While princess of friendship, her assistant and the researchers were having great time in the Crystal Empire, there were two peculiar meetings happening far from there. One of those meetings took place in a hidden cave on the deserted side of the Canterlot mountain, the second one was happening, in fact, right behind the researchers’ Ponyville headquarters.
Princess Celestia and princess Luna walked in the largest chamber of the cave, hidden beneath half of a mile of rock. Their horns were glowing, pouring dim lights on the chamber’s walls.
“We know that you are here already,” Celestia said. “Come out!”
Two emerald lights lit up in the dark part of a chamber.
“And I thought I’ll take you by surprise…” the lights said, and then they showed who they really were. Tall insect-like mare walked in the lights and casted a lantern spell too.
“You are alone?” Luna asked, carefully inspecting the surroundings and listening to every weak noise.
“Yes,” Chrysalis answered. “There’s only me and you.”
“Really?”
“You think I don’t know who I’m dealing with?”
“We also know who we are dealing with,” Celestia said. “You would not come unless you have some strong backup.”
Saying no words, Chysalis casted another spell, and in a moment massive ancient silver amulet appeared on her neck.
“Instant teleportation amulet?” Luna surprised.
“It wasn’t easy to come up with reliable backup without support of my drones.”
“That’s interesting, however, we came here not because of this,” Celestia said. “We are here because we have something to ask each other, right?”
“Yes…” Chrysalis hissed. “There’s something I’d want to know from you…”
“So do we,” Luna said. “However, since you are in the minority, we will allow you to ask first.”
“How fortunate!” Chrysalis made a mocking smile. “Well, if you are so kind…”
“Quit it.”
“How rude! Well, if you allow such behavior, I wouldn’t be surprised if you already know that there were some cases of intrusions in our Hive.”
“Some cases?” both princesses surprised.
“Don’t pretend that you hear it for the first time!” Chrysalis growled so that dreadful echo spread across the cave. “You know the location of the Hive! No matter how we hide it or where we move it, your secret services manage to uncover us. You have mages powerful enough to sneak in.”
“But…”
“And don’t tell me that it was someone else’s doing! Throughout the history, we have only few conflicts with dragons, griffins and other creatures, but number of conflicts between your people is in the hundreds! Other states and races do not have anything to do with us now. They don’t have reasons to attack us. And they don’t have enough power and sources to do it. It could be only you.”
“You are right, but it applies only to few elements,” Celestia said. “Yes, we are the nation you conflicted the most, and thanks to our secret services we know where your Hive is. Some agents observe your activities, but the observation is not permanent. This information is classified, so only forty ponies have access to it. Oh, and Discord knows it too.”
“This buffoon? How?”
“Don’t ask. Even after hundreds of years, you cannot tell how and where he learns about everything.”
“Right…”
“What about those intrusions you mentioned…” Luna said. “We are aware only about one case.”
“Only one?” Chrysalis looked doubting. “Which one? And when you learned about it?”
“About two weeks ago.”
“Two weeks ago? That was the second intrusion. The first one happened four and a half months ago.”
“Hmm… That was before those strange things happened to us, sister,” Luna said.
“Yes,” Celestia nodded.
“You were also affected?” chrysalis wondered.
“Yes. There were few strange incidents…” Celestia said.
“And about two weeks ago there was intrusion in the Canterlot Castle,” Luna added.
“What? You were attacked too? It can’t be!”
“We are not lying. However, I would not call this intrusion an attack. It seems that intruders had another reason to do it. But what reason – we cannot tell.”
“If there was an intrusion in your castle, then tell me how did the intruders look?”
“Why won’t you tell us first?”
“I’m not going to give you everything right away. The principle is simple: I share a piece of my information, then you share yours.”
Luna looked at Celestia.
“Tell her,” the Sun princess said.
“Okay…” the Moon princess spelled. “You said “intruders”? In Canterlot Castle there was only one. It definitely was a pony. An earth pony. He… or she? It was impossible to tell the gender since the intruder was in dark metal armor that looked like a futuristic space suit from sci-fi comics and novels.”
“Oh… What’s more?” Chrysalis said.
“The intruder appeared from a thin air right in front of me and then… It was like he or she pierced me with a huge needle, but I did not feel any pain. I immediately fainted and woke up only some minutes after. However, when it happened, the intruder vanished.”
“So… There was only one intruder, and… it attacked only you?”
“Truth be told, we are not completely sure. Luna was only one who got under attack, but…” Celestia paused. “After the same night, the castle servants barely managed to wake me and Cadance up.”
“And what’s strange about that?” Chrysalis wondered.
“It’s strange because I always wake up easily in the morning. Even if the last night was a long and intense party. It’s, well, a pleasant bonus for being the princess of the day. It has been so for years, hundreds of years. What happened back then – I have no idea. But something tells me that there was some kind of connection between those events.”
“I see.”
“And what about you, Your Majesty?” Luna asked.
“There were two intruders,” Chrysalis responded. “They were ponies, but what kind of – I cannot tell. I didn’t have a chance to have a look, and my guards cannot specify. And… They were looking like the one who attacked you, Luna.”
“What?”
“Yes. When you mentioned dark armor that look like something from a sci-fi picture… My guards described the attackers just like that. So now I understand that we have faced with the same threat.”
“… we see,” princesses uttered.
“And what about the another intrusion?” Luna asked.
“I think it’s your turn now,” Chrysalis responded.
“Comparing to the previous exchange, you shared a tiny bit of information now,” Celestia said. “You have to share more.”
“Ugh, fine!” changeling queen growled. “The first intrusion was… I don’t know how to call it, because, well, I don’t remember much about, but I definitely can tell that I wasn’t in the Hive.”
“So… abduction?” Celestia suggested.
“You know, probably it’s the best variant.”
“What happened during that abduction?”
“I don’t remember exactly. That is the thing. Like someone or something erased my memories about that entire night. I can remember only two things: first, I wasn’t in the Hive, but somewhere else. In some vast hall without walls, ceilings and distinguishable lights. Second, a dreadful creature. It looked like a hybrid between a pony and some predatory creature from Tartarus. I remember its glowing eyes and razor-sharp teeth.”
“That beast… Did it do something to you?” Celestia asked.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“From what I remember… the beast opened its mouth, and then… a sharp needle shot out from there and hit me in the neck. After this my memories are blank.”
“Jeez… That’s creepy,” Luna shuddered.
“Could it be just a bad dream?” Celetia suggested.
Instead of the answer, Chrysalis pointed at one of the bright spots on her neck.
“I wish it was so, but… The spot I’m pointing at… it wasn’t there before that night. That’s for sure.”
“Is it… a mark? A scar?”
“Maybe. Maybe… Well, I shared my piece of information, now it’s your turn. What were those strange things that happened to you after I was… left with this mark?”
“Well, in my case it isn’t something truly remarkable, but…” Luna spelled. “My main job is to guard pony’s dreams. In order to do it I have to be asleep too, but instead of ordinary ponies I always preserve memories about what I’ve seen in the dream world. But about two months ago, there was a night that hasn’t left any memories. It doesn’t feel like the memories were erased, no… It’s just blank, like there was nothing at all from the very beginning.”
“Hmm, sounds similar to my case, but not entirely. And what about you, Celestia?”
“Well, my case, in fact, is just like yours. I also remember a large hall with no walls and ceiling, but… the pony I saw in this… “dream”, kissed me.”
“What?”
“I saw how tall and quite handsome stallion kissed me. I remember the look on his face, but… the details are missing. I cannot recall them.”
“Haven’t you told me that when you look at Berg, you recall that stallion from your dream?” Luna asked her sister.
“Yes! Now when you mentioned it… that stallion’s posture seems similar to mister Berg’s.”
“Mister Berg?” Chrysalis wondered. “Who is that?”
“He is a Europonian who arrived in Equestria to find a job. He serves as princess Twilight’s guard now.”
“Her guard? Oh… Oh! Now I remember… This huge arsenic pony. He and his friends are fierce… Wait! Oh my…”
“What?”
“I’ve just realized… There’s another stallion, who serves together with him as a guard. Huge and brown. What’s his name?”
“Um, Erő, as far as I remember,” Luna said.
“Erő! Well, the beast I saw in my night vision looked similar to him. And it gives me chills…”
“Why?”
“Because this damned “guard” bit off part of my wing!”
“What? How that’s possible?” Luna exclaimed.
“Don’t tell me… You tried to attack Twilight’s Castle!”
“Yes, and before you accuse me of more things, let me say that the attack was a huge failure. Despite the numerical superiority and superiority in magic, we were beaten. Those nine ponies fought like beasts and left us no chances. We lost.”
“Well, you got what you deserve.”
“That’s an insult, Your Highness.”
“An insult?”
“Yes. However, I might forgive you, if you give me some explanations.”
“What explanations?”
“You see, there are few more things I’d like to know about. It’s not related to… let’s say, our common problem. These things are mostly rumors, but if you… know more than average being, it makes you worried.”
“Well, what do you want to ask about?” Celestia said.
“My first question I’d like to address to Luna,” Chrysalis said. “About six weeks ago my guards, who patrolled the surroundings of the Hive in the night, witnessed incredibly beautiful meteor shower. Usually I admire such events and I would praise you as a master artist, Your Highness, really, buuut… I have some astronomical knowledge, so I can tell for sure that meteor shower shouldn’t has numerous radiants, and meteors should not fly from one radiant to another. What was that, Your Highness?”
“I cannot tell since it wasn’t my work,” Luna responded.
“It wasn’t? Then… Who is responsible for this? Don’t tell me that it was something out of this world! It cannot be so!”
“I will not tell you that the reason of this was out of this world. We don’t have enough knowledge to make such conclusions. The only thing we are sure about is that it wasn’t connected to any magic manifestations caused by ponies in Equestria.”
“…you know, it sounds very suspicious.”
“Don’t think that you are the only one puzzled,” Luna said.
“Okay,” Chrysalis waved her hoof. “The second thing I’d like to ask you… There’s a rumor that dead adult dragon was found nearby the Everfree Forest borders. And he was murdered. Brutally murdered.”
“It is true,” Celestia said. “Our agents found that dragon about three month ago.”
“Really? Then how exactly this dragon was killed.”
“Investigation still continues, but we haven’t found any traces of the murderer. However, some agents working on the case start to believe that it was something… supernatural. This thing cut dragon’s scales and turned his head into a piece of bones, blood and muscles.”
Chrysalis shuddered.
“How… such thing can exist?” she muttered.
“That’s not all. Starting from five months ago, several ponies were found murdered the same or similar way,” Luna added.
“What?”
“It all started near Dodge City, then this unknown murderer started to move towards Canterlot. Where it is now, no pony knows.”
“Oh my…” queen of changelings was terrified.
“You heard what you wanted,” Celestia said. “Now we want you to give an answer to one our question.”
“…yes?” Chrysalis said after a short pause, when she was making a deep breath.
“Have any of your subjects been in the Everfree Forest four months and eleven days ago?”
“Hmm… Yes, they were,” said the queen. “However, they were there only during the daytime. They were in the Hive before the nightfall.”
“I see. Thank you. Now we can be sure that none from your Hive is involved.”
“Pardon me, but why you are asking that? Did something happened in the Forest back then?”
“Yes,” Luna said. “There was one event that resulted in formation of 900 yard wide crater.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t an explosion, but… everything showed that it was an annihilation.”
“Annihilation of such scale? It’s impossible!”
“Really?” Luna doubted. “I thought you are powerful enough.”
“In this entire world only you and Discord could do something like this.”
“Well then who was it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know…”
And so the meeting ended. Princesses and queen learned what they wanted, but they still have no exact answers. However, now they have a kind of non-aggression pact, and the reason of this was that they knew that now they all have a common enemy.
At the same time, something strange was happening in the backyard of one of Ponyville’s rental houses. There was a gust of wind, and then twenty small circles of trampled grass formed on it. The wind calmed, and in a moment five ponies appeared from a thin air right on the places where circles were. They quickly gazed around, trying to spot anything suspicious, but everything around was calm, and there were no traces of anyone.
“No pony around, sir,” Cloudbreaker reported quietly.
“Are you sure?” Hidden Path asked.
“Definitely.”
“And there’s no traps here,” Dim Silhouette added. “I don’t feel any magic or presence of living beings.”
“So… it’s safe?” Grace spelled.
“Yes.”
“Clear,” Razor Edge confirmed.
“Razor, Dim, thanks,” Hidden Path whispered. “Now let’s go.”
They moved forward to the back door. Dim Silhouette and Razor Edge scanned it for one more time. When the absence of traps was confirmed, they slowly opened the sliding door. Nothing happened. It caused a double feeling: on the one hand, it meant that they are safe now, but on the other, it was alarming. What if those strangers knew that their house will be searched so they set the traps only where it was really necessary? They couldn’t tell. Nevertheless, there was no way back now, so they stepped into the room.
At first glance, it was an ordinary living room. Modest decorations, but quite big and with enough furniture to accommodate a large group. There was some soot on the fireplace, upholstery of sofas and chairs looked worn and crumpled, and there were few spots on the table that stood in the middle of the room. All this made obvious that the room was used quite often. However, there was nothing suspicious. No strange-looking things, no traces of magic. No traps. Absolutely nothing. This circumstance puzzled officers a bit, but at the same time gave them certain assurance. In few minutes they stopped the investigation of the living rooms and moved further.
From the living room they got to the main hall. The hall was the central intersection of the whole building: there was number of doors and stairs to the second floor. The house’s architecture implied that the rooms behind those doors were the tenants’ bedrooms. After a short discussion, agents of the Second Department decide to inspect them first. In order to save time doing this, they separated: Grace, Cloudbreaker and Razor Edge went to the second floor, and Hidden Path together with Dim Silhouette remained on the first.
They managed to finish the inspection very quickly – tenants’ bedrooms were as modestly decorated as the living room, or even were pieces of pure minimalism. There wasn’t anything suspicious, because there wasn’t anything at all. Those rare items that were in the rooms were neat and tidy. No clue, no leads. However, on the other hand, such minimalism was suspicious by itself.
“There’s absolutely nothing in their rooms! Nothing!” Grace resented. “As if they knew that somepony might come to their place!”
“Yeah,” Cloudbreaked agreed with her. “They are servants in princess Twilight’s castle, it’s a job for many years. They should know it and should have settled down already!”
“You are right, this look very suspicious,” Hidden Path said. “It’s not just minimalistic décor, it looks like they just have no intention to stop here!”
“Now, when you’ve mentioned that’ sir… It looks like ponies living there have spent significant time of their lives on the road. In such circumstances ponies usually tend to use as less things as possible.”
“Yeah, right…” Razor Edge and Cloudbreaker nodded.
“Wait!” Grace raised her hoof. “If they have spent a lot of time on the road, as you say, and they have no intention to settle down as if they are here only for certain amount of time… It looks like they are on some kind of research mission!”
“What?”
“Wait! You mean… our suspects are alien research team?” Razor Edge exclaimed.
“Well, when you summarize the evidences, it looks like this!”
“Damn…”
“If they are researchers, then why they murder other creatures?” Cloudbreaker said.
“I don’t know! I have no idea what kind of experiments they want to do!”
“… we need to look further,” Hidden Path said. “We haven’t been in the kitchen yet. And there’re other rooms too.”
His subordinates agreed. They took a deep breath and went there.
The kitchen turned out to be large and modestly decorated, just like the living room. Nevertheless, all the appliances necessary to cook various kind of food were present. There were many traces on tables, which indicated that they were regularly used and cleaned. Some of the chairs left noticeable scratches on the floor. In general, it was typical kitchen of a house inhabited by a large group. It seemed that there is nothing suspicious there until the agents looked in the fridge.
“There’s fish here!” Dim Silhouette exclaimed.
“Yeah…” Razor Edge spelled. “And there’s a lot of it.”
“Um… It’s it true that Europonians sometimes consume fish and meat?” Cloudbreaker said.
“Well, yeah, but they eat it SOMETIMES,” Hidden Path emphasized. “Here a quarter of all the food is fish. It can mean only one thing: they – or some of them – eat this fish regularly.”
“Hey, what’s this?” Grace wondered.
“What?”
The pegasus mare pointed at jars filled with strange substance.
“Hmm…” Dim Silhouette hummed and came closer. She took three jars with her magic and looked at them. Then she opened the jars and inspected them closer. She sniffed the contents and…
“It’s clay,” she said with confused look on her face.
“What?” her colleagues surprised.
“I can understand fish as a meal, but clay?” Grace shuddered. “What pony in her or his sane mind would eat clay as a main dish?”
“No pony,” Cloudbreaker replied.
“These nine are definitely not from this world…” Razor Edge spelled.
Finding in the fridge were frightening and troubling. Agents of the Second Department felt the real fear for the first time since they have started the investigation of mysterious incidents in Ponyville. Nevertheless, these findings aroused greater curiosity. They opened the curtain of mystery a bit, but they didn’t give the full explanations, so they have to search for more evidences. And there were storerooms, which agents haven’t inspected yet. So they moved there without hesitating.
And they faced with something scary when they got to the very first one.
“Wait!” Dim Silhouette warned everyone. “Don’t open it!”
“What’s the matter?” her colleagues wondered.
“I sense great energy behind this door.”
“What kind of energy?” Hidden Path asked.
“I’m not entirely sure…”
“Yeah, you’re right, Dim… And it’s definitely not magic,” Razor Edge said. “Looks more like… electricity? No… something else…”
“So… you cannot define it?” Grace spelled.
“Well… yeah. However, one thing I can say for sure: the energy is focused not in the door itself, but behind it.”
“You mean, it’s safe to open it, but not enter?” Cloudbreaker summarized.
“Right.”
And thus they opened the door. What they saw inside was an ordinary storage room: rows of shelves filled with cardboard boxes, paper bags and jars. Nothing suspicious or just noticeable except for thin metal bars right behind the doorjamb. Those bars were on the floor, on the sides and on the top so that they formed a closed figure. The bottom bar was bigger than other ones.
It puzzles the agents.
“So… this is the trap?” Cloudbreaker surprised. “It doesn’t look like one.”
“Maybe so, but the energy Dim and I talked about is coming right from these bars.”
“I can’t even imagine what they could possibly do,” Grace said.
“Let’s test then,” Hidden Path spelled.
Then he took a coin from one of his jacket’s pockets. It was a common souvenir from Trottingham historical site, an imitation of old local currency made of brass. A cheap bauble, which, however, was perfect trap detector, since it was small, but pretty heavy and durable.
Hidden Path threw the coin through the door. The coin flipped for two or three times, reached the space between the bars, and then… its trajectory instantly changed. Invisible force pulled it down and pressed it into the bottom bar. Less that in a second the coin was turned into flat deformed pancake.
Dim Silhouette screamed. Cloudbreaker and Grace shuddered.
“What kind of devilry is this?” Razor Edge muttered in trembling voice.
Hidden Path wasn’t able to do anything. He looked at the coin he just threw and felt nothing but shock.
“H-how… How?” Cloudbreaker exclaimed.
“I-I’ll try to pull it back,” Razor Edge said. His broken horn glowed, he concentrated and put an effort, but… it was useless.
“I can’t move it!” he exclaimed. “It’s like this damned coin weights ten tons!”
“Gravity…” Hidden Path muttered.
“Um, what, sir?’ his subordinates asked to clarify.
“These bars generate gravitation,” he said louder. “Somehow… they create force hundreds of times stronger than the gravitation of Gaia.”
“What?”
“But creation of such gravity is practically impossible without powerful magic!” Dim Silhouette said.
“But you said that there’s no magic here!” Hidden Path said.
“Yes! Wait… You mean…”
“Exactly,” hidden Path spelled. “No civilization on this planet know how to create gravity without using magic. It is a solid proof of the fact that these nine are not from this world!”
“If it is so, then… what kind of traps we might find next?”
Hidden Path looked around.
“Here!” he pointed at another closet door. “Dim, Razor, inspect it!”
Unicorns gave a nod and performed a quick search spell for traces of magic.
“Um… No traces of magic, sir,” Dim Silhouette reported. “and no traces of any energy either.”
“Then it’s safe to open it?”
“Probably so.”
“Okay, Cloudbreaker, do it.”
Big pegasus approached the door and grabbed the doorknob with both hooves. He pulled it, but the door hasn’t moved. Like it was a fake, a part of a wall. He pulled again, now with all the strength he had, but still with no results. The door didn’t move or make a sound.
Agents of the Second Department were shocked, especially Razor Edge. He refused to believe in what he has just seen. He approached the door too and made a short inspection: he knocked on the door and on the wall near it. The sounds were different: when he knocked on the wall, the sound was more sonorous, like it usually is when knocking on something made of rock or bricks, but when he knocked on the door, the sound was no different from knocking on ordinary wooden door.
“Huh?” Grace got shocked too when Razor Edge knocked on the door. “Don’t tell me that it’s just an ordinary door!”
“But it seems so!” Cloudbreaker exclaimed. “It’s wooden and the doorknob is metal… But it just won’t open!”
“If it was just strong, Cloudbreaker would be able to move it somehow at least!” Dim Silhouette said. “But there was nothing. No moves, no sounds. There can be only two options: magic seal or a force field incorporated into the door. But I don’t feel any magic or even energy!”
“I hate to say it, sir, but… I’m scared,” Razor Edge said honestly.
“Y-you aren’t the only one,” Grace added.
“What should we do?” Cloudbreaker said.
Hidden Path didn’t response at once.
“I… I think we have seen enough,” he said eventually. “We should leave. Now. We’ll report on what we have seen here and then counter them today, when they come back from Crystal Empire.”
“What?” his subordinates exclaimed.
“Excuse me, sir, but don’t you think that countering them now is unwise?” Grace said.
“You saw what they have here. Judging by all the evidences, they have enormous power. And we have no idea what they are still hiding. As you can see, if you want to apprehend them, you need massive backup. And what if they decide to fight? There might be too many casualties. We cannot let this happen. In order to do this, we have to face them ourselves. Tell them that we know everything. We’ll may not come back alive, but… This way, they’ll be forced to leave.”
“Or they wipe out us entirely,” Razor Edge said.
“We don’t know it yet. Thus, we have to do something, and quick.”