Ponyville, Equestria.
11:45am SET
Twilight awoke to the tapping of paper on her head.
“Wake up sleepy head, you’ve got mail,”
Spike was softly tapping a scroll on Twilight’s forehead and was gently rocking her.
“And it looks important”
Spike pointed to the red seal on the scroll.
Twilight had got a system worked out for the ranking of her scrolls. Uncoloured wax means it’s a general letter, usually used when Twilight was sending things to her parents or friends. Wax with green wax signals that the letter is a personal letter and should only be opened by the person it’s addressed to. Orange wax is for personal letters meant for Princess Celestia or Luna and red was for letters of grave importance. Spike had only ever had to send one red sealed scroll, when Twilight had caused a rampage of ponies lusting for a stuffed toy. Twilight had sent a letter to Princess Luna asking her opinion on her predicament and whether she, the princess of night herself, could assist her or even just shed some light on the situation.
She had spent her night in a dark forest with four weird people as company and the pain of a thousand deaths being inflicted upon her body. She didn’t know how she did it happened but she got out of the dream. After the strange thing in her hands disappeared she woke up in her library.
Even though Twilight had seen some rather confusing things in her sleep, she felt a whole lot better. She no longer felt like there was a train going through her head and besides the slight pain in her chest, she felt fine. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she felt relatively fine. There was still someone tapping paper on her head though.
“Ok Spike I’m awake, I’m awake.”
“Perfect. I was getting bored of trying to get you awake.”
“It can’t have been that bad. How long were you trying?”
Spike looked at Twilight’s alarm clock.
“Half an hour.”
“Oh… Sorry. But I’m awake now. What’s this?”
“This?”
Spike looked at the scroll he was using as a poking stick.
“Mail, came in about 10 minutes after you sent that message to the Princess, I think it’s a reply.”
Twilight took the scroll out of Spike’s hands with her magical grasp but the magical aura around her horn and the scroll flickered and died. The scroll hit the floor. She’d just woken up from a sleep, a sleep making up for two nights missed. She was weak.
“Ah…”
Twilight rubbed her temples.
“How about some of that coffee Spike? I’m beat.”
“Sure Twilight, coming right up”
Spike jogged off and began making a fresh batch of coffee.
Twilight decided to skip the magic this time and picked the scroll off of the floor with her hooves and laid it out on her desk. A dark patch appeared on the top corner of the scroll. She’d placed it in a pool of her own drool.
“Ew, Spike!”
“Kind busy at the moment Twi, just let me finish this.”
Twilight sighed and lifted the scroll from the desk and final began reading it.
It read:
“To my dearest pupil Twilight Sparkle.
I do hope this letter reaches you as soon as possible.
I regret to inform you that my dear sister Luna has fallen rather ill, we still don’t know why but she’s fallen into a coma of sorts and wont wake, and due to this she has been unable to read the contents of your letter. I however have reviewed what you wrote and I found it most disturbing. I fear the two things may be more then coincidence. I have dispatched two of my own Royal Guard to Ponyville, they should arrive very soon and they will escort you to Canterlot. When you arrive we will explore the cause of your dreams and establish if it has any connection to Luna’s current state. I wish you a safe journey and I’m sure you will have one, Unyielding Faith and Dependable Shield are two of my most trusted Guard, their first names aren’t Unyielding and Dependable for nothing. We will speak more when you arrive in Canterlot.
~Celestia”
Twilight finished reading the letter and placed it on back on the desk.
“So, Canterlot?”
Spikes voice made Twilight jump.
“Ah! How long have you been standing there?”
“Since you started reading, I came to bring you your coffee and I thought it would be rude to shove it in your face again.”
“It’s even ruder to read other people’s mail! I think it might even be illegal!”
Twilight was annoyed. She had asked Spike to send her previous letter but she had not permitted him to read it. Even though he probably knew everything she had written she didn’t want to look insane to her assistant.
“Don’t worry Twilight, it’ll be fine. I’ll keep the library in check while you’re gone” Spike assured.
“That wasn’t my biggest concern Mr.Eavesdropper”
“And I won’t go telling people about what I read either. How mean do you think I am Twilight?” The little dragon showed clear offence. He didn’t like what Twilight was suggesting, even if it is a perfectly valid concern, she should have more faith in him. Spike couldn’t wait to meet this “Unyielding Faith” guy; he sounded like he could teach Twilight a little something about faith.
“I was merely concerned Spike, I meant no offence. I just don’t want anyone knowing about this.”
“But what about the girls, weren’t you going somewhere with them today, spa or something?
“Oh shoot”
Twilight had forgotten she had planned to go to the spa with the rest of the girls. She’d have to tell them where she was going, it would seem strange if she just cancelled, it wasn’t like her.
“Oh well, five ponies thinking I’m crazy is better than five that think I’m losing interest in them”
“So you’re going to tell them about what’s happened?” Spike asked
“I suppose so.”
“How are you going to do that Twilight?”
“Still working on that part”
Ponyville Market, Equestria.
01:05pm SET
“So lemme get this straight, you’re ditching us to go get your head looked at by Celestia to check if this dream of a different uni-thingy where creatures that aren’t ponies fight with each other every day any you’re in the body of some weird metal thing doing all the killing that you’ve had has any connection to Luna mysteriously falling into a coma? Did anyone else here hear some unbelievable stuff?”
Rainbow Dash hovered above the group of mares, arms outstretched with a confused look on her face.
“I’m in on that. This sounds a might too strange for me” Applejack agreed
“Sorry dear, it’s… It’s unbelievable” Rarity also agreed
“It’s major crazy! Like, super amazing crazy! Like really super amazingly awesomely crazy! Like-“ Pinkie Pie trailed off saying longer and longer lists of how crazy all of this was and after a long chain of random babble finished with
“But really, this is crazy, and that’s me saying that”
“Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked
“I uh… Erm… I think it’s an itty bit less that believable”.
“We all agree then. Twilight, this is really crazy.”
Twilight had decided that she’d just tell her friends everything exactly how it was. Don’t sugar coat anything, don’t skimp on the details, just tell them. She explained everything, the “Grenade”, the outpost, the people, the blood, the forest, the four people who attacked her and the explosion. Obviously that had been a foolish way to approach this. They thought what she was saying was crazy, her best friends. Well, Twilight could hardly blame them, imagine how it must sound, someone just coming up to you and saying that they can’t come and relax with you and then give a very strange reason for not being able to. But these were supposed to be her best friends, one of them was even the element of loyalty, and yet they just couldn’t believe her.
“So, I’m crazy am I?”
“Uh… I didn’t say that Twilight. I’m just finding what you said pretty hard to believe.”
“And the rest of you?”
They all said they agreed with Rainbow Dash.
“Well I’m sorry, it’s what’s happening, I can’t stop it. The two Royal Guard ponies are already on their way. They’ll be here soon to escort me to Canterlot.”
“The Royal Guard??” Everyone asked
“Indeed, “ Twilight began
“And they’ll be coming into Ponyville. These aren’t just your average Guards; they’re Celestia’s most trusted, the elite. This is very serious stuff girls, so serious it called for Royal Guard escort. Does that give you any more reason to believe me?”
“Now when ya’ll say “Royal Guard” do ya’ll mean the full deal? All the shinin’ armour and pointy sword thin’s?” Applejack asked
“Yes, the full deal” Twilight responded
“Wow, the Royal Guard! That serious huh?” Rainbow Dash also asked
“Yes, the Royal Guard. It is deadly serious girls and I need support!”
“I suppose we can do that for ya” Applejack said as she put an arm around Twilight.
“Yea Twilight, we’re here for ya!” Rainbow Dash added
“I was never against you darling, you knew that.” Rarity also added
“Oh my gosh! Royal Guard! That means I can throw a party! It’ll be a welcome party but also a farewell party! Two in one! This will be amazing! I’ve got to go girls, planning to do!”
Pinkie Pie bounced off to prepare her insane double party.
“Hopefully she won’t scare the Guard Ponies off” Twilight laughed
Everyone else joined in
Pinkie Pie bounced merrily down the street, singing a tune to herself as she went. It wasn’t a very interesting tune, just the word “La” turned into a song, but it made her happy.
“Oh boy, I wonder what I should have at the party. Obviously something Royal and something that guards. Ah! Gems are kinda royal and a guard rail guards! Perfect!”
Pinkie mulled over the contents of her strange party as she bounced.
“Maybe I need to put something secret because they’re so secretive? Oh! Maybe something for Nightmare Night! No, that will probably be cancelled… Secrets then!”
Pinkie was, usually, incredibly hyper-active but when she had an idea she went into a mode of normalness. She still bounced around as if gravity didn’t affect her and if interrupted would explode with a burst of energy and go rather insane, but she was normal. At least her speech has some order to it.
“Hm… But it is Nightmare Night… I will need something super awesome for it won- *Gasp* What is THAT!”
Pinkie ran up to the very dangerous ball of sparking blue energy that had appeared in the middle of the street, the ball that most ponies had backed away from.
“It’s so beautiful…”
Pinkie tried to touch it.
“Ow!”
She got shocked by a bolt of electricity that shot from the ball.
“Hmph. Mean!”
“Get away from it you silly girl!” A pony standing near her yelled
“Oh don’t worry! I know what I’m doing!”
At that instant, the ball expanded and took a form.
The light grew brighter and brighter until it was painful to look at.
“Ohhhhh, pretty! I’ll need to get one of these for the par-“
A sound a thousand times louder than the crack of thunder echoed from the light, and a wave of energy blasted out from it shattering more than a few windows.
“Oh…” Pinkie breathed.
“Someone new!”
Pinkie began to bounce up and down in excitement.
“Hey there! I don’t know who you are or where you came from but you look AWESOME! You look like some weird robot! Are you?! Do robots have names?! Someone should throw you a welcome party! *Gasp* I’ll throw you one! It’ll be just awesome! There’ll be streamers and balloons and punch and cake and-“
“игграмм… Лучше и кровавые лучше” The strange creature said in a grating voice
“Oh! What language is that! It’s so funny! I like that language! Say more!” Pinkie overflowed with excitement at the fact that someone new had suddenly appeared and that he spoke an amusing and unknown language.
“Что ... Где ... Где я? Что вы?” The strange creature said again in a language no one understood.
“Oh, That so funny!”
Pinkie pie began rolling around on the floor laughing.
The creature hauled itself to its feet and something on its back came to life, motors whirled and conductors crackled until it released a large burst of energy, this time cracking stone and knocking ponies off their feet.
Something had appeared in its hands.
It looked like another one of Pinkies party gadgets.
“Oh, what’s that?! It looks funny!”
“Язык калибровки полной. Language calibration complete.”
“Huh?” Pinkie asked
“Pink one, do not laugh at me, unless you have an urge to die that is.”
Note:
Just so we’re clear, I didn’t use the Russian language because I’m Russian. I am in fact British. I also didn’t use it because I find it amusing as the text would suggest. In every sci-fi movie I’ve seen and every sci-fi book I’ve read, the aliens used symbols. Warhammer 40K has the orks using symbols. Predator’s entire language was built up of symbols. Russian was the only language besides the Greek language I could think of that uses symbols. Just incase anyone wonders why Ajax is speaking Russian.