It was about time for Celestia to wake up and raise the sun to begin the new day so Luna could get some well deserved rest from her duties last night. Celestia yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. After she stretched her neck, wings, and legs she went to the Solar Balcony to raise the sun. She strode over to the balcony and illuminated her horn. Her horn glowed with a pale gold aura and she lifted her head slowly raising the sun to begin the day. Now that the Princess of the Sun was out of bed, she went to get some breakfast and have a chat with Luna before she went to her room to sleep. "Good morning, Lulu." Celestia said in a cheerful tone as she walked to the dining hall.
"Good 'yawn' morning Tia, did you sleep well last night?" Luna asked sleepily.
"Oh yes, I slept like a filly last night." Celestia said with a smile.
"That's good to hear." Luna said trying to hide her worries from her sister.
"Okay Lulu, what is it?" Celestia said sensing that her sister had some valuable information for her.
"Well, do you remember what we talked about yesterday evening?" Luna asked
"I do, why?" Celestia said with slight worry in her voice.
"Well I felt that tremor again last night, but there was something even stranger about it this time." Luna said with urgency.
"What happened, Tell me everything!" Celestia demanded.
"Alright, the tremor I felt didn't just disappear, this time it lingered and I felt a strange presence, and it's nothing like I've ever felt before!" Luna explained. Celestia waved a hoof at the sister signaling her to continue. "Then this presence split into two different directions over Ponyville, then they converged on Princess Twilight's castle, then the presence just vanished, then after about five to ten minutes it reappeared again in the Everfree Forest." Luna finished her recollection panting as if she was running away from a manticore. "Can you sense it Tia?" Luna eventually asked after she caught her breath.
"Yes I can sense it, and it's heading towards Ponyville again, but why would it do that?" Celestia asked as if somepony knew the answer.
"I think we should send Twilight a letter to let her know about these recent developments and that we're coming to visit Ponyville to see if anything strange has happened." Luna suggested to Celestia since they both know that something strange is happening at this very moment.
"You're right, let me get my ink well, quill, and parchment." Celestia said as they were making their way to Celestia's bedroom.
"Dear Twilight,
I need you and the other element bearers to gather at your castle immediately! For you see, my sister Luna, and I have to speak to all of you about something that we think could possibly be a threat to all of Equestria! Luna and I will give you and the others a proper briefing when we arrive later this afternoon.
Sincerely, Princess Celestia."
After quickly reading over her letter to Twilight, Celestia illuminated her horn to send Twilight her letter about what was going on lately. "Do you think they'll be ready for what we have to tell them Lulu?" Celestia said turning her head towards Luna.
"Probably not, but what other choice do we have Tia?" Luna said with certainty.
Meanwhile in Twilight's castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle was just now getting out of her bed after a good night's rest. She looked over to Spike's basket, only to see that Spike wasn't there. "He's probably in the kitchen." Twilight said as she shrugged her shoulders and started to make her bed. After she got done with her bed, she heard the sound of Spike belching, which meant that he just got a message from Celestia. "What did Princess Celestia send you Spike?" the lavender alicorn asked as she trotted into the dining room.
"Um, Twilight I think you should read this, it sounds like something bad is coming!" Spike shouted as he ran towards Twilight with Celestia's letter.
"Let me see that!" Twilight exclaimed as she illuminated her horn summoning the letter in Spike's hand. Twilight quickly read through the letter, as she read it she felt her former mentor's worry, and urgency in the words that were visible on the parchment in front of her.
"So what do we do Twi?" Spike asked
"Let's go find the rest of the girls, they need to know about this just as much as we do." Twilight said with a serious expression on her face. With that being said the lavender alicorn and her baby dragon ran out of the castle to look for their friends.
"Let's head to Rarity's boutique first, then we'll head to Fluttershy's cottage since they'll be harder to convince about this kind of thing." Spike said matter-of-factly.
"Right let's get moving!" Twilight said with authority.
The two of them ran as fast as they could to get to Carousel Boutique before Rarity could be open for business. They knocked on the door like the world was at an end! "I'm coming, I'm coming, just hold on a moment!" said a posh accented ivory white unicorn shouted over the pounding on her front door. Rarity opened her door to see both Twilight and Spike panting and sweating as if the Royal Guard was chasing them. "Oh my, What's got you two in such a fuss?" She asked.
"No time to explain right now, just get to my castle, the princesses will explain it later." Twilight said in between pants telling her dear friend to hurry.
"Slow down darling, now, tell me what's going on." Rarity said to her exhausted friend hoping she would comply.
"We can't we're just as clueless as you, but we're instructed to get together to discuss it later." Spike said.
"Very well I'll go get Pinkie on the way." Rarity said as she looked at her friends with a confused look.
"Thanks Rarity, that'll save us the trouble of trying to get Pinkie to listen to us." Twilight said rolling her eyes at the very idea of trying to get the energetic party planner to shut up and listen to her.
Fluttershy woke up with a smile on her face as she heard her birds singing a pleasant song to wake her up in the morning. After she stretched her legs and wings she proceeded to feed her animals before she made herself some breakfast. While Fluttershy was eating her toast there was a knock at her door. She knew that it was her life long friend Rainbow Dash knocking on her door to ask her if she wanted to hang out. "Come in Rainbow." Fluttershy said quietly.
"Hey Flutters, do ya wanna hang out later this afternoon?" Rainbow asked.
"Sure, but I need to take care of a few things before we leave, if that's okay with you." Fluttershy asked politely.
"There's no rush, I took the day off, so I have all day!" Rainbow Dash said as she waved her hoof to make it clear to her friend that she wasn't bothered at all.
"Thanks, it'll only take a few minutes anyway." Fluttershy said with a gentle smile.
"'Kay, can I come in?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh sure, no problem." Fluttershy said.
The two pegasi mares sat inside Fluttershy"s cottage just talking about what's been going on lately, until there was another knock at the door. "I'll get it." Rainbow said as she got up from the couch and trotted over to the door. "Oh hey Twi, what's up?" She said with a smile
"Hey Rainbow, is Fluttershy home?" Twilight asked out of breath.
"Yeah, she's here why?" Rainbow asked the lavender princess.
"I need the both of you to head to my castle to prepare for the princesses' arrival later on today, it's urgent, so I can't stay for long."
"Yeah, yeah, I get the drill." Rainbow said nodding her head in acceptance.
"Thanks, I knew I could count on you, could you inform AJ while you're on your way?" Twilight asked her rainbow maned friend.
"Yeah, sure." Rainbow said with an exasperated sigh.
After Twilight and Spike told their friends about getting together at her castle, they began to wonder what all of this was about. Twilight seemed to be the most confused, as she had never received a letter that was so vague from her former teacher, but she shrugged it off as it was going to be explained to her and her friends later on. 'I wonder what this is all about, I hope we find out soon' Twilight thought to herself.
Meanwhile in the Everfree Forest, Kai and Garrin were sprucing themselves up to meet the natives of Equestria fully unaware that their first meeting was going to be slightly awkward. Kai gave himself a brief once-over to make absolutely sure he wasn't missing anything important.
"Uh, Garrin?" Kai asked, but stopping mid sentence noticing something was missing.
"Yes Master?" Garrin asked his troubled master.
"Did I come through the portal nude, or did I have my undergarments on?" Kai asked while looking at his body in a nearby pool of water.
"You were wearing your undergarments, why do you ask?" Garrin asked.
"I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going crazy, that's all." Kai said with a hint of embarrassment.
"You're wondering if you packed any clothes for yourself aren't you?" Garrin said noting his master's lack of subtly.
"Yeah, so did I pack anything or not?" Kai asked with a blush growing on his face.
"As a matter of fact, you did, I've got your greaves, comfy bath robe and pants, cloak, dress shirts, and Dovah mail."
"Perfect! Now I just have to figure out what I want to wear." Kai said while looking at his clothing options. "Ok, I think I'll wear my Dovah mail under my black dress shirt, with my white tie, put my camo pants on, then my greaves, then finally my Mage robe without my cloak." Kai said as he levitated each of the items he was going to wear that day.
"Excellent choices sir, but what about me?" Garrin said noticing that he didn't have very many clothing options.
"Don't worry," Kai said placing his hoof on Garrin's shoulder, "I'm pretty sure we can find a tailor for you and buy you some clothes, does that sound fair?" he asked looking at his companion's saddened expression.
Garrin simply nodded in understanding that the suggestion was a good one, but he wished he had packed more than just his armor.
"Good that's settled, now let's get back to Ponyville and introduce ourselves to everypony properly." Kai said with a slight grimace at changing everybody to everypony.
"Right, where shall we go first?" Garrin asked with enthusiasm.
"Let's go back to that castle that's inhabited by that lavender alicorn and dragon to thank them for the vast amounts of knowledge we needed in order to fit in around here, and to also apologize for our method of 'asking' for assistance." Kai said realizing that they snuck into Twilight's castle the night before.
"Yes, it would be a pity if we never told her about how we managed to acquire all of this knowledge without asking first." Garrin said with a courteous tone.
Meanwhile back at Twilight's castle the other members of the Mane 6 as well as the princesses of the day and night were all waiting for Twilight and Spike to return so they could get their meeting underway.
"Where is she?" Celestia asked irritation evident in her voice. "She should have been back here ten minutes ago." Celestia continued her slight rant about how her former student to be this late to a meeting on a matter that could determine the fate of all Equestria.
Twilight bursted through the doors panting as if she was being chased by Princess Celestia herself. "Sorry we're late, I got lost in my thoughts and lost track of time!" she said in between pants.
"It's alright Twi, we didn't even start yet." Applejack said trying to calm her friend.
"Yeah, calm down egghead." Rainbow Dash stated waving her hoof dismissively.
"Yes listen to your friends Twilight, you didn't miss anything important." Celestia said warmly to her former pupil to restore her confidence. Twilight nodded in understanding knowing that her former teacher wasn't mad at her for being a little late.
"Right shall we begin sister?" Luna asked Celestia in hopes that the meeting would proceed.
"Yes, of course." Celestia started. "I suppose all of you are wondering why you were all summoned at such short notice?" She asked. The members of the Mane 6 all nodded their heads. "Well it all started yesterday afternoon while I was eating my lunch..." Celestia went on to describe that these magical anomalies were albeit natural, yet held a sinister feeling lurking in her mind. The Mane 6 were astounded that these anomalies had occurred and Twilight didn't feel them before Celestia. "... and that's why Luna and I have summoned you here to ask you for your help against whatever caused these disturbances." Celestia concluded her story detailing recent events.
"Don't ya worry none Princesses we'll make sure that whatever is causin' these disturbances is put right." Applejack said reassuringly to both Celestia and Luna.
"The six of you have done so much for Equestria, and I know that you'll be up to the task." Luna said with a smile as she and her sister were about to leave until there was a knock on the door. "Tia what's wrong?" Luna asked.
"I felt another tremor and it's sustaining itself, it seems that whatever it is at the door is the cause for all of this!" Celestia shouted while pointing at the door with a quivering foreleg.
"Then get ready to throw down girls, 'cause we're kick some flank!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a proud expression on her muzzle.
"Now, Rainbow we hardly know anything about them." Rarity said.
"We could, um try to get to know them, if they don't mind that is." Fluttershy nearly whispered.
"Yeah we shouldn't jump to conclusions just 'cause we don't know them, besides they're probably just wanting to make new friends!" Pinkie shouted in her over energetic voice.
Outside Twilight's castle Kai was starting to get a little impatient about waiting for the owner of this castle to allow them entry.
"How long are we going to just stand here until I get angry enough to just blast the door down?!" Kai growled while pacing back and forth in front of the door.
"Perhaps we should come back later." Garrin suggested.
"Maybe we should, I mean we've already wasted about ten minutes standing outside, and we've yet to introduce ourselves." Kai stated with despair in his voice.
"Don't worry, Master, we'll get our chance you'll see!" Garrin said with enthusiasm to help perk up his master from his sour mood.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, so let's just wait a little longer." Kai said with renewed hope in his voice.
After much deliberation Celestia decided to meet this new stranger despite the ungodly amount of power it exuded. "Twilight," Celestia said before taking a deep breath, "Let the stranger come in." she said calmly.
"Yes Princess, Spike," Twilight called to her dragon assistant, "Get the door please." she said with a gentle tone.
"Sure thing." the little dragon said as he walked to the door. What Spike saw next scared him nearly to death. He saw two new ponies, one white alicorn with a brown mane and tail with hazel reptilian eyes and dressed in fancy clothing, the other was a grey unicorn that had piercing red eyes, and was dressed in armor nearly from head to hoof. The white alicorn strode forward to greet him but Spike merely screamed and ran back inside.
"Well now, that was strange." Kai said with a hint of curiosity, "I haven't had that happen since that time I communed with a member of the Aldmeri Dominion about 200 years ago." he said as the little dragon's reaction was very similar to that of the Altmer he spoke to introduce himself as a benefactor to mortals.
"Ah well best follow him inside then." Garrin said with a shrug.
Spike continued to run towards the throne room where Twilight, Rainbow Dash, AJ, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Celestia, and Luna were waiting to meet these strangers. Twilight stopped Spike by capturing him in her magical grip. "Put me down there are monsters out there!" Spike shouted fearful of his life. "I don't want.." his rant was cut short when Twilight placed a hoof on his mouth to get him to calm himself.
"Spike," Princess Luna started, "What did they look like, the monsters you saw?" she asked with a slight twinge of fear for what these so called monsters looked like.
"Well one was a white alicorn with a dark brown mane and tail, had eyes that are similar to Nightmare Moon's, but they were hazel, and he was wearing some very strange clothes, but the second one terrifies me the most because of its red eyes, and black and red armor!" Spike said recounting the brief encounter he had with the new visitors.
"How do you remember so much about them when you ran away from them one minute ago?" Luna asked with one eyebrow arched.
"Because they're standing right behind you!" Spike shouted at the top of his lungs before completely losing consciousness. Luna then quickly turned to see the two ponies the little dragon had described were standing behind her with very concerned looks on their faces.
"Is he going to be alright?" Kai asked the group of ponies about the little dragon that was currently unconscious.
"He'll be fine, just give me a minute." Twilight said before dumping a bucket of water on Spike to wake him up. Spike gasped from the freezing cold water that shocked him back into consciousness.
"Drem Yol Lok, Zu'u Kai, Arhk Daar Los Garrin." Kai spoke in Dragon's Tongue assuming that Spike understood the language. "Hmm, Krosis, innumerable pardons I thought you spoke Dov." he said apologizing to the young dragon.
"Dov, what does that mean?" Spike asked with an arched eyebrow.
"It means 'dragon' where we come from." Garrin said clarifying what the word meant. "What you heard my master say was 'Hello, I am Kai, and this is Garrin." he said translating Kai's greeting to the ponies standing before them.
"And where are you from, if that doesn't bother you." Fluttershy said hoping that the two wouldn't mind answering her query.
"My servant and I hail from the land of Tamriel." Kai said with pride. "It's a place home to many interesting races, conflicts, etc." he continued to say before being interrupted by Celestia. "What do you mean 'races'?" Celestia asked as if ponies weren't the only race in that land. "By 'races' I mean beings like elves, men, Khajiit, and Argonians." Kai said with his memory serving him correctly. "Why do you ask?" he asked perplexed as how the concept of such races not existing in this land.
"It's just that we've never seen or heard of such creatures before, are they nice?" Fluttershy asked.
"That depends." Garrin said vaguely.
"Depends on what exactly?" Luna asked.
"It depends on who you talk to. For example, if you speak to a Dunmer, or Dark Elf, they'll say that the other races are nothing but beasts fit for servitude, so basically, every race has their own opinion about the others." Garrin explained to Luna hoping to clarify anything that confused the mare.
"I see", Luna said somewhat unsettled by Garrin's answer. "I'm so sorry where are our manners, we've been asking you two all of these questions, and we haven't even introduced ourselves. My name is Princess Luna." Luna said extending a hoof. Garrin and Kai both bowed before Luna in respect. "And this is my sister Celestia, her former student Twilight Sparke, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash." She said pointing to each of the other ponies in the room.
"Pleased to meet y'all" AJ said tipping her hat at them.
"Yeah you guys seem cool." RD said with her usual cocky attitude.
"Where in Equestria did you get those exquisite clothes and armor, they look simply magnificent!" Rarity said completely focuses on Kai and Garrin's attire. Everypony else simply rolled their eyes at Rarity's behavior.
"I made my armor myself, but Garrins' armor is just standard issue." Kai said in response to the fashionista's question.
"Yup that's Rarity for ya, but now let's PARTY!" Pinkie was sure to shout the last word at the top of her lungs.
"Oh dear, I hope that isn't offensive to you two or anything." Fluttershy said while hiding behind her mane.
"Not at all, in fact, I could go for a party right now." Kai said waving a dismissive hoof at Fluttershy's concern.
"Now that we have introductions out of the way, I would say that both of our respective groups have left some good first impressions." Celestia said with a smile.
"I couldn't agree more, but for now, let's PARTY!" Kai said with giddiness in his voice as his wings flared out.