Prologue
There are two types of ponies in Equestria. Those who were morning ponies and those who required a steady injection of caffeine to make it into the afternoon.
Princess Celestia belonged to the second group.
The princess sighed as she grasped a ceramic mug with her magic and took a sip of the dark liquid inside. Black. No cream, no sugar. Not that she didn't enjoy sweet coffee, but it tended to make her feel slightly nauseous after the third cup. Besides, the taste wasn't the reason she was drinking it. She gloomily looked over the rather large pile of papers sitting on the left side of her desk. Many ponies seem to have this idea that being a princess was the high life. Though, who could blame them? After all, Celestia and Luna have done a very good job of playing to the crowd. Celestia had always assumed that maintaining a happy-go-lucky positive image to her people would help maintain peace and happiness throughout her land. This was true, to some degree at least. There may have been many threats to her kingdom in recent times, but her people had never given up their trust and loyalty in the rulers of their land. Still, it never gets easier hiding the stress (and boredom) caused by her workload.
Maybe I can convince the public that there is a shortage in trees so I can slow down the production of these blasted papers.
Celestia glared at the stack once more. Perhaps if she stared at it long enough, it would magically sort itself out. When it didn't, she let out a frustrated huff. This was always her least favorite part of her position. There is nothing more dull and tedious than sorting out the Equestrian budget. However, it had to be done. The stack of papers was composed of things such as the repair and upkeep of towns, loan documents, bank statements, and payroll information for government employees. In over a thousand years of ruling, the process of balancing Equestria's budget has never become any less arduous and complicated. If it weren't for the risk of the economy crashing, Celestia might have tried to push this task onto her sister so she wouldn't have to deal with it. As horrible as it might sound, Celestia wasn't convinced that Luna had a full grasp on the current policies and processes of the Equestrian economy. Luna may have been back from the moon for a few years now, but she was still adjusting to the change that a thousand years of absence brings. Celestia grasped the top page with her magic and placed it in the center of her desk. She then took a quill and began to read the document. Or she would have, had a guard not entered the room.
"Your Royal Highness! A thousand apologies for disturbing you, but two delegates of Saddle Arabia are here to see you," the stallion said.
Saved by the bell.
Celestia looked over and smiled. Beside the guard stood two rather tall ponies, their height on the cusp of rivaling the princess's. One was a brown stallion with a wheat blonde mane, wearing a blue and orange saddle and helmet. He also wore a leather saddlebag with a bulge on the right pocket indicating it was filled with something. The other was a blush pink mare with an indigo mane, wearing a blue and purple saddle and headdress. She nodded to the ponies standing in the doorway of her throne room and stood up from her desk.
"Ah, Haakim," Celestia said, motioning to the stallion. Turning to the mare, she continued. "Amira! It is wonderful to see you both again. I was wondering when you'd sav-" She let out a small cough quickly corrected herself. "Er, that is to say, I wasn't expecting to see you this early. Your letter seemed to indicate you would not be here until the early afternoon. Had I known you would be early, I would have prepared some tea for us." Haakim offered a respectful bow to the princess.
"My apologies princess," he began, "but we felt obligated to bring this subject to you in person, and as soon as possible." Celestia raised her eyebrows at that. The letter she received from the delegates a few days prior only contained the request of a personal meeting to discuss unspecified Equestrian matters. The lead-in Haakim gave her sounded much graver than the letter implied. Celestia nodded.
"I understand," she said. She motioned to the guard and smiled at him. "Thank you for seeing these two in. You may go now. Please be sure that no one disturbs us." The guard gave a quick salute and trotted out of the room. Celestia closed the door behind him and began walking towards her throne, motioning the delegates to follow. As she sat upon it, she resumed her conversation with Haakim and Amira. "Your letter to me was quite vague. If this matter is as urgent as you make it sound, why did you not write me some of the details? Perhaps I could have prepared more for this meeting." Haakim glanced nervously at Amira, unsure of how to respond. She reassured him with a quick nod before turning her attention to Celestia to give her an answer.
"We felt this issue was too sensitive to be discussed in letters." She spoke quick and concise, though her worried eyes deceived her confident facade. "We're not entirely sure what we have, and we did not want to risk this information falling into ill hooves." Celestia raised an eyebrow.
"Well," she asked, "what do you have then?" Amira stepped forward and began her explanation.
"Six days ago, many of our top researchers and unicorns sensed a large spike in magical energy outside the eastern border of our nation." She began slowly pacing past Haakim as she continued. "When it was first felt, many had assumed that it wasn't anything to worry about. We figured the most likely possibility was a spell gone wrong. When the energy didn't begin to fade away… well, our leader got worried after the first couple of hours. A search party was sent out to locate the source of the magical energy." Celestia held a hoof to her chin, taking in Amira's words. As she processed the information, a sudden realization struck her. It was something she should have realized the moment Haakim and Amira walked into her throne room. Her eyes widened as she stole a glance at the bulge in Haakim's saddlebags.
"Please pardon the interruption," Celestia begged in a slightly worried tone, "but you said the energy didn't fade?"
Amira stopped in her tracks and turned towards Celestia. Noticing the look the princess had on her face, she quickly shot a worried glance at Haakim. Haakim stayed silent, still unsure on how to proceed. After a few moments of awkward silence, he decided to just state the obvious.
"You feel it too, don't you?"
Celestia nodded. "You may continue." Amira cleared her throat, attempting to dislodge the sudden shakiness in her hooves.
"W-well, anyway. Our search team found the source of the magic out in the deserts bordering our nation. An artifact."
"It was lying in a crater in the sand," Haakim took over for his nervous partner. "The search party would have just brushed it off as a meteorite, but the amount of magical energy could not be ignored. On top of that, the crater was made by a magical force, not a physical impact."
"So the artifact was teleported then?" Celestia asked.
"That is our theory, yes. However, if true, the amount of magical energy that must have been used would be far past overkill for teleportation. Unless…" He nervously shifted his eyes to the side,
"Unless what?" Celestia asked softly. Haakim gave a small sigh.
"Unless the distance teleported exceeds that beyond what would be possible on our planet."
Celestia took in a sharp gasp. Her mind reeled through the implications that this had. The distance traveled would not be possible on the planet? Did that mean that the artifact was teleported from somewhere up in the stars? Maybe from the moon? Or even beyond! It was intimidating to think about. And what about the artifact itself? If it came from beyond the stars, why was it sent here? What purpose did it serve? There was a long bout of silence as Celestia mulled over her thoughts. The two delegates stood still, watching and waiting for the princess's reaction. Celestia composed herself and motioned her hoof towards Haakim's saddlebag.
"May I see the artifact?"
Haakim nodded and removed his saddlebag, carefully setting it down on the floor. With a quick push of a button on the latch, the saddlebag was opened. He reached in and pulled out the somewhat oddly shaped artifact. It had three sides. One side was concave in shape, and the other two were somewhat flat. The overall shape almost had a funnel-like quality to it. It had a worn tan-grey color with a heavily cracked surface on the concave side and strange purple glowing lines that curved slightly around the side. The other two sides seemed to hold the same glowing purple energy, though more of it. The light on the artifact flowed smoothly, creating an almost water-like lighting effect. Celestia stared at it, not having seen anything like it in her entire lifetime. Haakim offered the artifact to the princess, who grasped the object with her magic.
The moment her tendrils of magic touched the artifact, she could sense the energy flowing from within the strange object. It felt very odd to her. Over a thousand years of life would give anybody a good sense of understanding of their world. Celestia had thought she had that. As an alicorn princess, she felt that magic was something she knew absolutely everything about. She had seen, felt, and performed all kinds of magic throughout her life. After enough exposure of it, she thought she was done with being thrown curveballs. As she held the artifact up to her face to better examine it, she focused her mind on feeling the magic within. It wasn't the most powerful magic she had felt, but it was there, and it was definitely foreign to her. As farfetched as it might have sounded when she first heard it, Celestia was very much beginning to believe that this object was not born on this planet.
In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if it was not born in this galaxy.
Celestia shook the thoughts from her head and turned her attention to the delegates.
"Do your people know of this theory?"
"Only government appointed researchers," Amira answered. "And our leader of course. We do not want to cause panic amongst our people."
"A wise decision." Celestia sighed and pondered her options. She figured the number one priority would be to find out what exactly the artifact was. Perhaps if she could find the purpose of its existence, it would help answer her questions. Finding out what the magical energy is used for would be a good start. But how exactly would she do that?
She chuckled as she mentally answered her own question.
"I assume your researchers have already dug into the artifact in attempts to find out what it is?" The delegates both nodded in unison. "Well then. If your nation would allow it, I humbly request that you leave the artifact with me so I may attempt to solve this little mystery." She flashed a small grin towards the delegates. "I think I know just the pony who can tackle this sort of challenge." Haakim and Amira bowed at the princess.
"Of course princess," Amira said. "Our sole reason for coming here, other than to inform you of the situation, was to ask for your help. Saddle Arabia respects your wisdom as well as your kindness. We have faith that you will be able to figure this out." Haakim nodded.
"We shall leave the artifact with you. Do not feel the need to rush your progress, but do keep in touch with us yes? After all, this could end up affecting more than just Equestria." Celestia nodded.
"Indeed. Thank you for coming you two. I'd love to have some tea with you and chat but..." She glanced over at her desk mournfully. "Well, I have quite a bit of work to do. I promise I shall give you a progress report somewhat sporadically at least twice a month."
"Thank you," Amira said. "Peace be with you, Princess Celestia." The delegates turned and left the throne room, doors closing behind them.
Celestia exhaled loudly as if she had been holding her breath for the entire meeting. Now that she had been left to her thoughts, a thousand more possibilities entered her mind. However, now they were slightly clouded by a small semblance of a plan. It wasn't really a plan she had direct control over once she put it in action, but it was a start. First she had to tell Luna about this once she woke up. They needed to discuss this with each other before involving the other princesses, especially Twilight Sparkle.
She once again caught sight of the stack of papers on her desk. She eyed them with a dangerous glare before letting out a loud huff.
This is going to be a long day. Well, at least I won't need coffee to stay awake now.