Under Free Flag

by twillale

Chapter 2

“Spike! Is the picnic basket ready yet?”

A tiny, yawning dragon stomps down the staircase of the library, carrying a tripod-mounted telescope the size of himself slung over one shoulder.

“It’s been ready for the last two hours, Twilight. We just need to grab the perishables out of the icebox.”

Twilight’s head peeks out of the kitchen door, horn aglow with a soft magenta aura as food flits around the air of the room behind her, conducting an orderly march to a large, woven basket on the wooden table.

“And are you sure that everything is in there as planned?”

Reaching the bottom floor, the dragon leans the white tube against the wall and shuffles into the kitchen, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, we went over the checklist before my nap. And double-checked it. And triple-checked it. It’s all there.”

“And did you bring the—”

“It’s outside the door.”

“And have you got the—”

“Twilight!”

Spike glares at his adoptive sister, parent and caretaker with the kind of supreme annoyance as only one who has just been awakened from a pleasant sleep can muster. She finishes packing the basket resting on the table and chuckles, rubbing the head of her little companion with a hoof.

“Sorry, Spike. I’m sure you have it all under control.”

“Of course, I’m your number one assistant for a reason.”

Climbing onto a chair, he securely tucks a checkered red-and-white cloth over the contents of the container, grabs the handle in a clawed hand and clambers onto the waiting back of the nearby unicorn, now occupied with ticking off the final checkboxes of a long, partially rolled-up list.

Trotting out of the kitchen, the telescope floating after her, Twilight exits the large tree housing the Ponyville library with a happy spring in her step.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah. I won’t fail this year!”

The small dragon shakes his balled fist towards the darkening sky, his vow almost costing him his balance. Twilight chuckles at his bravado as he regains his grip of her purple-and-pink mane.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to stay awake for the whole thing this year.”

“I sure hope so, I’m afraid Rarity will see me as a baby forever if I can’t even stay awake a whole night,” the passenger of the pair grumbles, eliciting another smile from Twilight.

“Hey Twilight? What’s so special about this eclipse, now? Doesn’t princess Luna do them pretty much every second year or something?” he asks after a while.

Delighted about a chance to share knowledge, Twilight launches into an excited explanation, pace quickly increasing as she gets into her spiel in earnest.

“Oh, Spike, it’s not the same! We’ve never had a full lunar eclipse in the Equestrian lunar cycle, or, well, at least not since the banishment of Nightmare Moon! Princess Luna has always been particular about the moon’s brightness providing enough illumination for those ponies who are out and about at night, especially after she learned how much activity there is after daylight hours now. But tonight she will obscure the moon entirely!”

“Huh. So we’re going out to watch the moon disappear? Seems a little silly,” Spike exclaims with a puzzled look, earning another good-natured giggle.

“There’s more to it than that, Spike. First of all, we get to witness the eclipse in stages instead of as a pre-set configuration at moonrise; secondly, Cadence tipped me off that Luna intends to do something extra special involving a meteor shower; and third—”

“Hang on, I thought the meteor shower was some kind of once-in-a-century thing?”

“Yes, proper ones are. This is a smaller and artificial. As I understand it, it’s orchestrated by princess Luna herself, purposefully breaking a bunch of small asteroids into pieces and letting them fall into the atmosphere. But as I was saying,” she quickly preempts the already forming interruption, “the third and final reason is that it’s an excellent chance to take a break and spend some time with our friends. Not that we should need a reason for that,” she finishes with a smile. Spike, apparently having exhausted his interest in the subject of celestial engineering, rides on without further questions about the topic.
The rest of the short trip is spent bantering about trivial topics and enjoying the refreshing night breeze.

“Howdy there, Spike ‘n’ Twilight! Mighty beautiful night, Ah gotta say.”

“Hi, Applejack! Hi Applebloom and Big Mac! Yes, isn’t it? We were just setting done setting everything up. Did Granny Smith stay at home this year?”

“Eyup, said she’d not expose her bad hip ta these night winds for no moon,” the orange cowpony chuckles as she shrugs out her saddlebags. As the two groups begin to unpack and set up whatever food and equipment they’ve brought to the little hilltop, merrily chatting away, other familiar faces arrive one by one, their voices and laughter carrying far in the crisp air.

“Cutie mark crusader nightwatchmares, go!”

“Darling, that pie looks absolutely wonderful! Would you be willing to share a piece in exchange for some merengue, perhaps?”

“Cupcakes for everypony! This is the beeeestest batch of cupcakes I have baked since, well I don’t know since when, maybe not ever! Maybe these are the best cupcakes ever and wouldn’t that be so cool—”

“It is gettin’ mighty cold out here, how about a nice cup of warm cider, everypony?”

“I didn’t know you could drink it warm.”

“Of course ya can, we do it all through winter at the farm!”

“Um, I’d like some, please, if that’s okay...”

“Sweetie Belle! Don’t you even think of touching that telescope!”

“Would you like some—”

“—and I told her, well I am the fastest—”

“—be delighted to! But only if you’ll come model for my latest creation...”

“...it’ll start with the so-called penumbral eclipse, where the moon is only partially covered by the shadow of the planet.”

“It’s nice, isn’t it... a little cold, though.”

“Would you like to borrow a sweater? I have an extra one somewhere around here—”

…and I am so tired and just want to lay down in the grass and let the light summer drizzle cool me from ears to tail after a long hard day at the office where the papers come in and go out and come in and go out and come in again today, today that is the day of the eclipse, she thinks as she effortlessly slips into a dream and into the next, allowing the half-formed images and torrents of emotion pass her by like thick mists. They evade her as if she would be the only solid thing in an otherwise liquid universe; not a bad comparison, all things considered. Luna titters to herself as she lets the stream carry her through her nighttime realm... and onto the train where a l l the hopes and dreams of an entire village travel stuffed into a burlap sack on my back which is aching but then I might n e v e r have taken to music is wafting from somewhere and it’s a beautiful melody and more of a symphony really except for that one flute which seems to be a little off it’s almost s c r e a m i n g s c r e a m i n g s c r e a m i n g like the beeping of the fucking proximity alarm and, and—Luna suddenly looks back, turning her head as if listening to a sound she can’t quite place, such a prominent jarring note of fear and hatred a thing she hasn’t felt in her tranquil realm for a long time. A raw disharmony, muffled as if from far away, but unmistakable in content: the wail of a large collective of terrified minds. An alien presence, the machinations of those strange, tortured minds like a black stain on the swirling, bright colours... and like that the thread is gone, the sharp shards of emotion lost in the gently surging sea of hues and chords, memories of taste and electric anticipations of touch; she waits for a long time, now immobile and shapeless, floating in a languid vortex of a filly’s bubbling laughter, before decisively turning and floating away, dark thoughts worriedly orbiting her like ghostly afterimages after staring for too long into the sun. For now, the moon is more important.

“That was... really awesome!”

“Princess Luna really put down effort into this one.”

“Mm-h.”

“Any of y’all want some more cider?”

“Oh, that would be wonderful! I say we simply must do this again sometime!”

“I’m sure I could ask princess Celestia in a letter, if—agh!”

The lavender unicorn suddenly winces as pain stings her forehead.

“Twilight! What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. It feels like... something’s not right. It’s like a spell gone wrong, but who... and where?”

“Twilight, dear, are you sure you aren’t just coming down with someth—ah! Oh dear.”

“Did you feel it, too? I think it came from... around there?”

“Everfree forest?”

“Yeah, but far in. Somewhere in the direction of Froggy Bottom Bog, if not further.”

“Is it something evil? I’ll fly over there and kick its tail into the curb!”

Rainbow’s effort to transition from shadow boxing to flight are hampered by Applejack’s teeth around her tail, to the pegasus’ obvious annoyance.

“Now don’t go doin’ anythin’ hasty, y’hear, Dash? Can’t darn well go rushin’ headlong into danger.”

“I’m not afraid of danger! Danger’s my—ooh, what the hay? Is anyone else feeling that?”

First, there is no sound.

The only heralds of the world changing are a string of bright, white lights seemingly sliding out of thin air to harshly illuminate the sleeping Everfree forest as well as surrounding hills and mountains. Some seconds later a lazy rumbling, like very distant thunder, rolls over the landscape, followed by the sound of wind tearing close around the corners of a creaking cottage.

The stargazing group on the hill stares in uncomprehending silence at the dark shape in the night, sharp shadows dancing across its elongated, knife-shaped body. A ceramic cup falls to the grass from a distracted hoof. Behind the strange apparition, the final stragglers of the meteor shower streak across the thin sliver of the slowly growing moon.

The giant scale of the alien object becomes readily apparent as it closes to the ground, trees and smaller hills appearing like tiny models in the bright glow of artificial sunlight. Ponderously banking to the side, the distant silhouette roars loudly a final time before it rapidly descends out of sight. For a heartbeat, the ground trembles.

A gigantic cloud of brown dust and black smoke billows into the sky, the thick, tree-shaped pillar briefly illuminated from within by flickering white light before even that goes out as abruptly as it has begun. Only the soft rays of the moon are left to weakly outline the surreal scene.

The first ones to recover their wits are the three fillies, more excited than worried about the spectacle.

“Sis, wha’ was that?”

“Ah don’t know, sugarcube, but Ah ain’t too sure it’s something good.”

“Was it some kind of monster?”

“I don’t know, Sweetie, but I most certainly hope not.”

“Twilight, should we maybe send a letter to the—”

With a sudden intake of breath, the small dragon belches loudly, and a scroll of dark blue parchment materialises from a cloud of green fire. The message quickly floats over to Twilight, who proceeds to open it and rush through the contents with a puzzled frown.

“Well, what’s the princess saying?”

“It’s from princess Luna,” answers the unicorn, “...and it only says this:”

The open scroll turns to the other assembled ponies and levitates forward so that they can all gather in to read the message.

Twilight Sparkle,

Gather the Elements, and make haste to assure that nopony in the area can close in on the object that has landed in the Everfree forest. We cannot stress this point enough.
The Royal Guard has been dispatched. Celestia has been informed.

Await further instruction.

Princess Luna

“Well that’s... short. And boring,” notes Rainbow Dash, lazily hovering in the air.

“What if there are ponies in there?”

“Girls! If princess Luna thinks it’s dangerous enough to set out the Royal Guard as well as gathering the Elements of Harmony, it’s something fairly serious! It’s not a responsibility to be taken lightly!”

“Twilight is quite right, Rainbow. Like Applejack said: we can’t go into action without proper preparation.”

“Aw, horseapples. Girls? Ah don’t think we were the only ones to hear that big ruckus.”

The hilltop offers an excellent view over Ponyville, now coming alive with lights as windows and doors open to admit the heads of sleepy ponies peering out into the night, some of them shouting questions to their neighbours or pointing at the great moonlit cloud rising on the horizon from the air or upper-story windows.

“Oh, no! This is exactly what princess Luna told us not to let happen! Rainbow Dash!”

“Whoa, calm down! What is it, Twilight?”

“Get down there and ground all the pegasi as fast as you can. I’m sure you can do it fast enough to stop anyone from getting too curious about the Everfree?”

“You bet your flank I can! Watch this!”

Leaving only a strikingly coloured afterimage, the rainbow-maned pegasus blasts off into the waking village. Whirling on her remaining friends, Twilight begins organising with the confidence of purpose.

“Fluttershy, find the Mayor and relay the princess’ orders to her: nopony is to enter the Everfree before the Guard has gotten the situation under control.”

“I’ll do my best, Twilight,” the pegasus offers meekly before flapping away in the wake of her high-speed friend, though at a much more reserved pace.

“Frankly, dear, I don’t think anypony would willingly venture into that dreadful forest at night, anyway.”

“Right, but it’s still better to cover all potential trouble spots before morning. Rarity and Pinkie, do you think you could go from house to house and calm the earthbound ponies so we don’t get any panic, I’m sure Rainbow has her hands full with the flying inhabitants, already.”

“But of course. Sweetie Belle, you stay here with Twilight, and no troublemaking, all right?”

“Got it, sis.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie, Twilight! I think what they need to distract them is a—”

“No parties, Pinkie, just... calm them down. Most ponies in Ponyville were asleep when this happened.”

“Then we’ll have it in the morning instead! Isn’t that a brilliant idea! We can have a breakfast party and eat pancakes and jam and muffins and...”

Rarity throws Twilight a final, exasperated glance over her shoulder as she trots away after the bouncing Pinkie, still listing breakfast ingredients while receding into the distance. Both Twilight and Sweetie Belle giggle behind their hooves at the displeasured scowl, before turning back to the remaining members of the group.

“Ah’d love to help, Twi, but Ah’m a mite worried about Granny, being all alone at the farm an’all,” Applejack begins, before being interrupted by a large, red hoof against her side. Big Macintosh nods seriously at her sister before gently nudging her in Twilight’s direction.

“Ya’ll go?”

“Eeyup.”

“Well, thank ya kindly, Big Mac. Please make sure that everythin’s all right back at the farm, will ya?”

With a curt nod, the large stallion rounds up the trio of fillies now excitedly huddled together on the hill, presenting increasingly wilder ideas on the origins of the strange interlopers. The rather loud discussion is interrupted by the eldest of the Apple siblings, and quickly replaced with loud pleading.

“Why can’t we stay here, we want to help when Twilight gets more information from the princess!”

“Yeah! Please, big brother!”

“Ee-nope.”

“Aww,” the dejected Crusaders pout as they start ambling back towards the dark orchards of Sweet Apple Acres under the watchful eye of Big Mac, disappointment soon forgotten in the heat of a new argument mainly centered on whether the newly appeared entity is in fact an artifact of a civilisation of time-travelling ponies from the future or insectoid visitors from a parallel dimension.

“But if they’re time travellers, why haven’t we seen any before now?”

“Duh, because they’ve been travelling even further back to stop the other travellers from appearing.”

“That’s stupid!”

“Is not, it’s totally explained in Daring Do and the Desert of Time!”

“It’s still dumb.”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is...”

The lavender unicorn turns to her earth pony friend as the shrill voices disappear into the night.

“All right! Applejack, you can help me draft contingency evacuation plans for Ponyville and—”

“Whoa, slow down there, sugarcube. No need to get all panicky right off the bat.”

“But what if there’s an emergency going on! Or brewing! We have to be prepared for every risk!”

The orange cowpony places a calming hoof on the shoulder of the fidgeting unicorn.

“Listen, Twi, we don’t know what’s goin’ on yet, and the princesses’ have the situation in hoof. There’s really nothing much we can do, and getting all worked up about is just buckin’ an empty orchard.”

Closing her eyes, Twilight takes a deep breath before exhaling slowly.

“Okay. You’re right. No point getting into a panic. Let’s go back to the library, put on some tea and wait for the others.”

“Now, that’s more like it.”

“Um, ladies, I hate to be the one to say this but... should we maybe clean up here first?”

Turning to survey the abandoned hill littered with picnic baskets, blankets and empty cups, both remaining ponies groan in unison before gingerly getting to work with collecting the scraps of almost a dozen stargazers’ late-night dinners.

The arrival of the second letter happily coincides with the return of Rarity and Pinkie, the pegasi having finished their respective missions some time before. All present ponies settle down around the central table of the library. This time, the stationery is cream coloured, and stamped with a seal bearing a stylized sun.

After unrolling the scroll and glancing through the first paragraph, Twilight harks her throat and begins reading the letter out loud, unwittingly mimicking the familiar cadence and speech patterns of the author.

To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, and my loyal subjects Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie:

I’m sure both you as well as your friends and neighbours are wondering what is going on, as I understand Luna’s first letter was quite curt. I am sorry for not taking an earlier time to inform you properly, but things have been quite hectic in Canterlot during the past few hours. The Council is, frankly speaking, in an uproar, and many nobles are advocating direct military action. Imagine that, if you will. Offensive military action, an abomination we have done well without for hundreds of years in our peaceful Equestria!

I’m sorry about that outburst, but sometimes I fear that the noble families with most hand in the running of our lands don’t always appreciate the weight of such rash decisions.

But let us not dwell on such grim matters. The situation, in short, is as follows. A group of creatures, in possession of or with access to great magical resources have entered Equestria through Luna’s domains.

The sentence seems to startle Twilight, who breaks off her reading in an excited outburst.

“Through Luna’s domains? That’s amazing! I thought the resistivity of dreamspace delimiters were theoretically impossible to overcome with raw power alone!”

A brief silence follows, as the lavender unicorn stares into nothingness, her brow furrowed in contemplation and her mouth silently moving. Finally the cyan pegasus hovering near the ceiling coughs very loudly.

“And in non-egghead speech that means...?”

“In ‘non-egghead’ speech, Rainbow, it means that it’s very, very hard to do right, especially for an object the size of that... thing we saw earlier.”

“Well, why didn’t you just say so straight away? What else does it say?”

“I’m getting there, hang on.”

Why they did this, we are not certain, but Luna assures me that they did so under great duress, and possibly in desperation. If this is true (and I have no reason to doubt Luna’s considerable knowledge within her own field) these creatures, what- and whomever they may be, might simply be looking for refuge from some unknown evil. If this is the case, it is my firm conviction that we are to meet them with open hearts and minds.

To this end, I would like you and your friends, in the role of the Elements of Harmony, to be the ones to try and communicate with these visitors. Luna will most likely be able to arrive within a few days to assist you, but the faster you can establish a dialogue with our guests, the better we can prevent any terrible misunderstandings from occurring. Still, please wait until morning, Twilight. I know you can be a bit excitable at times of virgin discovery, and I wouldn’t ask (or want) of you to go into the unknown without being well-rested and alert.

The final line of the paragraph brings a round of chuckles from the other assembled ponies.

“Seems she does know you pretty, well, Twilight!”

“Right, moving on,” the unicorn in question quickly mumbles with a slight blush on her cheeks.

To assuage the fears of the nobles, as well as to prevent anypony from unwittingly stumbling upon the newcomers, Luna and I have deemed it prudent to place a Royal Guard cordon around the area where the visitors have landed. It is well within the Everfree forest, in the general area of the large bog there. Tomorrow you can meet up with the commander on scene, a certain unicorn captain named Diamond Hoof. I will attach to this letter a separate writ under which you will be allowed to enter the cordon.

The best of luck.

Your Teacher,
Princess Celestia

There is another thoughtful silence in the library as Twilight rolls away the letter.

“Well, that’s a lot to think about,” offers Rarity after a while.

“Oh, I do hope they’re nice ponies...”

“We don’t even know if they are ponies, Fluttershy.”

“Oh, well... I hope they’re nice... aliens...”

“Aliens? Oh hay yeah! Or maybe they’re time travelling ponies, like in Daring Do and— wait, does anyone else hear that?”

Five pairs of ears swivel curiously, looking for the source of the strange sound.

“Sounds like it’s getting louder...?”

“—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—”

Five nozzles and a small purple snout zero in on Pinkie, who is crumpled together into a tiny, shaking ball, voice rapidly descending into audible frequencies.

“Pinkie, what—”

“—eeeeeeeeeends from space?!” the pink pony suddenly explodes into the air, eyes twinkling and glittering with manic excitement, before bouncing around the room like a crazed rubber ball.

“This is so exciting I haven’t been so excited ever and not even like that one time when Twilight came to Ponyville and I told her that I had ‘never been so excited in my life’ but for real this time—”

Although initially taken aback by the sudden shift of emotional tone, the other friends in the group quickly regain their wits, jaded by daily interaction with the volatile personality of the Element of Laughter.

“I think it’s probably best if we go to sleep—”

Twilight’s sentence breaks down into nonsense syllables as Pinkie grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her vigorously.

“Sleep? Are you crazy? There’s so much to prepare! We must have food and streamers and confetti and—”

Extricating herself from her rambling pony, Twilight continues unheeding of the continuing background listing of party accessories.

“Like I was saying, best if we try to get some sleep before we get to it. It’ll take some time to get to get all the way there, and probably some more to get through the cordon, so it’d be best if we’d start as early as possible.”

She finishes her outline with a long yawn, politely covered by a raised foreleg.

“Aaaand I guess that’s my que to get some shut-eye. See you girls tomorrow morning!”

“Yeah, until tomorrow!”

“Good night, everypony!”

Exchanging farewells for the night, the group of friends trot, fly and bounce away into the night, leaving Twilight and Spike to compose a short answer to Celestia and prepare to get at least a few hours of rest.

Over the Everfree forest, the looming dust cloud slowly dissolves into the night winds.