejack?" Granny Smith asked.
"Not quite. While Ah was in Appleloosa, Ah met two ponies who have come a mighty long way to talk to the princesses, so Ah figured that Ah could at least introduce them to Twilight," Applejack replied.
Saber, with a confused look on his face, started to say something, but was interrupted by Josephine saying something in their language. Saber seemed to understand, but quickly became confused again, asking Josephine a question in the same language. Josephine thought for a moment before replying, continuing to use the foreign language. Saber seemed content with this answer. Both foreigners turned their heads back to the Apple family, where they saw both Granny Smith and Big Mac (as well as several bystanders) looking at them with an expression of confusion and shock.
After a brief silence, Granny Smith said what the stunned ponies were all thinking. "What in tarnation was that?"
"Ah've heard them talk in that language before. Ah think it is their native language. Ah told you they came from far away," Applejack replied.
"Well, Ah would definitely take them to Twilight, even if she wasn't a princess," Granny Smith stated.
"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed.
Twilight and Starlight were in the library of Twilight's castle, working on paperwork (with Spike assisting where he could) when somepony knocked on the front door.
"I'll get it!" Spike exclaimed, eager to be free of the boredom that is paperwork.
When Spike opened the door, he found Applejack and two ponies that he did not recognize waiting there.
"Howdy, Spike! Is Twilight around? These two have come a mighty long way to speak with the princesses," Applejack said.
"Twilight is working on paperwork with Starlight in the castle library. You three can wait in the main hall while go get her," Spike replied, wary of the mysterious foreigners.
Applejack started to follow Spike before noticing how low the sun was in the sky. "Sorry, sugahcubes, but Ah have to get back to mah farm now. You two think you can handle this on your own?"
"Of course we can handle this. We were hoof-picked for this task, and our superiors did not plan on us encountering somepony as helpful as you have been, Applejack," Josephine replied kindly.
Saber gave Josephine a questioning look, but did not say anything.
"Well, alright then. See y'all later," Applejack said, turning and trotting off towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Saber and Josephine watched her leave for a moment, then turned and followed Spike to the main hall.
Once all three of them had reached the main hall, Spike told Saber and Josephine to wait there.
As they waited for Spike to return with Twilight, Saber began analyzing the data that he had collected, while Josephine took a meditative pose and allowed her mind to wander elsewhere.
Both ponies were interrupted sooner than they had anticipated when a purple, winged unicorn wearing a golden tiara entered the room.
"Greetings and welcome! I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. I hear that you have come a very long way to talk to the rulers of this land. Who are you and what do you seek?" the purple pony princess said, obviously trying (with questionable success) to sound regal and formal.
"Agent Josephine Herrero, Foundation Mobile Task Force Alpha-Nine," Josephine replied.
"Saber, Foundation Artificial Intelligence Applications Division," Saber stated flatly.
"As for why we are here: well, the short version is that the land that we come from is in terrible danger, and our superiors believe that Equestria can help us," Josephine added.
Before Twilight could reply, Spike whispered something in her ear.
"Would either of you like some tea?" Twilight asked, her expression making it clear that she was mentally kicking herself for forgetting such basic courtesy.
"I would love some tea," Josephine responded.
Saber thought for a moment. "Tea would be fine."
"Great! Please follow me to the dining room. Spike, could you make the tea?" Twilight said.
"Of course, Twilight!" Spike said, running off to do just that.
As the three ponies walked to the dining room, Saber spoke. "I have never even heard of a real winged unicorn."
"Well, alicorns are pretty rare," Twilight replied.
"Interesting. Where we come from, the word 'alicorn' refers to a unicorn horn, frequently separate from the rest of the body," Saber thought aloud.
Twilight stopped walking and looked at Saber, horrified. "Why would anypony do such a thing!?"
"First of all, historically, most 'unicorn horns' were actually narwhal tusks. Second of all, many magical properties have been ascribed to unicorn horns, some of which are actually true. Third of all, unicorns can regrow their horn, at least where we come from," Saber said.
"But still, isn't there another way? Maybe have the unicorns cast a spell to the same effect?" Twilight said, almost pleading.
"As far as I am aware, there is no known method of communicating with the unicorns. And besides, judging by the actions of the unicorns, they can't do anything to achieve the same effects that the horn can. There have been attempts to artificially create the same effects, but none have been successful so far, though not for lack of trying," Saber replied.
"Maybe I can talk to them and find a solution!" Twilight suggested, clearly desperate to find a better solution.
"The organisation that we work for does not have any unicorns, and... does not have the best relationship with the ones that do. Almost everything we know about unicorns comes from some documents we... collected from one such organisation," Saber replied.
Twilight's expression became even more horrified, but before she could say anything, Josephine decided to change the topic. "Sorry about my associate's actions. He does not have much experience in social situations. So, Twilight, what were you doing when we came?"
Twilight froze for a moment as her mind struggled to change gears from the horror that they had been talking about to the mundane question that Josephine asked. "Uhh..." Twilight's brain finally resumed working "... I was working on paperwork. I am both a princess and the principal of the School of Friendship, and both of those generate a lot of paperwork."
"Are the people living in this land so hostile that they need to be taught how to make friends?" Saber asked, his voice and expression showing genuine curiosity rather than scorn.
"No, no! Of course not! My school is just to teach the students how to be better friends," Twilight replied.
"Sorry to interrupt, but weren't we going to the dining room?" Josephine remarked.
"Oh... Uh.. Yes," Twilight replied, embarrassed, before turning and leading the others to the dining room. Shortly after the three of them got seated, Spike entered the room with freshly-made tea. Twilight used her magic to grab a cup, and Josephine followed suit.
"Thanks, Spike," Twilight said.
"No problem, Twilight," Spike replied, walking over to Saber to allow him to grab a cup of tea before sitting down himself.
"Anyways, Applejack said that you came to see the princesses?" Twilight inquired.
"Yes, though we would prefer to discuss it with all of the princesses, not just one," Josephine answered.
"How did you figure out that there are multiple princesses?" Spike asked, somewhat surprised.
"You mean besides the fact that both Applejack and Twilight referred to them in plural terms?" Saber replied, deadpan.
"Getting back on topic, the short version of why we were sent here is that the land that we come from is in great danger, and our superiors wish to relocate some of that danger here," Josephine said.
"'Great danger?' How great of a danger are you talking about?" Twilight inquired.
Saber and Josephine talked for a moment in a language that Twilight did not recognize, before Saber decided to tell the truth. "The wrong person making a single mistake at the wrong time could cause the end of the world as we know it; though, due to the distances involved, Equestria would almost certainly remain unaffected."
Twilight was unsure about how to respond to that statement, so she decided to ask a question about the strange language. "That language that you were both talking in. Is it..."
"Yes, Twilight," Josephine interrupted, "that was our native language."
"Wow! I've never heard any language like that! You must come from very far away to have a language that is linguistically unrelated to any that exist in or near Equestria! Just imagine how much our societies could learn from each other!" Twilight exclaimed, obviously excited about the discovery.
"We could teach you at least some of our language..." Josephine offered, "... after we meet with all of the Princesses and hopefully get what we came here for."
"I'll write a letter to Princess Celestia to get that set up," Twilight said, disappointed about the delay. "In the meantime, you can stay in my castle."
"In that case, there is something that you should know about our culture. In our culture, when you enter somepony else's room, knock first. If you want to be polite, or you think that they are asleep, knock and wait for them to say you can enter before entering. I think that's everything that you need to know about our culture for now, though I'm sure we can share more between now and the meeting," Josephine said.
"Oh... um... okay. Why is that such a big deal?" Spike asked.
"Spike!" Twilight hissed, obviously worried about offending the two foreigners.
"No, no. It's fine," Josephine laughed. "But to answer your question, Spike, well... let's just say that our culture is more concerned about privacy than yours seems to be."
Just then, one of the room's doors opened and Starlight entered the room. "Spike mentioned 'important guests', but there wasn't anything about that on the calendar, so... who are they?"
"Saber, Josephine," Twilight said, "this is Starlight Glimmer, a friend and former student of mine, as well as the guidance counselor of my School of Friendship.
"Starlight, this is Josephine," Twilight continued, "and this is Saber. They have come a very long way because the land they come from is in great danger, and they think that Equestria can help."
"Oh, okay. Well, what is your land in danger from?" Starlight asked.
"Anomalies. The Foundation currently has approximately 4,000 SCP-level anomalies in containment, as well as tens of thousands of lesser anomalies. Analyses have shown that approximately 5-10% of known SCP-level anomalies could end the world as we know it, with one analysis putting the fraction as high as 95%, though most required very specific circumstances. A meta-analysis of those analyses revealed that approximately 150 anomalies appeared in almost every list of potential world-enders," Saber replied.
Twilight, Starlight, and Spike all had their mouths wide open in shock by the time Saber finished talking.
"How is Equestria supposed to help with a problem like that!?" Starlight exclaimed.
"As I mentioned before, Equestria is far enough away that a containment breach of one of the world-enders in our land would have little or no effect on Equestria, and vice-versa," Saber answered.
"But you said that that would destroy the world," Spike objected.
"No. I said that it would end the world as WE know it, and WE did not know Equestria even existed until recently," Saber replied.
"You must come from very far away, then," Starlight said.
"What do you mean?" Saber asked.
"Equestria is the largest nation that we know of, so it is known far and wide," Starlight explained.
"How large is Equestria?" Josephine inquired.
"About a million square kilometers, with a population of around fifty million ponies," Twilight responded.
Saber snorted, but decided not to say anything.
"Well, today has been a long day. I think that we would both appreciate being shown our rooms. Besides, we wouldn't want to get in the way of working on exciting paperwork," Josephine said with a wry smile.
"In that case, follow me to your rooms," Spike said, hopping off of his chair and walking out of the room. Saber and Josephine follow behind him.
"Well, I guess we should get back to paperwork," Twilight said with a sigh.
"Don't remind me," Starlight replied.
"Well, here are your rooms, sir and madam," Spike said, bowing while using his arm to gesture to two of the castle's guest rooms. Saber entered one of the rooms and closed the door behind him without commenting.
"Again, sorry for my associate's actions. He is inexperienced in social situations," Josephine said.
"Again? What do you mean 'again'?" Spike replied, confused.
"Oh, right. You weren't there the first time. Silly me. Well, in any case, see you in the morning, and thank you for what you have done today," Josephine said, giving Spike a large sapphire before entering the other guest room and closing the door behind her.
"Wait..." Spike said to himself. "She didn't have any saddlebags... so where was she keeping the sapphire? And how did she know that sapphires are my favorite? Well, in any case, it looks like I'll have to wait until morning to figure it out."
Spike decided not to worry about it until morning, so he started walking to the library, happily licking his new sapphire.
In her room, Josephine raised her hoof to her near-invisible earpiece. "Saber, do you copy?"
"Yes. Anything new?"
"Something feels a bit... off about this place. Not in a bad way, just in a weird way. I just can't quite place it..."
"I have noticed that the inside of this castle is non-standard. Several of the hallways and rooms that we passed should have intersected, but didn't, the interior of the castle is larger than the exterior, and the position of my room's window on the outside of the castle is inconsistent with the path that we took to get here."
"That would be it. Now that I know what it is, I can filter it's effects out, and there don't seem to be any more significant anomalies around here, other than the 'magic' that everybody seems to have. You got anything on that?"
"Yes. All observed animal life, including the ponies, have shown up as Type Blues on my VERITAS system. No other classifications have been detected, other than a pink Earth Pony who showed up as both a Type Blue and a low-level Type Green, and yourself, or course. Though she did seem to have three barely-distinguishable souls, though that might just be how her soul looks."
"Now, don't go all GOC on me now," Josephine replied in a playful tone.
"Anything else you want to say?"
"Nothing that can't wait until the report."
With that, Saber ceased communication for the night.