Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, Equestria
12/8/3
2:17 A.M.
Princess Celestia awoke screaming. When Princess Luna charged into the royal bedchambers with several guardsponies, she did not find some horrifying monster of shadows and chaos like she expected, but something even worse – her sister shuddering on the bed with a look of utterly helpless terror on her face. Luna walked up to her sister – slowly, in order to not startle her – and put a comforting foreleg around the distraught Princess of the Sun. “Sister…” she whispered. “What is wrong? What has happened?”
Celestia took a moment to compose herself, then looked up into her sister’s eyes. “I have had a most terrible dream. I think we are about to encounter the worst threat Equestria has ever faced… and this time, I’m afraid we won’t be able to protect everypony…”
Galactic Grid Coordinates: G-14
System: E-9015 (TEMPORARY: AWAITING OFFICIAL DESIGNATION)
Date: 28:3:29
Coruscant Standard Time: 14:36
“Admiral on deck!”
The bridge crew of the Vindicator-class heavy cruiser Implacable snapped to attention at the stormtrooper’s announcement, just before the turbolift doors hissed open to reveal a tall man in a grey-green uniform and black boots. He quickly returned the salutes he received, bringing his hand up to the edge of his receding, near-white hair. A fatherly grin crossed his lightly-lined face as he surveyed his men.
“At ease.”
Admiral Sturm Gavrisom strode across the central walkway between the two crew pits with a slight spring in his step as the officers turned back to their work. He may have been almost seventy years old, but he was still in excellent shape and had about a third of his life left – provided he didn’t go down with his ship anytime soon, of course, but that seemed incredibly unlikely. No major Separatist holdouts had been discovered for years, and while there was always the occasional group of malcontents and terrorists to put down, the chances of his squadron encountering any hostiles in the Trilon Sector more powerful than a pirate frigate were vanishingly slim, seeing as it was a backwater even for the Outer Rim. Of course, his expeditionary group wasn’t in the Trilon Sector anymore, but the Empire’s allies, the Chiss Ascendancy, had quite a watchful eye on the Unknown Regions. Any species with hyperspace capabilities would have surely been encountered by now, and any that had not yet reached that level of technological development would be no threat to the might of the Empire.
The reason for his presence on the bridge seemed to fit that theory nicely. The discovery of a new planet was always a cause for cheer, especially one as seemingly hospitable as this one. While he only had a very preliminary report, indications were that it was a temperate world with an atmosphere breathable for humans, a fairly standard gravity, one large moon, and no orbital defenses – ripe for colonisation. As he reached the viewports, his second-in-command, Captain Ulan Cortess, handed him a datapad.
“Sir, the Manka and the Nexu have just entered reconnaissance positions, and should be transmitting detailed scans of the planet momentarily.”
“Excellent, Captain.” Sure enough, information began scrolling across the screen almost immediately. Average planetary radius of a little under six and a half thousand kilometers; average orbital distance of one AU from the system’s single star; orbital speed of thirty kilometers per second; rotational speed of four hundred and sixty-five meters per second; mass of just under six billion exagrams; elemental composition of about thirty-two percent iron, thirty percent oxygen, fifteen percent silicon, thirteen percent magnesium, and no more than five percent any other individual element; average surface temperature of fourteen degrees; atmosphere composed of seventy-eight percent nitrogen, twenty-one percent oxygen, and one percent various other gases, none of which were toxic enough to pose any significant threat to humans in such small quantities; surface gravity of one g; about three quarters of the planet covered in water, most of it salty; a varied geography including forests, mountains, plains, deserts, ice caps, tropical jungles…
Hang on…
Strangely geometric and orderly shapes; large quantities of surface metal, even though any metals exposed to the atmosphere should have oxidised millions, if not billions of years ago; consistent electrical flows…
There was civilisation on this planet! Strange, though. No sign of any radio signals, or of any of the inevitable waste products of industry. Still, the other signs were certain. There was definitely a sapient species with some level of technological ability on that planet. Gavrisom handed the datapad back to Cortess and walked over to the communications officer. “Are we picking up any recognisable signals from the planet?”
“Ah, no, sir,” the young lieutenant replied. “If you think we should, I can run a diagnostic on the instruments.”
“No, I’m sure our comm systems are operating just fine.” Hmm… Telepathy could explain the absence of radio communications, but what about the lack of industry? Gavrisom came to a decision. “Prepare to send an un encrypted audio message across all channels.”
“Yes, sir.” The officer worked at his station for a moment, then turned back to the admiral. “All ready, sir. Just give the word.”
Gavrisom spent a few minutes mentally preparing a short speech, then motioned for the lieutenant to begin the transmission. “Greetings, inhabitants of this unknown world. Please do not be alarmed. I am Admiral Sturm Gavrisom of the Galactic Empire, the government recognized as the rightful rulers of the galaxy by almost all sapient beings. We wish to establish peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with you. If you are receiving this message, please respond in whatever way you can. Again, we do not bear you any ill intent. We simply want peaceful coexistence. Please respond to this message.” He nodded to the lieutenant, who cut the signal.
Cortess walked up to his superior officer's side. “Do you really think they’ll buy it?”
“Not if they have anything even resembling intelligence, no – and that’s even assuming they understand Basic. Still, if they don’t start scrambling every military asset they have, there are only two particularly likely options: either they’re too technologically underdeveloped to have radios, or they’ve got some form of trap already laid out for us. The first is beneficial for us, as it indicates that the natives will either fight poorly or immediately realise their helpless position and just give up. As for the latter… well, that’s what TIEs are for.”
The comm officer looked away from his station and up at Gavrisom. “Sir, we are receiving no response to your message.”
Cortess checked the data still flowing in from the recon ships. “No changes to the readings. It would appear that the inhabitants have failed to receive your communiqué.”
Gavrisom nodded. “Lieutenant, transmit to all hanger crews – launch all fighter elements to scout the planet.”
“Yes, sir.”
Castle of Friendship, Ponyville, Equestria
3:24 A.M.
Princess Twilight Sparkle pulled away from her telescope with a frown on her face. She had been up late doing some research when she noticed twelve new stars appear in the sky a little over an hour ago. They had moved in a strange, unpredictable pattern for a few minutes, then came to a stop. Any change in Luna’s night sky was a major event, but what really bothered Twilight was that she couldn’t find anything about this in any of her books! She was fairly certain Luna would have alerted all of Equestria if this was a planned event – the Princess of the Night did so love having other ponies look at the beautiful designs she made with the stars. But if this was a sign of some important event, why wasn’t there anything about it in her books? The movement of the stars that had heralded the return of Nightmare Moon had been predicted, so what could the lack of prophecies regarding the appearance of new stars mean?
She sighed. She didn’t want to wake Spike in the middle of the night just to make him send a message, but as much as she didn’t like to admit it, she clearly wasn’t going to solve this mystery by herself. She needed the help of the Royal Sisters, and she got the feeling this was too important to wait until morning – aside from the obvious fact that the stars wouldn’t still be there in the morning, of course. Starting to leave the balcony, she froze, her sensitive ears picking up an otherworldly noise: faint, but growing louder. She got back to the railing in time to see two huge, black and gray… things… fly over Ponyville at a speed that would impress the Wonderbolts and emitting a screech that sounded like all of the worst monsters of the Everfree Forest rolled into one. As lights came from houses all across town, the ponies inside startled awake by the infernal noise, Twilight looked over at Canterlot. Against the night sky, she could just make out two dark dots flying above it. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Twilight realized that she had just discovered what those new stars meant.