Canterlot Castle
22:00
October 11, 1196 CE
Nightmare Night
Celestia gazed at the moon. It was the 996th anniversary of her sister’s banishment. For most ponies it was Nightmare Night, a night of scares, celebration, and candy for citizens of Equestria. But for her it was a night of guilt.
Of course, no amount of introspection and regret could fix her mistakes, but one didn’t simply rationalize away such powerful feelings as she would feel every year on that night.
If she could have only seen the signs of her sister’s withdrawal, been there for her instead of neglecting her, she wouldn’t have been alone for almost a millennium. A part of her secretly anticipated the return of Nightmare Moon, wanting to apologize to her sister and sway her back to good. But unless the Elements of Harmony could be found in the next six years, there was no realistic hope to restore Princess Luna.
And though her subjects treated her with enormous reverence, they saw her as a symbol rather than a pony. Very few cared to associate with her on anything more than a formal basis.
Her niece, Princess Cadance, came from an estranged sister, but at least she would be able to associate with her. Because Cadance had found a seemingly impossible middle ground between the loneliness of Princesshood and the freedom of mortality, she was a link to the rest of the world. And she’d found somepony of her own too, a not-so-secret crush only Celestia’s own faithful student and the subject of the crush were oblivious to.
If only she were so lucky.
She closed her eyes and sighed. Opening them a few moments later, she noticed a quartet of objects flying through the night sky. She could faintly hear their drone from her balcony and her curiosity was piqued. She openeda nearby cabinet and retrieved a telescope.
The Princess extended the optic and shut one eye to gaze through it. Four strange creatures were exiting a cloud, ones she couldn’t even begin to recognize, though she sifted through her centuries of memories in an attempt to identify them. She realized that if they flew too close to the city proper they would pose a potential danger to her subjects, especially when that threat might not be taken seriously on this particular night, or conversely cause a panic by virtue of their exotic nature. Her course of action was clear.
She focused her magic on the beasts and brought them steadily down to a rarely-used section of the vast garden, a golden aura surrounding each one. As she gripped them she could sense there was scarcely any identifiable magic in these creatures. The only magic present was her own and a strange energy she was vaguely familiar with, though she couldn’t place how she knew it. Everything on Equis possessed some sort of intrinsic magical signature, so to find creatures made entirely of such non-conductive material was exciting. After some firm resistance the entities touched down gently, and their peculiar wings slowed and stopped.
The prompt development put her into a contradictory mood. On one hoof, she would need to prepare a team of Royal Guards as a contingency. On the other, her student could stand to learn something from the study of these creatures. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise her if Twilight Sparkle knew something of these creatures she didn’t, given the exorbitant amount of time she spent engrossed in books.
Princess Celestia cantered inside, and upon seeing a Royal Guard she immediately ordered him to assemble a team for the purpose of subduing beasts, with the most senior officer available in charge. He was also to fetch Twilight, who would be studying history in the library at that time of night.
In minutes, a team had assembled, with Lieutenant Shining Armor leading it. Princess Cadance had accompanied the young stallion without being asked any questions, in one of the few examples her elder had seen of the mare using her stature to her advantage. And of course, her protégé was eager to see what was important enough to pull her away from her studies.
***
“Captain! Captain! Are you alright?”
"I'm fine."
Scott Mitchell opened his shook his head and blinked to clear something from his eye. The back of his head hurt somewhat, but his helmet had taken the brunt of the impact. He'd learned to block out most pain over the years, at least the pain that didn't come from major injuries he could, so he forced that headache out of his mind for the time being.
“We hit some turbulence while you were asleep” Joe Ramirez told him. “So did the other aircraft, but they're okay. You feeling okay?”
He nodded, and noticed that the hold was mostly quiet, and there was no sense of motion. “Yeah, just shaken up. Why aren’t we airborne?”
“Remember how Nolan and I were kiddin’ around about the Bermuda Triangle? I think we might’ve tempted fate there. Right after that turbulence, the sky cleared up, and it was land for miles all around. We couldn’t get in touch with any satellites. And then some weird golden energy field grabbed our birds and pulled them down to the ground.”
Mitchell got to his feet and put on his helmet. “So we’re on our own?”
“Well, just this Osprey, the other one, and the two Black Hawks that came with us. Probably 20,000 rounds of ammunition in this bird alone, we’ve got those new hydrogen engines that’ll let us turn water into fuel, and the magic DARPA batteries our stuff runs on. Plus, the Black Hawks have stub wings to mount weapons on, so they could be gunships if we needed them to be.”
“On our own, but well-equipped. Everybody in one piece?”
“Yeah, boss. We’re all good,” Sergeant Marcus Brown chimed in. “No injuries, ‘cept for a few scrapes and scratches. We got set down in courtyard near a damned castle. I saw a lot of castles growing up with rich parents, and this one doesn’t look like any I know.”
“Here’s the kicker,” Alex Nolan said as he stretched his back by twisting. “Stars don’t look like anything in the northern hemisphere at least. And the moon? The man on the moon looks more like a unicorn now. All those times on I joked that I was fed up with the world, and the universe takes finally calls me out on it and drags my team along.”
“Right, sure… Either way, Rainbow will pick up for us back home, so at least there’s no rush.” He sighed and switched to a more command-oriented mindset. “Nolan, I want you, Diaz, Reeves and Rosen to help set up a camp here, around the landing site, check for any injuries that weren’t apparent.”
Mitchell then activated his Crosscom, which still worked and connected him to his teammates. “Ramirez, Beasley, Brown. Meet me outside. Masks and monocles on, I want us to have as much situational awareness as we can, because we’re gonna recon that castle. I want everybody patched into our audio-video feed and listening in.”
Mitchell exited the bird, and Brown followed after putting on his CrossCom monocle and covering his face with a monotone gray bandanna, which had the “teeth” of the signature Ghost skull on it. Ramirez put his mask on and strapped on his helmet before heading out. Beasley approached from a separate Black Hawk and put on his monocle and balaclava too, then chambered a round for his M8.
“All right.”
They were in an unknown location, maybe even an unknown planet if Nolan was right, so they’d take any psychological advantage available to them if they were in a seemingly civilized area. Being faceless entities with ominous blue eyes was intimidating, and that seemed like a decent psychological warfare strategy to them.
Of course, it was out of practicality too, since the Crosscom monocles did increase situational awareness. That, and it was dark, which would make the Crosscom's relatively short-range Forward-Looking Infrared "detection" function more useful during any potential combat scenario. The cold also made the masks practical.
They were in the middle of a garden of some kind that matched the one at Versailles for its magnificence. The plants and animals that were present seemed to be identical to ones on Earth. Over his radio he could hear chatter from his allies noting the same thing, and an explanation from Nolan on why the food should be perfectly edible to them even if they were on a new world. He was really having a nerdgasm.
“The stars are all wrong, this can’t be Earth…”
“Sir, permission to say ‘I tol’-” Nolan tried to say before he was cut off.
“Denied.”
“Boss, unicorns from the southeast,” Ramirez deadpanned. Realizing what he’d just said, he blinked. “Oh my God. Please tell me I’m not losing it.”
“Not unless we’re seeing the same thing, Joe…” Mitchell replied, the disbelief in his tone just barely audible to them.
“Oh, and here I was about to start singing ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’. Almost a letdown.” His voice betrayed that he was nervous.
***
“Is it a pop quiz?” Twilight asked her mentor excitedly, perking her head up as she spoke.
“No,” Princess Celestia responded. “Something more important than that.”
“Ummm, a surprise test? I mean, tests are more important than quizzes, so-”
“No. It’s not schoolwork of any sort,” She chuckled.
The Princess breathed as she prepared to explain the situation.
“Everypony,” She began. “Four unknown beings flew over Canterlot tonight, not ten minutes ago. I brought them down into the garden to prevent them from potentially doing any harm to our citizens, but I don’t know what they are, or if they’re dangerous. That’s why I asked all of you here. I want to be ready for whatever happens and to be able to identify them if possible,” The regent said to the group.
“Guards, form two lines abreast in front of the civilians,” Shining Armor barked. The ivory-coated stallions trotted to the front of the others and formed two rows in front of Twilight and the royalty, who in turn prepared to use their own magic if need be.
The group proceeded into the lush grass of the famous Canterlot Garden, where some sort of bipedal creatures seemed to be exiting the beings from earlier.
“Semi-circle, forward curve, large spacing,” Shining ordered. The guards changed to a bowl-like formation that curved away from the castle and surrounded the creatures. “You’re surrounded, and facing superior magic and training!” He boomed at them.
The creatures looked around almost as if they were confused by the display of force.
“Twilight, do you have any idea what these things are?” Princess Celestia asked.
“There’s something familiar about them. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling I recognize these things somehow.” She lowered her ears in frustration as she facehoofed repeatedly. Her mentor seized the offending hoof with her magic and placed it on the ground. As bright as the young mare was, she possessed many self-destructive habits.
Princess Celestia beckoned for a few guards to move aside, and she proceeded towards the creatures. She was ready to use her magic at a moment’s notice if it came to that, but she wanted to avoid conflict if possible. Whether these things were sapient or simply animals, violence was not her preferred means of solving problems.
To be fair, many ponies would panic at the sight of these otherworldly beings. However, the Princesses were confident in themselves and their guards, the guards were experienced in dealing with hostile creatures, and Twilight was simply too curious to be more than slightly afraid.
One of the things approached her, followed by three others. Each of them had a blue eye that glowed just ever so faintly in Celestia’s razor-sharp vision, and a mottled gray coat. As they approached her, she realized that it was clothing of some sort, a uniform composed of several shades of gray, olive and tan; clothes meant intelligence. What they carried was a mystery to her, and they proceeded with caution likely stemming from the presence of so many armed guards.
When the leading one came within seven yards of her, it held up a fist and the group stopped. The leader stood up to its full height, which was a bit more than her own. On its left shoulder was a patch with a highly stylized primate skull.
“Looks like we really are in a fantasy land,” It said to the others in a deep, somewhat raspy, masculine voice. “Well, actually a fantasy world.” It sighed, frustration apparent from its tone.
“They’re intelligent and speak our language,” Shining Armor muttered to his troop. “As per royal protocol, you will kneel before the Princesses!”
The Guards pointed their spears at the newcomers, who stepped back, but otherwise seemed unimpressed. The princesses were likewise unfazed at not being knelt before. It was an antiquated custom that was clung mostly by nobles.
“Pardon my interruption, but would you mind telling me who and what you are?” Princess Celestia spoke, being a bit blunt since they were ignoring her.
With any luck, we can speak to them.
The thing muttered something about “first contact”, then sighed before responding.
“I’m… A human male. And if I remember my fairy tales correctly you’re an alicorn, and these other… Equines, they’re unicorns… Ma’am, does this happen to be as strange to you as it is to us?”
“If you mean speaking to a mythological creature, the feeling is mutual," the Princess remarked. "If this isn’t your world, which your 'fantasy world' comment suggested, then do you know how you got here?”
The leader hesitated slightly. “My team and I were travelling through a region a lot of people associate with mysterious disappearances. There’s not much scientific basis to the myths about the place, and most travel through it is fine. We were passing through in service of our government.”
“So you’re… Diplomats?”
He paused. “Yeah, of a sort… So in the interest of friendly relations, I’d really appreciate if you had those guards of yours stop pointing their weapons at us.”
“Guards, do as he says,” Princess Celestia said calmly. They hesitantly pointed the tips to the sky and continued to eye the humans warily.
Twilight walked over to them ever so slowly, her nervous excitement shifed to wonder almost immediately. This time it was her brother that used his magic to prevent any potential harm. He levitated her back to him and gave her a quick glare.
“How’d you do that?” One of the other humans asked. This one had a dark green helm atop his head.
“Magic. Telekinesis actually, literally the most basic form there is.”
"Tell me you're joking."
"No. Is it really that unbelievable?"
"In a word? Yeah," The one with the green headwear interjected.
“Look, we’re a bit tired from our travel, and we need a place to stay until we can figure out a way home. If you could at least let us stay in these gardens until then, we’d appreciate it,” Their leader requested.
“Canterlot Castle has enough amenities for the four of you.”
“There’s nine of us, as well as a few dozen… Assistants and transportation specialists,” He corrected her. “We came prepared with tents and basic amenities. We weren’t travelling to a particularly civilized area. You could say my team specializes in politically-sensitive and dangerous areas. We’d rather stay out here, where we can get to our equipment and transportation faster.”
Princess Celestia contemplated whether there were any guest chambers suitably close to the garden. As a matter of fact, there were, all of them within a few dozen yards of a passage straight to this section of the garden. Quick access would be easy for them there.
She informed the leader of this, and they discussed their basic necessities and living conditions. They would rotate who was staying in the castle, and keep some of their number with their peculiar steeds to tend to them and their belongings. They would assign rooms and rotations in the morning. The part of the castle they'd spend most of their time in was almost never used, and closed off to guests. Even if others visited her castle, they would almost certainly never run into the humans or find their group.
After an hour of these negotiations, she invited the four humans into the castle. They hesitantly agreed, and the leader whispered something she couldn’t make out, prompting more humans to emerge from the creatures she’d plucked from the sky. The guards were uneasy at their appearance, but stayed their weapons on her orders.
Inside the castle, the humans marveled at the art that lined the walls. They slung the strange implements they carried over their backs, though their hands tended to drift to sheathes of some type located on their thighs occasionally.
“We were about to have dinner, actually. Care to join us?”
He glanced at the three who followed him before answering, probably to gauge their enthusiasm for sharing a meal. “I suppose we could.”
With the other ponies accompanying them, they headed to the dining room, where the two Princesses, the officer and the student took their seats. The humans were forced to kneel on the pillows the ponies used in lieu of chairs.
I’m glad these humans came. I hate the melancholy that always seems to catch me on Nightmare Night, and this is a great way to break from that emotional prison.
A bell rang, and servants paraded in bearing platters of fruits and vegetables, as well as other non-carnivorous fare. They paid the humans no heed, accustomed to serving foreign dignitaries. Just as quickly as they’d entered, they shuffled back out.
The humans pulled their pale masks down to expose their faces down to the mouth. They seemed to have three different colors of skin. Two were fair, another light tan, and a fourth had dark brown skin. They gingerly took their first bites, displaying that same peculiar caution Princess Celestia was already beginning to associate with their kind.
After the first few bites, they began to eat normally. With them being a new race unknown outside of obscure Equestrian mythology, the regent took this chance to observe them subtly. Twilight seemed to be on the same page, although she omitted the “subtle” part, never looking away from the guests for more than a moment. The leader muttered something indistinct, with the phrase “You can cut your links to my feed” just barely audible.
“Is there a reason the purple unicorn is staring at us?” Their leader asked.
“Her name is Twilight Sparkle, she’s my personal student,” The alabaster alicorn answered. “She’s merely curious.”
The mare in question blushed in embarrassment and looked away in reaction to the attention she was being given.
“I’m sorry,” She muttered.
“It’s fine,” He responded.
“It’s just occurred to me that we haven’t been properly introduced yet. I am Princess Celestia, ruler of the nation of Equestria. The stallion to my right is Lieutenant Shining Armor, an officer in our Royal Guard. The mare to my left is Princess Cadance. Twilight has already been introduced.”
“Scott Mitchell,” The leader stated.
“Marcus Brown,” The dark-skinned man said.
“Matt Beasley,” The other fair one stated.
“Joe Ramirez,” The tan-skinned man answered.
“First names are for individuals, and last names for families. Just use our last names, it’s normal in a professional setting,” Mitchell explained. “Is your Royal Guard a military unit, or a gendarmerie, or something else?”
“Equestria has never needed a military in our history. Even surrounded by other nations with their own ulterior motives, we’ve been at peace for over a millennium under my rule.”
“A millennium?”
“A short time in the lifespan of an alicorn. Other races tend to be octogenarians.”
“Healthy humans usually live to around their eighties, too,” Beasley stated.
“I noticed how strange it seemed to you when Princess Celestia used magic. Is your race incapable of magic? Ponies are the main users of magic on Equis. Most other races like griffons and minotaurs lack magic, but they can still use more artificial forms of it.”
“Nobody outside of children on our world believe in magic, although it was a major part of medieval folklore a thousand years ago, and you still see it referenced a lot in pop culture; it’s pretty common in the fantasy genre of fiction. Everything we use is based on science and technology. So yeah, seeing actual magic is pretty jarring,” Ramirez said. “And for the record, we’re the only sapient ones on Earth. I think the only reason we’re not openly freaking out in a historic, strange and sensitive situation like this is because - well - we’ve been in a lot of stressful situations before. Still, this is something else.”
“There’s a saying one of our most famed science fiction authors coined. ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’, and the same goes for the science behind it,” Brown stated.
“Right, Clarke’s Third Law. Careful throwing Niven’s Laws around, buddy,” Ramirez joked, eliciting a chuckle from the other man. “Somebody might get offended.”
“Yeah, will do,” The burly man said back.
The conversation continued for a half hour, revealing many of the basic principles of both worlds. They both hailed from prosperous, altruistic, and populous countries, though the humans’ country was more diverse and they seemed to readily admit their country was far from perfect. Still, Celestia held back just as she felt Mitchell was doing.
As the servants carried their plates from the room, a foreboding wave of pale orange magic swept through the castle, extinguishing every candle and almost all of the magically-powered lights. This caused some worry in itself. The doorways were covered with opaque orange fields that prevented entrance or exit. The room went dark, lit only by the barriers, moon and stars, as well as the light from guards’ horns. Lights that were quickly extinguished as a second wave suppressed magic of all manners. That kind of barrier spell had the side-effect of blocking the escape of sound as well as physical objects. The ponies were now helpless before whatever force was behind this abruptly-made prison.
***
As soon as the room went dark, the familiar cries of the pain and conflict echoed through the chamber. The Ghosts dove to the floor, the sound of blades flying and meeting flesh the only thing they heard outside of screams.
As unfortunate as this turn of events was, it was the first thing that made sense in a while, and it was certainly something they felt more comfortable doing than chatting with magical unicorns and pretty pink pony princesses.
They all activated their FLIR visor mode, lighting the room into shades of gray, the Ghosts wit blue, the previously tagged civilians yellow, and everything else that was alive red. The first thing they saw was that almost every single guard had already been incapacitated.
“Secure the civilians, weapons free!” Mitchell barked. He fired a burst at one of the impossibly agile assailants, hitting it in the leg.
"Who the hell are these guys!?" Ramirez demanded of his hosts as he took a position near them. He received no answer from the visibly confused ponies.
Cloaked equine figures ran across walls and furniture with astounding agility, throwing blades at them as they sprinted to the few civilians whose names they knew. The captain pulled Princess Celestia onto her hooves and felt the hot, sticky presence of blood through his gloves.
“We’ve got wounded, get the civvies out of here!”
Thunder echoed through the room and fire spat from their weapons. The ponies they were protecting locked down and refused to move, forcing their defenders to drag them to cover with one hand and suppress their enemies rather inefficiently with another. Shining Armor was the sole exception, grabbing Princess Cadance and carrying her, as Beasley carried his sister and Mitchell dragged Celestia.
Stone shattered and blood spattered as the attackers began to drop like flies under the combined firepower of the squad. The room offered no real cover, save for the table, making tactics a fanciful notion for them. Still, they did their best to dodge and otherwise avoid incoming blades, knowing that they had scant protection against that kind of weapon over most of their bodies.
After another thirty frantic seconds of dodging knives and firing, the last of the intruders fell to the floor, limp and lifeless. The barriers disappeared, and the illumination crystals restored light, no longer suppressed. Cadance and Twilight opened their eyes and uncovered their faces.
Mitchell looked at Princess Celestia, noting a knife had slashed at the side of her ribcage, making a cut long and deep enough to cause fatal blood loss if not treated, but shallow enough that she wouldn’t have to worry about any organ damage. She’d already lost a lot of blood, making time short.
He pulled a medical kit from his vest and began to dress the wound.
“Stand back, let the man work,” Beasley said as the other ponies tried to approach her.
Stop the bleeding and disinfect. Check. I can’t use a suture kit if she’s heaving like this.
The captain grabbed a bandage from his kit and laid it along the length of the wound. The strip stuck to her fur with great efficacy and contracted slightly, holding the wound shut.
“Done.” Mitchell announced. “Anyone else wounded?”
“Everyone else is fine, captain. Shaken up, but they’ll be alright,” Brown answered.
***
“You said you were diplomats,” Celestia groaned, still in pain from the wound she’d sustained. “You lied.”
She’d been reading others for so long she’d forgotten what it felt like to be deceived. Literally every time somepony had tried to trick her in the last few hundred years she’d seen it and either called them out on it or used it to her advantage to tease them, so being tricked by creatures who’d been on her world for mere hours was humiliating. She knew they were holding back, but she assumed what they had told her was truth regardless.
Of course, diplomats would’ve knelt before her, so her suspicions had at least been founded.
“No, you said that. I thought it’d be better for all involved if you didn’t know you were housing soldiers,” He responded.
The soldier grabbed her around the midsection, avoiding the wound he’d just treated, and lifted her up onto her hooves. It would’ve been difficult to get up on her own through the pain of the gash across her barrel.
“You’ll be fine,” He reassured her. “Just leave the bandage on for a few days, and then you can take it off. I’m guessing it’ll still be sore for another week.”
Walking over to one of the corpses, Ramirez took a closer look. They were clad in cloaks of tan, blue, and black. "It's like something between a splinter-type camouflage pattern and a ceremonial pattern. So I reiterate, Who the hell were those guys?"
"I- I don't know," Princess Celestia answered, dumbfounded.
Shining Armor just stared in horror at the bodies of all the guards that lined the room. Every one of them limp and streaked with blood, their ivory coats returned to their original colors now that their enchanted armor had been nullified. He was their commanding officer and everything that happened to them was on him.
Princess Cadance stood by the stallion and put a comforting hoof over his shoulder. She knew that he was the one most distraught by the violence and deaths, moreso than herself or even his younger sister, because he’d been responsible for the lives of the presumed dead.
“It’s my fault. I was supposed to lead them, and now… Now they’re all...” He shook his head in disbelief, a distant stare on his visage.
“There’s nothing you could’ve done,” She murmured.
“I know, but I… I should’ve done something.”
“You saved my life. That counts for ‘something’.” She gave him a sad smile.
“Yeah…” He returned the smile, his laced with guilt and sadness. “Twily, are you okay?”
“Yeah! Nothing wrong with me. I’m just happy to be alive, what with not having any magic available during the single scariest moment in my life!” She answered sarcastically through her clenched teeth.
“Anyone else smell piss?” Ramirez asked, wrinkling his nose. He looked at Twilight and noticed a pale yellow puddle at her hooves. She blushed and lowered her ears, visibly embarrassed. At least they weren’t laughing.
Mitchell put a hand to the side of his head. “Nolan, Jenkins, take four medics and form up on me…” He paused, as though her were listening to another. “We had to take care of a few dozen party crashers, I need the extra manpower to help fix up these guards, and any surviving attackers too.”
He looked down and noticed a knife embedded in his chest, and pulled it out without so much as a wince. Not a drop of blood exited, implying he wore a sort of armor underneath his attire. “If we can save any of the attackers’ lives it’ll be a big help. Out.”
Mitchell lifted Princess Celestia onto her hooves with a grunt, and the goddess stood erect as he backed away. Six more gray-clad humans rushed into the room, all with tan-colored torsos. They lacked the same gray masks their comrades wore, and many had the same pale skin as Mitchell and Beasley.
The ten men began searching for survivors, finding every member among the guards to be alive, and a few among the aggressors. They began to apply various forms of treatments to them, and carried them over to the near side of the table. The dead were left as they were, merely treated as obstacles to identify and avoid.
“That’s the last of them, captain,” The bespectacled one who’d led them in said. "The guards are all alive."
“Casualties?”
“Hostiles, 15 KIA, 5 WIA. Friendlies, 0 KIA, 20 WIA. The wounded are stabilized, but they’ll need more medical treatment, and a few are in critical condition. If there’s a hospital, send the guards there.”
“Wait,” Shining Armor’s head perked up. “Some of them are still alive?”
“Yeah, I said none killed in action, 20 wounded in action. C’mon, KIA and WIA aren’t that hard to get. Their armor kept the blades from penetrating too deeply. I think that’s more about the angle they hit at for some of them, though. There are a few that might not fully recover. Still, it’s like those guys were trying to just disable the guards. Why would anybody go for an all out attack, then play with kid gloves? It doesn't make sense.”
Despite the possibility of fatalities, a wave of relief washed over him, his demeanor visibly changing. He wasn’t the sole survivor as he feared he was. “Oh, thank Goddess. I’ll have them sent to the hospital immediately.”
“Lieutenant, I’d like you to keep this attack and our guests’ presence secret.”
“I’ll make sure of it, Your Highness.”
“Is there an on-site infirmary and morgue?” The bespectacled one asked. “We need to get rid of these bodies and treat the survivors.”
“Yes. I’ll have these ponies handled,” The young officer said hesitantly. He nodded and galloped off. Even the humans seemed to notice Cadance’s mood change as he left.
“Jenkins, Nolan, take these guys and RTB.”
“Yes sir.” The newcomers left promptly.
There was silence in the room for a time as Celestia stared at the carnage and the bodies of the dead and wounded were carried to the appropriate places. She’d seen violent deaths before, but those mental calluses had apparently grown very thin.
“Aren’t you going to kick us out for being so violent? From what I’ve heard so far, violent conflict isn’t common around here,” Mitchell spoke, breaking the silence.
“Not in Equestria,” She responded grimly. “Outside of Equestria’s borders, things are more… Savage. We’ve been at peace for over a thousand years, as long as the country’s existed, but I’ve only been able to keep my little ponies safe by limiting immigration and emigration, strict border security, as well as active pursuit of foreign policy objectives. A hostile hoof, claw or talon has never stepped upon Equestrian land during my rule, but there’s enough difficulty with just that part of the status quo to prevent us from being more assertive. And I wouldn’t approve of such actions anyway.”
Sighing, she continued. “But it would be wrong to send you on your way given that you’re stranded here. And as much as I resent it, your actions were necessary.”
“Understood. Ma’am, you mind if my team brushes up on how this world works? We’ll need a lot of books.”
“I’ll have a cart of them delivered immediately. I’d hate to leave you uninformed, because we don’t want ignorance to cause an incident, do we?”
“And we’d also appreciate you keeping us a secret, and keeping the gardens off-limits to most.”
“Of course.”
***
On their way to their respective destinations, two humans bumped into Shining Armor, who was heading elsewhere after having informed the relevant authorities that there were injured ponies in the dining room. He looked at the two of them with a mix of awkwardness and fear, while four more walked around him, giving him curious looks.
“Relax, we’re not gonna eat you,” The one with the glasses said.
“Speaking of candle-lit dinners, that pink mare from earlier seemed to be giving you 'the look',” The other added, raising his eyebrows.
“Princess Cadance? What do you mean?” The stallion queried, confused by the taller one’s statement.
“You know the look a girl gives you when she’s interested?”
“N-no?”
“Well she was giving you that look.”
The humans resumed their travel, as did he. He kept up a canter on his way back, briskly navigating the halls.
What did he mean, “When she’s interested”?
He slowed to a walk and looked at the ground contemplatively. She had been giving him a strange look.
Come to think of it, I’ve seen that look a lot on her. For the last few months in fact. Every time she looked at me, she gave me that same smile, and sometimes it even looked like she was blushing.
And there was the time I got an anonymous Hearts and Hooves card. I thought that was just a prank, since the hoofwriting was one of the princesses’, all regal-looking. And the time she recommended that romance novel about the princess and the knight, which I gave to Twily. And the time she insisted we team up with our Nightmare Night costumes.
Then there was the chocolates I got for my birthday, in a heart shaped box. I thought she was just being nice and giving away something she forgot to when it was appropriate.
He kept walking, eventually entering the Great Hall without noticing.
And then she-
“Um, Shining? Are you alright?” Princess Cadance asked.
His eyes shot open as he realized he’d entered to the Great Hall, and he was a few hooves from walking into a wall. He looked over his shoulder and grinned unconvincingly.
“Yeah, I’m great!” He said through clenched teeth. “Just thinking about… You know… Um, stuff?”
She grinned. “Well, you might want to ponder the meaning of life somewhere else. That’s not a good place for thinking.”
“No, I’m fine.” He resumed walking forwards and turned his head to face forward. After a painful collision, he remembered there was a wall in front of him.
“Really? You seem to have hit a brick wall,” She snickered.
Shining realized that they were both glad to have survived the attack unharmed. No dead guards meant a much lighter load on his conscience.
He chuckled nervously in response, and glanced around the chamber. The officer cleared the various ways things could continue to go wrong from his mind and looked back at Cadance.
And when he thought about it, she was actually pretty.
And sweet, and she’s got a crush on me… And she’s a Princess. Oh, Goddess. That can only end badly. Okay, I just need to let her down softly.
“I, uh- I- I know that you’re uh, interested in me, and uh…” He stammered, forcing a smile.
“Good, I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t take the hint.”
“Yeah, that took a while. Um, I think we should talk about that soon.”
“We can meet by the statue of Eos in the gardens tomorrow morning at seven, and we’ll talk more there,” She proposed. “Does that sound good to you?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll see you then,” She chirped.
That went better than expected. I can let her down easy tomorrow, and she doesn’t have any presumptions. Dodged an arrow there, Shining thought.
Cadance had other ideas.