Twilight's Guide to Extraterrestrials

by Eventual Perception

The Second Communication of Karellen

"There is an army coming, coming form the stars." Twilight pointed upward from behind the podium, the Overlord ships again broadcasting her voice across Equestria. "That is why Karellen has come to us; because, unless we come together, unless we ally ourselves to one another, we cannot - we will not - stand before whatever is coming. And to that end, Karellen has a message for the two most powerful beings in Equestria: Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis. You must come together and put aside your differences. The time is drawing late, and the time for harmonizing ourselves is running out. Celestia and Chrysalis, you control the largest armies, the greatest allegiances on our planet. Karellen has told me how important it is for the two of them to come together and become one, an ally which will greatly aid in the coming trials." Twilight took a moment to pause, and look at the full room. "Fear not, citizens of Equestria. In time, Karellen will reveal himself to you, when you are ready. I have seen him, and trust me when I say that you are not ready yet. When he reveals himself, you will understand. But for now, trust in me, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and spokepony for Karellen, and in Karellen himself. Until my next communication, be safe."

---

Chrysalis slammed her hand into the bark of the tree, cracks running up and down the trunk as splinters flew in every direction. The closest soldiers shielded their eyes behind their helmets and stepped back as Chrysalis fumed and slammed the tree with her fist again, and again and again. She screamed, shrieked and hissed at the sky and the ground and the dirt and her companions. Her hair whipped about her face and her horn itched terribly and her fragile-looking wings - much tougher than most believed - buzzed frenetically. "Of course!" She screamed at the tree. "Of course! Those ships brought nothing but trouble, and that purple mare pulled me into it! Pulled me into it by name! By name, dammit! And not only that, demanded that I merge my life and my army with Celestia, as though I were some commoner to be ordered about!" She wrung her hands together as she doubled over as though she might vomit, and felt very well like she might. Never in her life had she felt so disgusted, so attacked. Not even in Canterlot. "Still, I suppose it could have been worse, you know," she said to the closest soldier, a nameless insect-stallion whose name she had never bothered to learn. "I could be expected to make nice with that wretched pink mare who defeated me."

She took deep breaths them, trying to calm herself and her violently flittering wings in front of her horde. When she was calm, she asked: "Well, one of you must have an opinion, right?" The soldiers just stared at her, not answering. "Oh, come on, one of you has got to have something. I promise, I won't bite your head off."

"Maybe we should do it? I mean, it can't be any worse than this, right?" The voice came from somewhere in the back.

"Who said that?" Chrysalis strained to look, but to her all of the soldiers looked the same. She loved them all, dearly, as her own offspring, but could not be bothered to recognize most of them.

The voice came: "Um, Kevin." The soldiers parted to reveal Kevin, as though it were some sort of movie, which gave Chrysalis reason enough to chuckle. "Well, Kevin," she said, "why can it not be worse than this? What if it is.... a trap?"

"Well, My Queen, even if it is a trap, at least then something would happen. I can't take this boredom any more. I just want something to happen, I don't care what it is."

"Boring, you say?" Chrysalis begin to pace among her underlings, edging slowly closer to Kevin, the shadows of the Everfree trees crisscrossing her shape. "You find protecting your Queen to be boring?"

"Well, yeah. A lot, to be quite honest. You know, ever since we escaped the dungeon, all we've really done is marched and migrated. Do you know how boring that is? I mean, sure it's fun for you, you've got everybody to boss around. But me? I can't do crap without catching any crap. It's terrible. We can't even fight anything, we avoid everything, it's a waste of time!"

"A waste of time, dear Kevin?" She was still edging closer, the Changeling queen moving in a seductive fashion that nevertheless portrayed very real danger, very real malice in her intent. "Do you consider it a waste of time to protect you beautiful Queen?"

"I just old you yes. Did I stutter?"

It was fast and Kevin was in the air, Chrysalis' hand at his throat and his feet dangling before he knew what had happened. He clawed at his neck and twisted his body and still the Queen's strength threatened to choke the life out of his chest. She brought his face squarely to hers, and said "I don't know. Did you?"

"P-p-p-p-possibly, m-m-maybe." Chrysalis squeezed a little harder, the hard chitin of his skin cracking slightly beneath her grip. "Y-y-yes, I think I m-may have s-s-s-stuttered."

"Do you know how long it's been since I've bred? Since I've had any real enjoyment in my life? Kevin, do you know how long it's been since your Queen had a feast? A decent meal, even? Do you? I could eat you up right here, and wouldn't think twice, you know." She looked him in the eyes, long and hard and without blinking and in his mind Kevin shrank from her gaze. She smiled, a fang sticking out over her lip, and dropped him to the ground. "Luckily for you, Kevin, I won't; I happen to like your attitude, very appropriate for a Changeling." She looked around at the others underlings. "The lot of you could learn a lot from Kevin!" She turned and walked back to the tree, leaned against it, her jagged horn resting against the tree, her ears drooping tiredly. "At any rate, if Karellen and his beloved Twilight Sparkle have brought me and Celestia up by name, then Celestia is undoubtedly considering it, if she hasn't sent the invitation already. Canterlot royalty are known for their generosity and lavish meals. Perhaps, after so long, I can finally have a meal worthy of my status." She looked away. "Prepare to move out." She looked at the horizon, vaguely visible through the thinnest expanse of trees. "I believe we need to run into town."

---

Princess Celestia, alone, burst into the map room of Twilight Sparkle. She looked up, as did Spike at her side. The three of them stared at each other, alone in the room, until, her angry huffing having subsided, Celestia spoke: "Really? Twilight, really? What was that? What was that? Don't answer that, I'll tell you what that was - that was you taking matters into your own hands when you had no right to. You should have run that by me, Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight cowered slightly, but quickly composed herself; she had never seen Celestia upset like this, never, and now it was at her. She understood why she was mad; she had every right to be, she had been called out by her star pupil in front of the world. Twilight had felt bad about that, but she had a higher calling now. She had somebody to speak for.

"I'm sorry, Celestia, but Karellen wishes to speak to the people, and I do not think he should be censored."

"Ah. I see. And what am I supposed to do about the invitation for Queen Chrysalis? About getting our armies together and becoming allies? Despite what you and Karellen think, Twilight, these things don't just happen." Celestia fell into a chair, the strap of her dress falling down over her arms and placed her head on the table, hidden in the crook of an elbow. "How am I even supposed to ask her for this?" Her voice was muffled. Seeing her former mentor go form so angry to so flustered made Twilight smile. She listened as Celestia continued: "I knew this would come. I knew it. Luna knew it. When you made the first announcement, everypony knew it. But I could somewhat ignore it until today, when our names were brought up. Now I have to deal with it, and what's worse is that I've been trying and I can't figure out how to do it. Nothing works, every possible invitation I could write sounded either horrible cliche or horribly sapphic, Twilight."

"Maybe you shouldn't be writing any invitation, Celestia. Maybe you should invite her in person."

Celestia looked up, her hair frizzled about her face and her eyes wide and unbelieving. "What?"

"Find Queen Chrysalis, and personally visit to introduce her. Find her on her grounds, alone and unarmed so that she knows you mean no harm."

"Are you out of your mind?! They'll kill me, Twilight. Kill me."

"No, they won't. Karellen has issued orders, and they'll have to listen."

"No, Twilight, they won't. They'll kill me."

"Well, then, Celestia, either they will, or whatever is coming will."

"And how do we know something is even coming, Twilight. What if it's just Karellen and the Overlords?"

"I do not believe Karellen would lie to us."

Celestia looked at Spike. "What do you think, Spike?"

"I want no part in this at all."

"Come on you have to --"

"Nope, no part. You're on your own." And with that he got up and left the room as the princesses watched.

Celestia sighed. I've never felt like such a little filly, she thought to herself. Her anger and frustration flowed through her veins and clouded her brain, but she couldn't do anything about it. She felt helpless. She looked at Twilight. "I've done a lot of things, Twilight. But I don't want to do this. How do I even begin to do this, to make such a.... a..... such a proposition to the only being who has ever bested me, Twilight?" She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. "I don't know what to do. Can't I just do nothing? For once in my life, tell me that doing nothing is an option."

"I'm afraid that's not an option, Celestia."

Celestia huffed. "Of course it isn't," she muttered to herself. She opened her eyes and stood up and walked to the door? When Twilight asked where she was going, all she said was "I have to leave."

---

Celestia loved being in the air, looking down at Equestria as her great wings held her aloft, and right now it almost did the trick. She could almost feel at peace, although that was probably due more to the fact that she had flown alone so that she could talk to herself out loud, have a one pony brainstorming session just below the clouds. "Maybe I should just do it in person," she said. "Why not, I've always been diplomatically inclined, I see no reason why I can't. Perhaps Twilight's right, maybe that is the best option." She was quiet for a moment, and then: "But where would I even find her? Where would I --" she stopped suddenly as she saw a tide of black moving just below the canopy of Everfree forest. Celestia didn't want to descend, but nevertheless she found herself doing just that, and then resolved herself to take Twilight's advice; what harm, she thought, is there in truly being the bigger person. Sure, there was an army down there - a rather large one - but she was certain she could pull this off. "I hope I can pull this off," she corrected herself.

The treetops grew closer, and she could begin to discern the individual leaves and branches, and then, beneath the, the helmets and armor of the Changeling horde. "Chrysalis!" Celestia called out, and almost at once the horde slowed to a halt and looked up. Celestia squinted as she lowered still, her speed slowing as she descended into the canopy. "Queen Chrysalis!" The horde moved outward and raised their weapons as she landed, her wings spread elegantly behind her. She tried her best not to shake as she looked around - she had landed towards the front of the horde, if the queen was anywhere, she would be here.

"What is so important you'd give me a personal visit." Chrysalis walked up through her soldiers toward Celestia, full of pompous energy that Celestia could almost feel. "Are you that eager to be defeated again?"

"Very funny," Celestia muttered. Then, she was quiet while the Changelings stared at her.

"Well? Get on with it," Chrysalis snarled. Celestia could feel Changeling eyes piercing her. Then, Chrysalis shouted: "Speak!"

Celestia cleared her mind. Here goes nothing, she thought, and then, "I've come to invite you to into Canterlot in three weeks, as a show of goodwill."

"A show of good will? And why the sudden change of heart."

"I think you know."

Chrysalis looked at the ship that hovered in the sky to the north, and then back at Celestia. "The ships? Karellen? You're precious little purple princess? You're kidding, right?"

"No, no I'm not. I am here to formally invite you - and a handful of your Changelings - to a special gala in your honor."

"In my honor? Why, I feel like a princess, now."

"I'm serious, Chrysalis. I do hope you will attend, for the sake of both of our subjects."

"And what of the Changelings I don't bring with me? What will happen to them, princess?"

"They'll be allowed to mingle with my subjects."

"Do your subjects know this? Or have you invited us to a bloody coup?"

"I'll make the announcement. If you'll grace us with your presence, that is."

A voice form back in the horde. "Grace her with your presence? Is she that desperate?!"

"Keep quiet, Kevin! I'll tell you what, Celestia - you've caught me on a good day. I'm feeling rather amiable today. I'll attend; but when will be discuss the details, Princess?"

"In two days, I will send for you; we will discuss in the presence of Twilight."

"Oh, not her......"

"Yes, her. It's only proper, this was her idea, after all."

"Don't remind me. Are you done here, then?"

"Yes, I'm done here. Until then." She gave a quick nod, jumped into the air, and was gone as soon as she had appeared.

---

Two days later, Queen Chrysalis was fetched by Twilight Sparkle, and met with Celestia in the royal castle in Canterlot, where they sat around a large oblong table and stared at each for a few minutes before Twilight began the meeting, listening to the concerns of both sides as they talked, for the most part benignly, to each other and hammered out details. When all was said and done, Twilight concluded: "So, the Changelings will be welcome in all Equestrian cities, town and villages, and will be treated like honored guests so long as none of the Changelings display any malice towards the ponies. For her part, Queen Chrysalis will stay in the royal castle in her own private -- as Queen Chrysalis insists -- suite and will be included in any and all decisions remotely related the the Changeling presence. Princess Celestia has, surprisingly, nothing she wants out of this. Although, I don't see why she would." She paused. "Anything else? No? Well, then, we should --"

"When do we see your friend?" Chrysalis asked. "I'd like to see who's big idea this is."

"Me as well," Celestia said.

Karellen's voice filled the room. "I will reveal myself at what you call the gala. By then, I believe they will be ready for my personal appearance. Do you not agree, Princess Twilight?"

"Yes, I think they'll be ready then."

Chrysalis looked around. "Wait. How is he doing that."

"My abilities are numerous, Queen Chrysalis. But if you must now, feel free to look up." Celestia and Chrysalis looked up, where a small sphere hovered fifteen feet above them. How had we missed that, Celestia thought. Karellen continued: "This is a big step for your planet. Twilight, announce to the world that I will make my appearance to them at the gala."

---

The gathered ponies looked on in shock as Twilight again stood behind the podium, this time, at her side, were Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis. Murmurs spread through the crowd and reporters scribbled the scene in their notes. The crowd fell silent as Twilight spoke.

"Karellen would like to announce that, at the upcoming Gala to celebrate the alliance between the ponies and the Changelings, he will reveal himself personally to you."