Under a moon that no Princess had ever touched, a chestnut stallion awoke and sat bolt upright in a cold sweat. His wife beside him was roused by the familiar motion.
“What is it dear?”
“I don't know. I saw light, darkness, a unnatural fusion of creatures. There were ponies there, then ponies died, so many live lost, and all I could feel was the needlessness of it. Worse, I feel it's already too late, that I can't stop it. Any message we send will arrive after the deed has been done.”
He looked out at the moon through the window, grinning down at him like the smile of a demon that reveled in misery.
“Two days hence, we will be at war.”
Night 2
Everything was prepared. Or, at the very least, everything Twilight Sparkle could think to prepare or bother Spike or Owlowicious into preparing was prepared.
Popcorn was popped, space had been cleared for sleeping bags, pillows had been arranged in convenient piles for the inevitable fight, and sundry other sleepover preparations Spike had complained were “too girly” for him to do had been done. All that remained was for the guests to arrive.
As the appointed time for said arrivals approached, Spike looked on with trepidation as his guardian did her best to wear a groove in the library floor.
“Are you sure we got everything on the checklist?”
“Yes, Twilight, we've checked it at least three times.”
“We should check it two more times, then we can check it off my checklist checking checklist...”
Further speech was interrupted by knocking on the front door.
Spike was shoved over to answer it while a lightspeed last-second inspection was carried out. The slightly disgruntled dragon opened the door, carefully ignoring the purple blur whizzing about behind him. He was immediately reduced to incoherent jelly by the sight of the pony on the other side of the lintel.
Rarity stood there, resplendent as always.
“Sorry I'm early Spike, but I figured it would only be ladylike to help Twilight with the preparations a bit.”
The purple blur materialized beside the drooling dragon, with mane only slightly frazzled from the rapid motion.
“That's alright Rarity, everything's finished now anyway. Why don't you come in?”
The white unicorn did so, levitating a pony-shaped something behind her under a tarp. Spike, having snapped out of his reverie, poked curiously at it.
“If you don't mind me asking milady, what is this?”
“This, Spikey, is my latest creation, inspired by the barding your otherworldly guest brought with her!”
The tarp flew off in dramatic fashion, leaving a mannequin levitating there in the light-blue aura of its owner.
“After seeing it here this morning I was struck with a mad urge, and I simply couldn't resist whipping up a better version. I'll admit it's not finished, but moi did her best with the time she had!”
Twilight looked at the new garment, inclining her head in hopes of gaining insight as to why the mass of frills, baubles and frou-frous looked the way it did.
“Er, it's very, ah, poofy, Rarity, but I think the old barding was designed with a bit more durability and functionality than this.”
Rarity was about give a curt reply, but had to cut it off and duck her head to avoid knocking it against a swooping Rainbow Dash, who yelled over her shoulder as she landed on the stairs.
“Hah! Told you I could beat you here, even carrying all this food!”
Applejack came to a screeching halt on the other side of Rarity, a picnic basket balanced on her back the exact twin of the one between Rainbow's wings.
“Sorry about Rainbow there Twi, tha' peacock started off helpful enough, don't think ah'd have made it here on time if she hadn't carried half the food Granny Smith prepped for us, although ah coulda done without tha race.”
“Did you say food?” Pinky Pie asked as she popped her head out of Applejack's picnic basket. “I'm starving! The Cakes and I have been working on a huge order ever since I brought that old cookbook back this morning, and I haven't had the chance to get even a tiny snack since!”
“Well, that's what the food's here for girls, let's just set it up in the kitchen where everything's ready.” Twilight replied as she brought the door closed again. It was too late, as Pinky had already started munching an apple fritter as Applejack moved towards the kitchen.
Fifteen minutes later, the eating, chatter and argument over the pros and cons of Rarity's new barding was so loud they almost missed a timid tapping on the door.
Rarity opened it to reveal Fluttershy standing there.
“Alright girls, now that everyone's here, let's get down to analyzing these things.”
The middle of the library was occupied by a table, with each of the items arranged so they could be easily accessed. Rainbow Dash coasted over to the table, looking from item to item.
“Seems like pretty boring junk.”
Twilight brought a hoof to her face with a quiet thud
“We know that already Dash, but this junk is all the evidence we have to gain information about a potentially completely different universe. The more we know about these ponies, the better off we'll be when our patient wakes up or her friends arrive.”
Chastened, the iridescent pegasus started off by examining the metal disks. “I'm going out on a limb here, but I'd say this is money.”
“Yes, we figured as much. Any other insight to give?”
“Well, we put the sun and moon on our bits, because they represent the princesses, and how important they are for Equestria. I'd bet whatever they put on their bits means the same thing.”
“Good point Rainbow, but while Spike and I were able to determine that there's a pony's face on one side and that odd symbol on the other, we weren't able to figure out what they meant. That's where you girls come in.”
“Well for starters, ah reckon they don't got a Princess, or leastaways she keeps herself off the coinage. That there's a stallion on that coin.”
“Yes dear, and not a bad looking stallion at that. Perhaps their Princesses rule through mortal proxies, to allow them to devote themselves to their astronomical duties.”
“Or maybe they're ruled by an omniscient waffle!”
“Pinky, you're looking at the wrong side of the coin.”
“That's alright Rainbow, insight to both would be good, although perhaps we could concentrate on one face at a time?”
“Um, if I may, it doesn't look like a waffle so much as a stylized map, with latitude and longitude lines.” Fluttershy paused and squinted. “In fact, it almost looks like a map of Equestria.”
The rest of the group were looking slackjawed at the butter-yellow pegasus. “Oh, sorry, cartography was one of my favorite classes in flight school.”
Meanwhile, Applejack had been looking through the notes Spike and Twilight had made of the other night. “Sugarcube, it says here there was an apple in this here inventory, and the only notes ya got on it are 'Slightly bruised' an' 'Tasted normal'. Ah kinda wish ya hadn't eaten tha thing, ah coulda told y'all quite a bit from that apple. Different breeds 'a apple grow best in diffren' climates, tha' mighta told us where they live, or at least where they git their food from.”
As Twilight retroactively facehoofed Rarity picked up the sextant and experimentally pointed it at a window.
“Twilight, have you tried using this device yet?”
“No, why?”
“I don't think it was meant for very advanced Unicorn use. The focusing gems contain no enhancement spells, and the adjustment mechanisms are manual. In fact, I do believe it uses common glass for the optics.”
“That doesn't make much sense. Spike and I had guessed the items belonged to a Unicorn or similar magical being, with our guest being some kind of porter or attendant, given that they lack any grips for claws, hooves or mouths.”
“Maybe whoever she was carrying it for was a student, which would explain why they ran away!”
“Perhaps, Pinky Pie, perhaps.”
This continued long into the night, interspersed with a pillow fight, two rounds of makeovers, and a game of truth-or-dare before the six elements of harmony crashed out on the crowded library floor, having expended all their vast energy.
Day 2
Celestia's sun was already high in the sky before the purplest of the six ponies was awakened. When she was, it was by a sharp tapping on the front door, still secured from last night.
There was a large note on the table, which if Twilight had taken the time to read it, stated that Applejack had left out the back door around seven-ish to get to her morning chores, Rarity had gone with her to pick up Sweetie Belle from her own sleepover with Applebloom, and that Fluttershy had left a few hours later to feed her animals.
All of this information was not received by Twilight as she breezed past the table and opened the door. Standing there was Corporal Sharp Halberd and another Ranger, a dark blue pegasus Twilight had never seen before. Her left eye was covered by a bandage.
“Greetings, Ms. Sparkle. There have been no develoments with the portal, although Private Typhoon here was just released by Nurse Redheart, and I thought you'd appreciate her first-hand account of events.”
“Thank you Corporal. I and the others' findings on the objects are in this notepad.”
The two exchanged sources of evidence, and the Corporal flew off.
“If you'd like to come in, Private Typhoon?”
The pegasus chuckled as she entered.
“Just Typh 'll do, Ms. Sparkle. I don't stand on ceremony like Corp' Sharpie.”
“Alright, Typh. But only if you'll drop the Ms. and call me Twilight.”
Spike, who had responded to the knock a little slowly due to getting little sleep with all the ruckus downstairs, brought out a tray of tea and biscuits. Pinky Pie was bouncing around already, but a look from Rainbow Dash squelched any impromptu I-just-met-you-party plans.
After introductions had been made and Typhoon had had her fill of biscuits, the pegasus began her tale with a very slight twang.
“Thanks kindly for th' tea Ms. Sparkle. Anyway, it was pretty boring before the portal opened. Normally us rangers are on patrol, making sure nothing's intruding on Equestrian airspace, monitoring the Badlands, securing the Northern Frontier, that kind of thing, not babysitting a magical anomaly in the heart of friendly territory.
Although I have to admit the Everfree is pretty much as unfriendly territory as you can get inside our borders. We had secured a perimeter around the negative wedgie, that's what my unicorn buddies called it, but the wildlife was always probing it. I had gotten up t' take a closer look, the thing had just been sitting there pulsing for the months we'd watched it.
Then, there was this noise like what your brother made last week with his expulsion spell, and a gust of wind the likes I hadn't seen since training camp. Next thing I knew, I was being blown through the conifers in a flurry of pine needles.
Now, I'm not from around Vanhoover, my roots are in the wind farms above Manehatten, but according to Lancer Volley, that place was pretty much identical to that area if ponies had never set hoof there. All I knew was that the whole place was a mess, with trees taller than I'd ever seen and not a manticore or timberwolf in sight.
It was pretty relaxing, I gotta say. It's probably the peacefulness that got us to lower our guard.”
“The perimeter-holders had come through to cover our rear, I guess a cockatrice was curious as to why we left, maybe the pine attracted it, I'm not sure.
Point was, I was looking for some privacy, I hear this shriek on the other side of these bushes, figure somepony's in trouble. So I rush in, ready to break some heads, and when I pop out the other side, there's this pony standing there, light brown with a black mane, he sees me, and takes a swing at me with this wooden thing.
Couldn't catch the color of his aura, all I was seeing was stars. Right before I black out, I see him point that same thing, it was about the length of a staff, at the cockatrice that just popped out and hissed at him.
There's this thunderclap, a flash from the end of the club, and that cockatrice blows up in an explosion of feathers. That's the last thing I know before I wake up in the clinic here in Ponyville.”
“Interesting,” was all Twilight had to say. She then turned to Pinky Pie. “Pinky, could you invite the girls back here tonight? I think it would be good to have some backup when our guest wakes up.”