Location: Luna’s tower, Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, Equestria.
Luna wasn’t sure what to think, the Space Blimp simply.. left. No warning, no announcement, nothing. What in all of Tartarus was that about? She was confused at what happened, angry at the nerve of it to just leave, and sad. In the year that it was orbiting a stable mark in the sky, almost to the point of being ignorable she started to view it has one of her stars, something to watch over, something to care about and just like when one of her stars committed suicide in the conflagration of a supernova she missed them.
She realized she was very tired, while the sun hadn’t rose over the horizon yet, the sky was starting to lighten. She decided to leave a note with her sister’s personal guard and went to her chambers for some rest.
Later that day Luna awoke of her own accord, apparently Celestia didn’t see the news of the Space Blimp’s departure to be important enough to wake her. She went to her washroom and washed the sleep out of her eyes, brushed her hair and put on her royal accoutrements. In the old days servant ponies would be helping her do this, but in the past millennia Celestia had deemed servantry to be demeaning to ponies and abolished the practice. Luna didn’t mind, she actually prefered the privacy, being of royalty and being an introvert made these moments special.
She went down to the dining and found her sister having dinner, and wait staff setting up breakfast for her. Once they were done she sat down at her place across from Celestia, when not entertaining guests she preferred to sit in a normal spot instead of at the head of the massive table, Luna was happy at it meant she could see and speak with her sister directly.
“So, sweet dreams?” Celestia asked.
“Not really, I spend so much time minding over the dreams of other ponies I rarely have time for my own.”
“How was your day, Celestia?”
“The usual, aside from seeing off the Diplomats from Saddle Arabia.”
“Did you see my note?”
“Yes, what do you make of this development?”
“I don’t know, why would anypony, or anything just sit around a planet for a year to just up and leave?”
“Well I am no expert into the minds of beings from outer space but I would venture a guess that whatever reason they came here was complete, and with that there was no reason to stay.”
“I think you’re right.” Luna sighed.
“Are you okay, Luna? You look sad”
“I’m fine.. it’s just that well I.. miss it.”
Celestia smiled warmly “Don’t worry, in a couple days you’ll forget all about it, if anything this will make and interesting paragraph in some history book that I am sure Twilight Sparkle will memorize.”
Luna giggled, it wasn’t absolutely true of Celestia’s brightest and most promising student.
They finished their meals and went about their days. Celestia wrapping up any business that needed tending to. Luna catching up on the news of the day and heading up to her tower for a night of stargazing and dream walking.
Several Months Later...
Sure enough, Celestia was right. The Space Blimp quickly exited Luna’s mind and things returned to normal. The Summer Sun Celebration came and went, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence came down from the Crystal Empire to visit the castle and see Celestia, Luna, and Twilight and Friends, and now Luna was looking forward to her favorite holiday, Nightmare Night.
After the usual routine of Dinner/Breakfast with her sister, catching up on the news, she headed up to her tower for the usual night of stargazing and night walking. A couple weeks earlier she had an interesting adventure helping the little pegasus Scootaloo get over her nightmares, she always felt good to actually exercise her responsibility of protecting fillies and colts while they dreamt.
Upon reaching the top of her tower she looked up at the Moon and saw something that stopped her dead in her tracks. After a moment’s pause she rushed over to her telescope and quickly focused in on the space around the Moon, which confirmed watch she saw.
Numerous ships, or Space Blimps, dozens of them were now orbiting Equestria. She tried to count them all but in her excited lost count at 52, they nearly matched the stars in number.
They must of come during the day, when they wouldn’t be seen. She needed to tell Celestia, now. She couldn’t wait for a message to be sent, she couldn’t even wait to walk or run down. She leaped off her tower and flew down to Celestia’s bedroom balcony. Ignoring all formality and courtesy she called for her sister and walked in.
“Celestia! You need to come with me! It.. they are OH SWEET MERCY CELESTIA!”
Even for nearly immortal royalty, there are certain needs that need to be.. relieved. Celestia, panting and blushing removed her hooves from there and quickly covered herself in a sheet.
Celestia’s guardpony came barging in through the door, prepared to fight whatever menace was threatening his princess.
“What is going on in here!” He shouted.
Upon seeing Luna he calmed down, then seeing Celestia still red faced and sweaty quickly apologized and left the bed chambers, red faced himself.
Celestia turned to her sister, both annoyed and angry.
“Luna, you can’t just barge into other pony’s bedrooms like that!”
“I’m sorry, Celestia. It’s just that.. that.”
Celestia saw the fear and excitement in Luna’s eyes and calmed down.
“It’s ok, Lulu. What did you see? You said something about they?”
Luna quickly returned to why she came down.
“They have returned, the Space Blimp, but this time there are many! Please you need to come with me and see for yourself.”
“Alright Luna, just please wait for me outside, I’ll be out in a moment.”
Luna went out on the balcony and Celestia come out a minute later, looking as regal as ever. They both flew up to Luna’s Tower. Luna adjusted the telescope and it’s height so Celestia could easily reach the eyepiece.
Celestia looking for a few moments scanning the sky and simply said “Oh my.”
“What could they want now?” Luna asked.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like this.” Celestia replied.
After a moment Celestia said, “We need to gather all the town leaders from across Equestria, also we need to bring Twilight and her friends up here, we need to have a meeting.”
“To discuss what?” Luna asked.
“A place of action, for something I hope does not happen”
“You mean...” Luna started to say, not wanting to finish that line. “Yes, we have to prepare.”
Letters were immediately sent to every city in Equestria along with one sent to Twilight Sparkle.
The one to Twilight included a special instruction, asking her to count the number of ships see saw. Luna likewise calmly counted the number of ships see could see.
Obviously it took time for everyone to show up. The Mayor of Cloudsdale arrived immediately that morning, Mayor Mare along with Twilight and her friends showed up shortly after lunch, followed by the Head Council Pony of Manehatten, along with the one from Baltimare, they trickled in throughout the day, towards the end of the day the Sheriff of Appleloosa and the Mayor of Las Pegasus finally came in on special express trains authorized by Celestia herself.
As night fell Coffee and Caffeinated Soda was served to help awaken the tired politicians and the meeting has quickly started.
Celestia started “As I am sure you all have found out. Our planet has seen the arrival of nearly 100 ships of similar shape to the Space Blimp that was orbiting us earlier this year.”
“I know you all want to know why they are here, and honestly I do not know. Even Princess Luna, who has been the most acquainted by the Space Blimp as no idea why it has returned and in even greater number.”
Applejack raised her hoof and Celestia nodded for her to speak. “If yah don’t mind me askin’. How do you know if these ships are even from the same... things that sent the Space Blimp?”
“We don’t” Said Luna. “Even our best telescopes cannot give us the kind of detail we need to make a firm observation, but from their silhouettes they are nearly identical to the Space Blimp.”
Twilight spoke up “I don’t think 2 different races would use the same kind of ship. I mean just look at our different we are from the Zebras or Griffins. I think they are the same as the Space Blimp.”
“But why would they come back with so many ships? You wouldn’t do that unless you were looking for a fight.” Rainbow Dash said.
The room erupted in argument and Celestia quickly brought her hoof down to quell the noise.
“I don’t want us to jump to conclusions, but that possibility should not be ruled out. We have 3 possibilities, one is that they have decided to intensify their observation of us and sent a large fleet of ship to better fulfilled that, in which case we probably do not have anything to worry about.”
“The second possibility is that they wish to make contact with us, and have nearly 100 ships is a normal greeting party for them. Now the third...”
“Oooo, Oooo! Should I plan a party? What kind of cake to aliens like? Chocolate? Strawberry? Do you think they would like party poppers?” said Pinkie Pie excitedly.
Celestia cleared her throat “As I was about to say, the third possibility and the one I fear the most is that they are here to.. invade.”
An anxious murmur spread throughout the meeting.
“Even though I hope that is not the outcome of this situation. It would be extremely stupid of us to ignore it.” Celestia said.
“What can we do? What kind of power could somepony have if they can travel the stars?” said the Mayor from Manehatten.
“They would have to be very powerful, but I also hope that if they are wise enough to not have ill intent” said Luna. “Even so we must plan for the worst.”
And so the meeting continued. It was decided that a mandatory curfew would be implemented across Equestria with Royal Guards stationed in every city to maintain order. Also a baby dragon would baby stationed at all the observatories in equestria, which would monitor the night skies and report of any strange activity. Each of the city leaders would return to their respective cities and develop evacuation plan appropriate for their cities. Finally, messages would be sent to all the other states of Equestria and they would be given all information about the ships and guidance as how to prepare for the worst.
The meeting adjourned with everypony very very tired. Everypony retired to either their bed chambers or guest quarters. The next morning Celestia saw all the ponies to their respective trains. She asked that Twilight and her friends remain behind.
“You wanted to see us, Princess Celestia?”
“Yes Twilight.”
Celestia continued “If the worst comes, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor and Myself will do everything we can to defend Equestria. However we may need more”
“The Elements of Harmony?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Yes, you all may be called upon to unite and defend Equestria if these ships have hostile intent.”
“You have our promise your Majesty, we won’t let you down!” Applejack said, the other agreed.
Celestia smiled “I know you won’t.”
“Now then you six need to get back to Ponyville, the Mayor is going to need your help in getting everything set up. We can going into strange and interesting times, even I cannot say what will happen. All we can do is prepare and wait.”
As the others left Twilight went up to Celestia and nuzzled her like she always did, then took off to join her friends heading down to the train station.
2 months later...
The evacuation plans were completed and approved by Celestia. The other states were making preparations and agreed to inform the others of any strange activity. Everything went smoothly and without too much trouble. It seemed that the threat of invasion really focused ponies, Luna thought.
However over the weeks nothing happened in regarded to the ships. They did like the Space Blimps and just.. sat there. The day after the meeting Luna designed a new type of reflecting telescope and ordered lenses to be ground for the largest telescope yet built. She wanted a better view of the ships in order to determine why they were here. In fact the heavy lift pegasi contracted to bring the components up to Luna’s Balcony were complete and assistants were helping Luna assemble the telescope. By the time they were done it took up most of the balcony.
That night Luna excitedly began to adjust and focus her new toy. After a few minutes she began her observations. She could make out so much more detail now, she saw small lights of what looked like windows on the ships, and the faint glow coming from one end. On the other end was what looked like huge metal shields, she assumed the the shield end was the front and the glowly part was the rear, from there she assumed that the glowly part was the engine that moved the ships.
She then noticed 3 things. First was the buzz of activity around the ships, while they didn’t move numerous other craft buzzed around and between the ships, stuff was going on up there for sure, she just never saw it before. The other, more concerning thing were the shields, some were new and undamaged, but others were dented and scarred as if from previous battles. The third was that most of the ships were not directly facing Equestria, they were pointing out towards space, as if watching for something. She didn’t know if that meant anything, but it would be strange for an invading army to face away from its enemy like that.
These ships were some kind of military ship. However should could not find any sort of weaponry on the ships, no guns or cannons, she then scolded herself. If a race was able to travel the stars, their weapons would be just as advanced and incomprehensible to her or anypony.
After taking down all her notes she ended up being just as confused as before. While the threat was still there, they weren’t behaving with malice intent. This brought back to the question of why they were here.
She thought about it. While the new telescope gave her a better view, it did nothing to answer that fundamental question.
Luna was and still is a conservative pony, she not inclined to wild hair brained ideas. However one came to her, if she couldn't get answers down here, then maybe should would get them up there.