The the early morning sky's soft starlight mixed with the light of the full moon gently shining down on the new statue of Starswirl the bearded in Twilight's garden. It had just been installed upon her request, she wanted it ready for when she opened the castle doors for the public. After all the traveling Starswirl the bearded museum agreed to host their entire exhibit in her own castle. She had plenty of room for it, and this way she got an excuse to spend extra time with all the 'Starswirlly goodness' as Pinkie called it. However, this had to wait till AFTER the summer sun celebration which again this year was in Ponyville.
Ever since Luna's return Ponyville had become quite a popular spot for many things. Whether it was fate, planned, or something else; nopony in Equestria could argue that Ponyville, despite being small was a very important place as of current. That and for some time also the home of the princess of friendship. The summer sun celebration was not entirely a surprising thing to have in Ponyville anymore. Though the happy ponies who made it a point to go every year had only just got settled in from all over Equestria, as did the Starswirl the bearded traveling museum. They had almost finished setting up everything but decided to break away to make sure they were in time to see Celestia raise the sun.
Everypony was happily scattering about getting their treats before the street vendors closed just so they could see the sunrise. The Wonderbolts had to drag one of their hungrier members off so they could be in place on time for the big event. Twilight stood waiting just off to the side of the stage, Princess Luna and Celestia had offered her a place on the stage but she respectfully declined. Half the Apple family showed up as did the entire Pie family. Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo watched from a cloud happily snacking together. The whole town was here and read
The last of the crowds gathered happily and the sisters stood tall for them. Smiling and waving the two waited until Mayor Mare finished her ever so flattering speech and the crowds died down a little. Before walking into place Luna gave a warm smile to her sister. "I am glad we can do this together my sister... I don't think this will ever get old." The heartwarming smile then was offered to everypony who stood before the sisters as Luna raised her head and lowered the moon gracefully, then Celestia took to the skies and raised the sun in splendid fashion. They looked upon their ponies happy only that they were happy. Millennia of trials and pain, every day was worth seeing her precious ponies live and be happy. They could ask for nothing more.
The light of the rising sun shined bright and Celestia began to descend slowly for effect. It worked too, looking into the happy faces of the masses of ponies. Though her heart skipped a beat when a massive shadow cast itself over the crowd. Luna too turned about as the smiles in the crowds vanished replaced with worry and mostly fear.
Panic spread like wildfire as they all saw it in the sky. It blotted out the sun, it was so massive that it nearly swallowed up the entire sky as it slowly drifted allowing the sunlight to shine once again. Ponies stampeded out of the open to get to cover. Quickly the royal guards struggled to maintain order. The pegasus who did not panic quickly swooped down to pick up young ones that could be hurt under hoof. Twilight leaped up onto stage quickly coming to Celestia's side wearing the same mask of fear.
"What is it?....wh...what could that be?..."
Celestia and Luna both turned with the same confusion. It looked to be that they were about to answer before they suddenly cringed in dire pain, as did Twilight, and every single unicorn and alicorn across the face of their world. Every magic bearing race could feel the pounding voice within them. it was not a voice of anger or conquest, but a voice of pain, of sorrow. It was a voice of a broken and dying thing, despair, a fragile flickering candle in the soft wind.
'We... seek... him...are you... there?....we... burn in our... loss...in our pain...'
The words were CLEARLY not equestrian or any known language but all who heard the words understood them. This did nothing to calm the populace of the world.
"Sister!... it is much larger than the moon but not larger than the sun, just a lot closer let us move it!" Luna's still frightened voice rang out over the clattering panicked ponies.
Celestia agreed with the thought. But this thing was colossal. Even if she were to move it, it was doubtful that she could place it anywhere that would hide it. In truth Celestia had already been feeling the thing out to try and see exactly what it was. It was round like the sun or moon only dull dark gray, like it was made out of old yet poorly polished iron. It was clearly massive, easily only 20% smaller than the sun itself, yet it was almost as close to their world as the moon was. "It is worth a try sister...." She was still concerned that the massive form in the sky did not appear to even in the slightest, effect the gravity of their world. But she cleared her mind for the task ahead.
Closing her eyes Luna and Celestia both reached out to grasp the mass in the sky. Even Twilight stood up beside them. She had only raised the sun and moon once before though that was with all the alicorn magic in Equestria flowing through her and even then she almost could not do it. Though she still had enough power to at the very least help. The mass in the sky began to glow with the mixed colors of their magics but just as slowly a rich red glow flushed over the sphere in the sky and forcefully brushed their magic away without even the laziest of efforts.
The three Alicorns reeled back in shock and the small level of pain that accompanied the show of force against their power. "What was THAT!?" Twilight shook her head trying to regain her focus as the mass stayed perfectly still in their skies. Her eyes narrowed sharply at the shape in the sky.
"Sister!... there!" Luna pointed up firmly with her hoof. Following with their eyes, Celestia and Twilight could see what Luna's sharp eyes had picked out of shadows of the massive form. It looked like a grain of sand at the massive form of light and darkness. It took some time but they could all tell it was moving quickly, growing and moving until it was both only around two miles above Ponyville and the true scope of the 'grain of sand' could be seen. It looked smooth and sleek in design. Black and gray in color and the size of all of Canterlot all within the space that was above Ponyville.
Anypony who had not been screaming and panicking before now made up for the lack of such actions. Celestia's outstretched hoof leveled as her voice bellowed orders to the royal guard. "Rally! We know not what is transpiring but not one of my ponies may be harmed, TO ARMS!"
The guards rushed into position as all who had not yet ran for cover were ushered away with speed just in time for the new shape in the sky to let out odd puffs of clouds that quickly appeared to be some form of exhaust for three large metal shapes roughly twice the size of a large carriage each. The whole way down the Wonderbolts pestered the metal objects like they were alive and hopefully able to be driven off. Just barely missing the houses each heavy metal frame rested in surprisingly small craters. The royal guard leveled spears slowly approaching.
Every hoof fall was in dire caution and endless suspense. One such guard, only just barley close enough to poke the nearest metal object with his spear gulped and inched closer. "... What is this thing?... I think ... I don't think its..." A loud clank and hiss made the guard jump so hard he almost lost his helmet. What looked to be a metal door popped open, dropping to the floor and something rolled out. Covered head to toe in metal it walked on two legs stood only four feet tall and peeked about curiously with small naked eyes before seeing the guard, its face had a surplus of emotion as it too jumped landing in the open and almost waiting arms of what looked an identical being only two feet taller with a sharp visor and helmet covering all its fleshy features. The second being placed the smaller one on the ground and gave it a firm swat upside the head before turning to the guard who in a panic thrusted his spear up at the bipedal creature. His eyes clenched shut in fear and panic the young guard did not see the flash but he smelled the smoke. Opening his eyes he looked at his spear which had been utterly obliterated, all he now held was a smoldering shaft of his once standard issue weapon.
The bipedal creature holstered an odd looking object still wafting blue smoke and gently extended its fingertips which quickly and effectively brushed the guard aside with an invisible force like if he was made of paper. Unharmed but scared out of his mind the guard fell flat foaming at the mouth. Other guards approached before the metal object that had fallen from the sky opened up entirely. a small handful of other short and small beings popped out along with one utterly massive nine foot tall creature of the same general shape but it radiated a power very similar to unicorn magic at an extremely high frequency. The new beings appeared too thin in certain areas to hold biological bodies within as the other two types seemed to have, as well the being before them unlike the others had a chest that did not gently raise and fall to show that it breathed. It spared only a single glance down at the guards of which few charged throwing spears or lashing out at the fearsome metal giant. The weapons harmlessly bounced off and the giants ignored the ponies as they stood firmly between ponies and the smaller bipedals.
Celestia stared in question and fear. Flying up to the small group of non ponies she could see slowly making their way away from the crowds. "HALT!... By my right as ruler of this nation I command you to halt!... who are you... why do you intrude upon our nation?" She glared firmly but the metal giants paid no attention to her, slowly walking as the other much shorter beings trotted along.
"Celestia!... The direction they are heading!" Twilight pointed firmly from above. She had flown higher to get a better view of the town only to notice that all three of the metal objects had released the same thing and all three groups were heading in the same direction. "They are heading towards my castle!"
Celestia did not want to resort to violence but this had too many unknowns. These beings utterly ignored her and refused to even attempt to communicate now they were heading towards Twilight's castle. It would not have been that big of a panic if it had been any other building but they knew close to nothing about the magics flowing through the building. They only knew that it was connected to Equestria as a whole, nopony knew exactly to what extent this magic could be used. Fearing the worst she prepared herself and swooped down blasting a mass of her magic at the metal giants. She aimed for their legs hoping only to slow their advance, hoping desperately to salvage what she could of this event and end it without some sort of war she was uncertain she could even win.
The magic arced towards the metal giant but took an extremely sharp turn as it violently ricochet off an invisible force. One of the smaller beings stood atop the metal giant's shoulder staring up at her, a staff in its hand the small being bent its knees and sat firmly on the giant's shoulder turning away from Celestia. Celestia's reaction had to be precise. It appeared these things did not want to fight, whatever the little thing did it clearly just deflected alicorn level magic with relative little effort but still did not retaliate.
"Guards!... fall back...Sister... with me... do not attack... Everypony stand down!.... Twilight you come as well..."
Luna took to the skies joining Celestia as Twilight made her way over as well. Slowly they followed, despite being what appeared to be a very powerful group of individuals with nopony even capable of halting them they seemed to sure take their sweet time making their way forward. "Sister do we plan to let them just do what they like?... surely we can do more, do you plan to mount a conjoined effort? Shall we hit them with more powerful spells when they are away from the populace?" Luna glanced at her sister as she watched the alien group carefully.
"No...." Luna's eyes went wide and she stared at her sister. Twilight too was a little concerned with Celestia's answer. "You can feel it cant you?...the same power coming from these few... there is something MUCH larger from up there..." She paused to point a hoof at the mass in the sky. "These few judging by their actions are NOT here to harm anypony... and honestly.. seeing what they have done so far do you really think you could do ANYTHING to stop them?"
The returned answer was an aggravated silence from Luna and a nervous silence from Twilight as the trio made their way along the same path, following the strange bipedal creatures. "Luna, Celestia, we already know they are going for my castle. We don't know if they will prevent us from following or not, so lets get in there first... maybe we can find out what they want or stop them from doing something terrible."
Celestia paused as if weighing the idea and risk but Luna with an annoyed sigh flared her power and teleported them into Twilight's map room. "If they are coming then they are obviously coming for the map!... we all know its got some crazy power with near unlimited potential... lets put this to the test. Perhaps when they unleash the power of the map we can feed off of it and strike them down, we will then have a new weapon..."
Celestia nudged her sister and gave a firm 'shhhhh!' Staring out at her she moved a little closer to the door. "Don't be so quick to find a solution in violence..."
"Sister!... this is our home, I will defend it and our ponies to my last breath...even if the fight is hopeless." She sternly glared at Celestia as if to tell her that surrendering was just not on the menu.
Twilight stepped between them clearing her throat. "Um... ok I am all in favor of defending Equestria but calm down, they are at the door" She gestured for the sisters to be silent as the group listened. Even this deep into the castle the sounds of the front door to the castle being fiddled with could be heard, mostly because the lock was magically set so the 'sound of fiddling' was the loud crash of a metal fist plunging through the front door.
"Ok... they will be following the power signature from the map... step back you two and lets see what happens..." Luna cringed at her sister's words but nodded stepping back firmly along side Twilight. Celestia herself stood slightly closer than the other two, if she could, she would gladly stand between whatever harm may come from this event and the two closest ponies to her in all her world.
The footfalls of the invaders sounded clearly though for some odd reason the metal giants seemed to desire to remain outside. Twilight gulped and Luna crouched as the sounds of the two footed patterns slowly made their way up to the door, then with some confusion, PAST the door. The entire group could be heard not so much as skipping a single stride as they made their way past the map room.
"Wait.... what?.... Sister.... what is going on?" Luna's expression was one of grave confusion and almost disappointment.
Twilight's eyes shot wide and her ears dropped low. "um... There, um.. there is something else in the castle they might... um.. most likely are after....."
Both sisters glanced back at Twilight as she moved forward and pulled open the doors gesturing for them to follow. The three Alicorns moved quickly down the halls following the crowd of aliens until Twilight screeched to a halt spreading her wings firmly calling the others to a halt and she leveled a hoof, pointing at the sight before them.
The alien group had entered one of the larger rooms in the castle, the very same room designated by Twilight for a certain group to set up in. "The traveling Starswirl the Bearded Museum?" Celestia poked her nose in. It took her a few seconds to realize that they had posted guards who were promptly ignoring her despite that she only noticed because she was a mere two feet from them. They looked at her with a quick glance then continued staring firmly at the others who stood in a soft semicircle with only two figures standing in the center digging through the displays. However, they did not appear to be damaging anything, simply being very very careful to open things and sort through them. It did not take long at all for them to find what it looked like they were looking for.
The shorter one hefted the small metal box, Twilight had seen it before. It was something of a knickknack that Starswirl had apparently dragged everywhere with him. All that was known about it was that it was used as a chair when he was traveling and he took it everywhere when he traveled. Though this did not answer why these beings were interested in the little box.
The smaller one lifted the box up to the taller one who took it firmly. He took it in a single hand and focused, an invisible force could be felt welling up inside him before it released peeling the top off like a tin can. The tall figure looked within the box and shuttered. His armored hand came to his helmet and pulled it off revealing a tired pale face with pure white hair. He shivered for a bit before he threw his helmet against the floor before crumpling to his knees looking into the box with tears dribbling down his cheeks.
"M... Malok'ter... Es bven Bjaarn..."He held the box to his chest firmly curling up as the smaller one came to his side pulling off its helmet to reveal two perky almost cat like ears atop its head, dull gray hair over a weathered bronze colored feminine skin. It looked female and old, not very old but old enough. She too teared up as she stood next to him. Kneeling with him she hugged him. Luna quickly and quietly cast a spell that crackled inside the ears of Twilight and Celestia before clearing up. They did not waste time asking what it was for when the answer came out quickly.
The tall one spoke again in a gruff masculine but broken and sad voice. "My boy is gone...we are far too late, they are all gone..."
"Terahone!... you could not have known....no one could have. He is remembered by all as a hero... " The smaller one drew out a pure white cloth and laid it gently upon the ground before reaching into the box and removing its contents. One metal hand missing two fingers, Though it swirled with magic beaming with bright runes. She lay it gently in the cloth and wrapped it firmly. "Terahone.... I am taking what is left to the hall of heroes... the Patriarch himself will lay him to rest... your son has returned to us...."
He shrugged off her affection but did not get up. "I thank you for your sympathy Tarashushu... but it is not needed.... I am all that remains of my lineage...when you return to the ark... tell the Patriarch that I have chosen my end here....I want only to see my boy again... my boy... his daughter... There is nothing left for me on the Ark... the Golden Crusade will continue without me..."
The Small woman shed a tear and nodded. "As you wish....The Monarchy, the Empire, and the Tribes will miss you...may she forever guide your steps and reunite you with your blood...." She turned to leave as did the others as the man breathed in deep and looked up before he exhaled and his already pale skin went even more pale and he simply slumped over. The life had left his body. Only one of those retreating from the room stopped. He gently reached over plucking up the old helmet that had been thrown to the ground before turning to follow the group.
The small woman and another of the taller bipedals stopped firmly at the door and the woman leveled her eyes at Celestia as her ears remained down. She placed a small device between them on the ground and Luna's spell squealed in their ears before failing and the woman spoke in plain Equestrian. "I suppose we owe you and your kin an explanation...."