Act I, Chapter 1: Incursion Like no Other
Princess Luna flew through the dreamscape, soaring the Equestrian skies in her invisible form. She had just passed the walls of Canterlot and continued down the massive mountain, soon leaving it behind. She had no purpose here anymore, as she had already finished her task for tonight; now, she only remained in the realm for her personal pleasure - it was the only place she had complete control of, where noone would bash or criticise her anymore, at least for one moment. In the dreamscape, she felt one with the sky, she felt one with her stars. Her stars, the only ones that were always with her, that she could always turn to, even if only in this minimal, symbolic way.
Even though it has already been a few years since Luna was freed from her dark form, the ponies of Equestria have not warmed up to their new princess almost in the slightest. Yes, it was undeniably better than in the very beginning, partly thanks to the efforts of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but most still saw Luna solely as the demonic being she once was. The nature of nightmares the ponies were having only confirmed that sad fact, as the majority of them consisted of the host being outright attacked or in some other way threatened by Nightmare Moon, and the percentage only seemed to increase as time passed. At first, Luna tried to comfort the hosts by becoming part of the dream herself, as she was used to, but quickly discovered that it was useless to even try - when a pony saw her, it usually only made things worse. Instead, Luna had to turn to other, more... subtle ways.
Luna passed the expensive plains separating Canterlot from the town of Ponyville and continued to fly, clearing her mind of unpleasant thoughts and continuing to make small adjustments to the patterns on the night sky every now and then.
But suddenly, she saw a shooting star, or at least what she though was a shooting star. It seemed closer than the ones she was used to creating, somehow separated from the sky itself. At first she dismissed it as simply a mistake, or just one of the natural nighttime occurances - ones that appeared without her interference, ones she usually adjusted to fit the rest of the midnight canvas or extinguished entirely. Now too, she wanted to do exactly that. She lit up her invisible horn once again and focused on the rogue shooting star, but to her amazement it refused to comply. Maybe it was a meteor, then? But if it was, it should have obeyed her magic regardless - and, as it seemed, it didn't. Luna tried to get a hold of the anomaly again, but once more failed.
Great, she thought. Losing control of our beloved sky is just what we needed
Luna felt anger grow slightly inside her. She knew perfectly well that it couldn't be the case, but the sole perspective of losing the sky - of losing the stars and the dreamscape too - was enough to ignite such feelings. She wasn't sure where she would be then, what would happen if that was the case. This realm was virtually the only place where she was able to find rest from everyday struggles. If she lost it, who knows how little it could take to turn her into Nightmare Moon once again? She may have been exaggerating, but when she thought about it, that was what she feared the most nowadays - endangering the guards, proving her subjects' fears right... endangering her sister, once again. Her sister, who was the only pony in everyday life who Luna felt she could trust, the only person who believed in her and tried to comfort her if she was having an especially hard time. The Elements of Harmony may have cast the monster away, but after four years, Luna feared she felt it coming back to her.
Gathering her lunar magic, she focused on the shooting star once again.
No, I shall not fail to safeguard the sky! I shall regain control!
With all the will she could muster, she released her magic, trying once again in vain to grab the object. This time however, Luna didn't give up, and continued to try to manipulate the anomaly - and even though she didn't succeed, it was enough for her to feel the true nature of the object.
It is not an element of my night sky, she voiced the conclusion in her head, her incorporeal eyes widening in shock. It is a solid, artificial construct! But, that would mean, that... Perhaps I should-
Luna's thoughts were cut off as the anomaly finally crossed the sky and landed - or, more accurately, crashed - right inside the Everfree. All other thoughts quickly disappeared. Curiosity soon took over, and not wasting any more time, she dashed in the new crater's direction, wanting to examine the strange occurrence.
As Luna's immaterial form ventured deeper and deeper into the Everfree, the effects of the forest's twisted magical aura began to manifest, forcing the Princess to lower her flight. Normally they would only have a limited effect on the surrounding environment, preventing the pegasi teams from controlling the local weather on one hand, but still allowing extensive use of most magical techniques, if to a limited degree, on the other. Luna's dreamscape form was already very limited though, and so she preferred to take no chances.
After a couple more minutes, Luna lowered her flight even more, finalling touching the ground amidst the huge Everfree trees just a couple dozen meters from the newly-created clearing. From here, she began to slowly move forward, inspecting the surrounding nature as she went. At first, nothing seemed to stick out, but as Luna got closer and closer, small individual metal shards started protruding from the trees. When she first noticed them, she tried inspecting one to possibly gather more information, but quickly gave up, unable to figure anything important out. Gradually, as less and less separated the Princess from the mysterious object, trees bent noticeably more outwards - likely a result of the initial shockwave. Large scars on many of them could also be seen, as if they've been hit with something small yet very sharp at the same time. On the sides, a few trunks have fallen over, their crowns full of leaves green as green could be, clearly recently nourished.
As Luna neared the clearing, she noticed she wasn't as much moving anymore as she was walking in place. Shaking her head to cast the worries away, she forced her hooves to comply, and started to once again, although still hesitantly, approach the gap in the treeline in front of her. As she went though, she was able to voice her previous thoughts much more clearly. She did not worry for herself, no - she was still in the dreamscape after all, and even if she wasn't, she doubted whatever she could theoretically find behind the trees would pose much of a threat to her. Her sister might have taught Luna to be modest, but that did not mean she would ignore her abilities.
No, it was something else she feared. She feared what she might see across the treeline, how foreign and unknown it could be and generally what it possibly was. Luna didn't want to overreact or draw premature conclusions, but it did not take a genius to suspect what it might've been - it fell from the sky, wasn't its element, was artificial and metallic, and thus likely crafted. Luna knew she may have been exaggerating, but the conclusion seemed to form by itself nonetheless. Even if it was some new twisted griffon experiment, it still didn't seem like good news to her.
The Princess was suddenly forced out of her thoughts when she realized just how close to the clearing's border she was, and however she wanted to ignore it, a large chunk of the meadow could already be seen throught the bent trees. Luna tried to take another step, but quickly found out that her hooves once again refused to cooperate. Looking down and closing her eyes, the Princess took several deep breaths - even though it was clearly no air she was breathing - in an attempt to calm her nerves.
Reason aside, what if the object WAS what she feared it be? What then? What if it's a threat and she just turns around? What would the ponies think of her? What would Celestia think of her?
What would she think of herself?
With newly-found resolve Luna thrust her eyes open and, before she could fall into any more doubts, moved forward with one, sudden motion, finally entering the clearing.
Luna suspected she might stop dead in her tracks as soon as she sees the entire area, but curiously nothing like that happened. Instead, she quickly found out that the supposedly 'new' clearing was not new at all - the object must've been lucky enough to find its way to a pre-existing meadow, as no remains of any trees laid anywhere in the open space. It was possible though, as Luna was far from an expert on Everfree's geography, and what little she remembered had already been rendered obsolete by a thousand years of natural growth - and the further she was from the Castle of Two Sisters, the more noticeable that lack of knowledge was becoming.
In the center of the clearing was the object itself, sticking out of the flat ground like a lonely tree. Even from a dozen meters away it was clear as a summer sky that it could not be a natural occurence. Luna quickly trotted towards it, but stopped herself halfway through, deciding it would be best to examine the surroundings first. Turning to do just that, Luna began looking, but nothing new was found - the ground surrounding the construct was slashed, whether by the impact itself or the resulting shockwave she couldn't tell, and around her more of the weird metallic shrapnel was impaled into the ground, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary could be noticed, especially nothing related to the anomaly. As the Princess finished looking over the surroundings, she heard a roar in the distance, instinctively turning to face it.
A Manticore, she thought. Not our concern.
Having the advantage of the dreamscape on her side, Luna finally trotted up to the strange object itself...
...only to be scared away by a sudden spark appearing on top of the contraption. A couple screeches later another came, and then another, and there were no signs of them stopping. Luna shook her head at her foalish reaction and resumed her trot, only to briefly halt it once again just a couple meters later.
That pretty much decisively confirmed it. The construct was mechanical and apparently used electricity. Not that she hasn't suspected it before - by now its nature was pretty much obvious, hence why this new revelation didn't really affect Luna that much. It was only its origin that remained a mystery. With these thoughts, the Princess resumed her walk once again.
Only then did she really take time to inspect the object more closely. It was a metallic cylinder, or at least it looked like one until she got closer, when the dark-ish device turned out to actually be somewhat triangular. Its back wall was a short circular arc, while the two 'sides' currently faced by Luna were simple rectangular surfaces meeting at an angle. On top of the contraption, there appeared to be some sort of machinery, as this entire part was considerably more bulky and irregular. All the walls were grey, black or a mixture of the two, with small traces of other colors, making Luna wonder whether some of them were actually not original and only a result of the crash.
There was one thing however that especially caught the Princess' attention - just how damaged the contruct was and how much of it appeared to be missing. The top was still emitting ungodly amounts of sparks, and that number only seemed to increase; large chunks of metal laid on the ground near the walls, likely detached from the object, and there was even some steam coming out of a few holes on the back and front. Whatever it was, it was most definitely not operational anymore.
As Luna continued to look the thing over though, something else caught her eye. The black stains on the rectangular walls, which she had recently discovered were actually more purple-ish than black, shifted slightly. Then again, each time accompanied by a quiet crack coming from somewhere inside the construct. Luna's heart suddenly skipped a beat, as she realized what these 'stains' actually were - they were shadows, shapes of something inside visible through a semi-transparent surface. The first conclusion that formed in the Princess' mind was that of a griffon crew, which in turn immediately brought her to the decision to leave the shameless to-be-spy for themselves, or at most fund them a cosy stay in Canterlot dungeons, though a sudden mental remainder of her sister's modern policies quickly diminished that plan.
Soon however another, crazier thought appeared - the one before stubbornly suppressed. Luna desperately wanted to remain reasonable in this situation, but it was not her fault that all reason actually seemed to point in the unreasonable direction. The direction of her first instincts from when the anomaly appeared and when she flied towards the clearing she now stood on.
What if that thing was ACTUALLY not from Equis?
Not wanting to waste any more time, Luna decided it would be best to once again make use of her tactic so cleverly designed when entering the clearing, and although there WAS a hole a bit higher up in the frontal wall, she used the fact that she was indeed still in the dreamscape, and with one, quick motion moved her head through the rectangular plate.
Oh.
A... weird conclusion, to be sure. But what... what? Oh... yes. What is that? Why...?
Luna's thoughts staggered at what she saw. For the first time in a very long time her mind had virtually stopped operating. She froze. Not only physically, but psychically too. When she decided to look inside the machine, she was motivated by the will to find out what, or who, was inside, but however curious she may have been then, she never really took the possibility of it being extra-equusian seriously. Was such a way of thinking forced? Probably, especially seeing as that was the first thing she thought about when the anomaly crashed and a thought she upheld for quite some time. The feeling of needing to be a responsible Princess and thus approaching things 'reasonably' proved to be stronger though, and no wonder, especially considering how much criticism Luna was regularly taking.
But now, after she poked her immaterial head inside, she was certain that whatever, or rather whoever it was, was not of Equusian origin. Even through the loads of obviously ruined machinery inside she could see that perfectly well.
After a few moments of stunned standing, with her mind virtually shut down, Luna shook her head in an attempt to return to reality. Suddenly, from a complete standstill, her mind went into overdrive. What was it? What species? Was it really an extra-equusian being? Obviously, but from where? Why here? What happened?
Now that she knew how important of an event it possibly was, Luna was about to inspect the site even more, paying special attention to the creature. But what should she start from? Maybe the contraptions inside, as she was already there, but then again, as she was in the dreamscape there was no difficulty at all in moving around. Or maybe-
No, Luna stopped her previous train of thought. If this occurence is truly as important as it may seem, it is instrumental that my sister is informed at once. We should only hope it remains... unconscious as it is. We cannot do anything more in the current state.
With that, the Princess lifted her incorporeal body off the ground and flew towards the Canterlot Castle.
It took a while to leave the inner parts of the Everfree, as Luna once again chose to fly low above the trees. She could just return to her body from where she stood, but as that spell was somewhat reminiscent of long-range telaportation, only its lunar equivalent, she once again preferred not to take any chances with the forest's twisted aura, even though she was quite confident she could pull pretty much every lunar-related spell off. She wasn't far enough in the forest for these few minutes to make a big difference anyway.
When the Princess finally once again found herself above the expansive plains next to the Everfree and was about to return to the material realm, she felt something, something she hoped she wouldn't feel today anymore - a nightmare. A horrible nightmare, poisoning somepony's dreams.
Luna grumbled quietly. She wasn't really thrilled about entering another dream. Yes, she was probably going to once again have to save the host from herself, and that was not an exciting perspective to say the least, but that wasn't the reason. She had already gotten used to doing that, but right now she seriously hoped she wouldn't be interrupted.
Luna sighed, ready to ignore the call, but then she felt where exactly the nightmare-plagued person was.
Canterlot Castle. Eastern Tower.
Celestia's Tower.
Huh, thought Luna. Maybe this'll be a bit more interesting after all.
Celestia laid by a collapsed wall in the Caterlot Castle, her mane rugged as it can be, its unique ethereal properties now all but lost. Trails of blood seeped from her wounds, all across her beaten up body. But that was what she was now - a beaten Princess. A failure. A mistake. In the distance, a hysterical, victorious laugh could be heard, and a pitch-black silhouette flashed through the big holes in the now-ruined building. Tears started forming in the corners of Celestia's eyes, and one more laugh from the outside was enough for her to completely burst into tears.
How could she have done that? How could she have let that happen? She still remembered the day she banished her sister to the moon. The day filled with sorrow and regret, just as any of its memories. The worst day of her life, events of which she always blamed on herself.
After a thousand springs, the consequences of that sad day - but truly, the preceeding decades too - were finally, at least partially, getting erased. And for what? For her to allow the exact same thing to happen once again so quickly...
She was truly a failure of a Princess. A failure of a ruler... No - a failure of a sister and of a pony.
Celestia had no strength to get up anymore. The long and brutal fight with the Nightmare had left her weak and vulnerable, and once again proving how much of a failure she was, she wasn't even able to prevail. Last time there were the Elements of Harmony to aid her. Now? There was no such thing. No artifact to help her, nopony to help her, nothing to help her. And even if there was, she doubted she'd be strong enough to use such help.
Among all these thoughts, Celestia could not stop crying. Not over a lost battle or over what awaited her, no. She cried over the fact that she had once again let her sister down. Left her. Abandoned. Betrayed. She had repeated the same mistake she once made, the very same she had sworn so many times to learn from.
Suddenly another, this time much louder laughter could be heard. Celestia lifted her head, streams of tears now mixed with blood flowing down her coat. The black silhouette was now dancing victorious behind one of the still-standing windows, preparing to deal the now-former Princess a final blow. Celestia clenched her teeth.
A white light. Or maybe just whiteness. Yes, yes, whiteness, everywhere.
Snow-white ground, nothing around. Celestia stood in this unspecified place, and although she could not neither know nor notice it, her coat and mane were now back to normal, all wounds gone, ethereal aura back on its place. Suddenly, looking a bit to the side, she saw something which made her lose control of herself.
There, just a dozen meters away, stood Luna, with a weak smile on her face, looking down and to the side. Not thinking much, Celestia dashed forward, tears (but this time of joy) once again forming in her eyes, and hugged her sister with both her front hooves and gargantuan wings. Luna, clearly not fully prepared for such a strong reaction, instinctively recoiled a little.
"Lulu, I... I-I thought I've lost you! Sister, I-I'm sorry... s-so sorry!" Celestia cried out, weeping.
"Tis' alright, Tia," said Luna, trying to sound compassionate, although she suspected her lack of experience in the matter made her fail miserably. "I'm here, sister. We will always be here," she added after a noticeable pause, still a bit taken aback by the emotional reaction. She could comfort ponies, it's been her duty for years now after all, even if recently she resorted to more indirect measures. This was different though. This wasn't some random pony from Star Swirl's alley in Manehattan, no. This was her sister, which meant it was personal, and very much so from what she had seen of the nightmare. That also meant it was much, much more important.
After some time, Celestia finally retracted her hooves and wings.
"I'm sorry, Luna. I think I may have gotten a little carried away..." she added with a small chuckle, wiping the remaining tears from her muzzle.
"We understand, sister. The nightmare you've been experiencing was particularly... unpleasant. We saw it very fit to intervene," answered Luna, but cursed in her mind as she realised how blankly it must've sounded. No wonder every her speech was so poorly rated by... well, basically everypony.
Celestia blinked a few times. "A nightmare? So this is a dream?" Luna nodded. "Oh. I'm only glad, then. And I'm also glad you decided to show yourself, Lulu," continued Celestia, wrapping her massive wing around the Lunar Princess. Luna smiled weakly, scratching the ground with her hoof. For all the weird and worrying things today, she was very glad that at least for once in a situation like this revealing herself to the dream's host caused such a different reaction. It was a very, very pleasant experience. Luna rubbed Celestia with her muzzle.
"You're welcome, Tia," she said, now fully smiling. "Thine dream was unpleasant enough for us to feel it whilst in the dreamscape. But we also had... another reason to talk to you. Under normal circumstances we would have done it in the material realm."
"Luna, words," responded Celestia with a friendly smile. Luna blushed and nervously looked away. Noticing her discomfort, Celestia quickly decided to move on to the main topic. "But what was it you wanted to talk to me about, Lulu?"
Luna looked back up again. "Sister, we-; I believe I have accidentally witnessed an... incursion. I wanted to investigate whilst still in the dreamscape, but decided to inform you first." Celestia sent her a smile.
"And, as you could see, I'm glad you did," she chuckled. Luna smiled. "But what incursion did you see? Did another escape occur?" added Celestia after a while, now more seriously.
"No, worry not, Tartarus is secured tightly."
"What was it, then?" Celestia asked again, clearly not calmed down much by the reassurance.
Luna tapped her chin, not sure how best to explain it, but ultimately decided to describe everything from the beginning. "I was soaring the dreamscape when witnessed a falling light. It was not an element of my sky, so I decided to go investigate when it crashed."
"And where did it fall?" Celestia asked, her face troubled.
"In the northeastern Everfree Forest"
"Good then. Far from any of our settlements."
"Yes, but sister! There is something else. When I... approached the crash site, the object turned out... unnatural," Luna added, preventing any further delays. A brief wave of shock visibly traveled through Celestia's face. She was clearly not expecting such an answer. The Solar Princess nodded for Luna to continue.
"It was metallic, and judging by the sparks it emitted, at least partially utilized electricity. It was clearly no invention of ponykind." Celestia nodded, looking forward. The minotaurs and the zebra strayed from technology, so that naturally only left one option left. "It was also clearly no invention of the griffons." Celestia's eyes suddenly widened, and she looked at her sister with worry.
"So do you think, that...?"
"It would seem like it. When I looked inside the construct, that clearly was not a species I've ever seen," nodded Luna. "And I doubt anything new evolved on Equis throughout the last thousand years," she added, attempting to lighten up the already tense mood a bit, but failed miserably as Celestia's mind was already fully on overdrive. If this was truly an alien construct with a possibly living alien crew, then that meant that if this becomes public, it would overshadow even the loudest events in Equestrian history, including Luna's return from banishment. If this information is leaked uncontrollably, public reaction could be disastrous. But it also begged a question: why did these extra-equusians decide to visit Equis? Were they attempting to make contact? That would make things considerably easier, but from what Luna had said, the craft clearly crashed, not landed. If these beings for some reason desired to take ponykind responsible for the accident, it would undoubtedly lead to hostility. Of course, there was also the multitude of other possible reasons for their visit. Other than that, there were the possibilities that could open if contact was successfully established. If they were able to travel to other worlds, maybe they discovered another fields of magic? Ones yet unknown even to the alicorns? Lastly, there was of course the question of whether or not these beings were truly extra-equusian.
Celestia sighed. However she would want not to believe it, she had learned both in the past and present to trust her sister on such matters. Of course, sometimes Luna could've been wrong, but it was highly unlikely she would actually mistake a known species for something else. Celestia always knew there was some possibility of extra-equusian life, and that if it really existed, one day she'd have to lead the talks. She just never suspected this day may be so close.
Having formed the conclusion, Celestia turned to Luna.
"Could you judge the state of the being inside?"
"It... it seemed unconscious. It moved slightly a few times, although I'm not sure if by its own will," answered Luna, unsure where her sister was going. "I was still in the dreamscape, and so there was not much I could do."
"Don't worry, Lulu. I'm happy of you to have come here," said Celestia, attempting to put on a reassuring smile and briefly embraced her sister with one of her gigantic wings, before going back to the topic at hand. "I want you to show me this 'construct'. Wake me up and muster two squads of guards. I think we should depart immediately, and I'll rise the sun on the way."
"I agree, sister. But Tia, do you think we should endanger the guards for this venture? I... think we should be able to handle possible... threats," replied Luna, trying not to sound too selfish, perplexed at that part of her sister's judgement.
But Celestia just stood in silence, perplexing Luna even more. "Never be too sure of your abilities," she replied after a while. Luna immediately made the connection, guessing her recent nightmare must have only strenghtened the bad memories. Feeling guilty, she blushed and recoiled a little. Noticing this, Celestia decided to once and for all drop the touchy subject, and moved on to point out the guards' more concrete advantages. "With the guards we'll have more of a numerical advantage if danger arises. Furthermore, more eyes means more efficient scouting," Celestia pointed out with a smile.
"Oh... right. I also suggest we bring Captain Night Lightning of our Lunar Guard with us instead of Captain Shining in order to spread out the leadership as much as is possible," replied Luna, fully regaining her confidence.
"I agree. If we are finished, I would gladly ask you to wake me up, so we can get started with the whole affair," said Celestia nodding and sent Luna a friendly smile. Luna smiled back, before lifting off the ground and lighting her horn. Suddenly, a bright, white light embraced everything, and when Celestia couldn't even see her own body anymore, she suddenly sprung her eyes open and, as she was prepared, found herself back in her chamber in the Eastern Tower of the Canterlot Castle.
Cloud Haze was having a really weird day. First, he and his squad had been woken up at five o'clock in the morning by Captain Night Lightning of all ponies, ordering them to suit up and be ready to march off within five minutes. Second, when somepony remarked that 'the Lunar Guard has no direct authority over us', the captain revealed it was going to be a joint operation under direct orders from both Princesses, only doubling Cloud Haze's confusion and curiosity. Not particularly happy about being woken up on such an ungodly hour, the guards had soon managed to drag themselves to the courtyard, to discover that Night Lightning, the head commander of the Lunar Guard and basically the second-in-command of the entire Royal Guard was going to join them in the field. The gears in the ponies' minds soon began to turn, and they connected the dots: if somepony of such a high rank was to lead whatever-the-hay mission they were going on, why wasn't it the obviously better suited Shining Armour? Their protests however were soon silenced by another figure, who had so far managed to blend in perfectly with the darkness of the night.
Princess Luna.
Most of the guards had taken this revelation as their cue. Their cue to one thought: What the actual hay have we gotten ourselves into...?
Luna, in her usual royal stance and regal, but this time not-so-loud voice, then proceeded to inform them that they were to patiently wait for the rest of the participants - presumably the Lunar Guard - and leadership to arrive, and not cause any problems in the process. Voicing that last remark, she gazed down at them dangerously, indicating she was being serious. Soon though, the Princess returned to her previous posture, and started talking something over with Night Lightning.
'The rest of the leadership'? So Shining Armour was actually going with them after all. This had certainly calmed the guards down a bit, and soon they were all fully embroiled in quiet conversations. In the meantime, the Lunar squad arrived on the courtyard, as menacing as ever, and positioned itself left of their Solar counterpart. Now it was only the 'leadership' left.
After what couldn't have been more than five minutes, the castle doors in front of the guards opened slowly, and Cloud Haze saw a white figure stepping out into the courtyard.
Good, he thought. Let's get whatever-it-is over with
But then, the figure fully emerged from the castle. Cloud Haze quickly noticed it was suspiciously taller than he remembered captain Armour to be, but the still-present tiredness caused him to only realize who it really was once he saw the ethereal, rainbow-coloured mane.
Princess Celestia.
Even though Cloud Haze hadn't noticed it right away, virtually the entirety of both the Solar and Lunar squads was now gazing at the newcomer, mouths wide agape.
"Huh," murmured somepony to the left. "I guess captain Armour isn't going to be joining us today afterall."
"Uhuh, I wish it was 'day'," added somepony else.
All of that had been enough to lit a red light for all of the guards. Whatever it was, a regular mission it was not going to be. This was only further confirmed by the third, arguably most worrying thing: when the Princesses, along with Night Lightning, made them swear an oath of secrecy. From then on, they were officially on a surprise joint exercise with their Lunar colleagues. The real nature of this mission was to never leave the confines of these two squads, and these two squads alone, the only exception being captain Shining Armour.
And, as specifically stated, noone else. Not even the Elements of Harmony.
Armed with the trademark spears and their own confusion, Cloud Haze and the rest of the two squads soon marched off through the castle gardens, towards the few chariots that were going to take them straight to the border of the Everfree.
And now, after half an hour of flight and about the same time on hoof, here he was, in the middle of the most dangerous forest in Equestria, still just as confused as before. A few roars and other suspicious sounds could be heard along the way, but so far the guards were lucky enough not to come under attack by any of the forest's wild creatures. If the luck was going to last though remained to be seen.
Cloud Haze sighed. He didn't join the EUP for things like this. Actually, a midnight kilometers-long trek on a suspiciously unusual mission was probably the last thing he would've ever desired, and his colleagues' expressions told him they probably felt the same way. His original reason for joining had been to help protect the Castle. Cloud Haze sighed once more and continued to silently trot forward. The guards' chatter ceased completely when they had first entered the Everfree, both because of the lack of will for discussion and simple necessity - they just couldn't attract too much attention.
As Cloud Haze's mind was slowly waking up, he began to notice more and more things he could possibly tie to the nature of this operation. First, they were not on a patrol of any kind, nor were they looking for anything. Originally after their departure from Canterlot, Cloud Haze and a few other guards concluded that either some dangerous creature was roaming the Everfree or they were going to search for some potentially dangerous artifact, and the Princesses just didn't want to cause too much panic. Now he knew it couldn't be the case; the 'leadership' had them march straight into the forest and walk on some seemingly fixed path, clearly perfectly knowing the destination. Actually, now when he thought about it, Cloud Haze couldn't understand why the previous two possibilities were precisely what they had come up with, but back then they were all still barely conscious at all, so it was really entirely possible for them to come up with virtually anything.
Second, they-
Cloud Haze was suddenly brought out of his thoughts as he nearly bumped into the guard in front of him, who suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. The guard turned around, a pretentious look on his face, but Cloud Haze only sent him a confused glare. Rolling his eyes, the guard pointed forward with his hoof.
At the front of the column, Night Lightning and Princess Luna were now facing the guards, ushering them to halt their trot. Princess Celestia was nowhere to be seen. Whatever was going on, it was clear they were to wait.
Suddenly, as quiet murmurs already started rising amongst the guards, a bright light erupted from below the horizon and started filling the sky with its magnificence. The guards gazed at the spectacle with amazement, but Cloud Haze noticed something else over the trees on his left. There, a couple dozen meters away and barely visible throught the trees' upper branches, a white pegasus silhouette with gargantuan wings gently hovered. He was already awake enough to immediately get who it was, and soon enough noticed the long horn surrounded with golden aura.
Huh, thought Cloud Haze. Two Summer Suns in one year. I guess something good did come from this mission afterall.
When Celestia rejoined the column, they have already just restarted their march. Not wanting to delay things any further, she quietly trotted up to her sister.
"The Everfree's aura did not significantly interfere with the rising of the sun. I believe nopony will notice a difference," she whispered with a small smile.
Luna simply nodded, not even turning her gaze. "That is good."
Celestia looked at her sister with worry. She maintained a very neutral expression, mechanically gazing forward. From the many years of experience, Celestia already knew what it meant.
"What troubles you, Lulu?" she asked, still silently.
This time, Luna energetically turned to face her sister, as if surprised by the sudden question, clearly brought out of her thoughts. She quickly realised what was really happening though, and went back to gazing forward, sometimes briefly looking at her sister as she spoke, instinctively trying to conceal the conversation as much as possible.
"Oh... nothing specific. I'm just worried about what might occur once we reach our... destination," she whispered back. Celestia smiled.
"Don't be. We have thousands of years of diplomacy behind us. Even as the nature of the anomaly truly is... as you suspect, I believe everything will go well." Celestia tried to reassure her sister, but truth be told she herself wasn't really any less worried. A thousand more years of public speeches just meant she had more experience hiding it.
Luna nodded, looking at her sister and smiling briefly, but Celestia somehow doubted that her attempts at comforting her worked out.
After a few more minutes of silent march, Luna spoke up once again. "Sister, are thou confident we shouldn't call upon the Elements of Harmony? Their power, no matter the wielder, may prove most instrumental."
"I am sure, Lulu," nodded Celestia. "If this occurence truly turns out as significant as it may, it is important for it to remain secret for as many ponies as possible until due time. Although I most dearly trust my student, I believe the Elements aren't necessary, and so their wielders don't need to know anything just yet."
Luna nodded once again, and Celestia decided to change the topic.
"How far do you think we still are, Luna?" she asked whispering, careful to keep her tone formal not to incite any more worries if unnecessary.
"I can't say exactly, but believe we are closing in onto our destination," responded Luna, this time a bit more vividly. Celestia smiled, glad her attempt at least somehow paid off. But then, a couple dozen meters ahead of them, Luna noticed something familiar - trees slightly bent off, small scars on the trunks. She slowed her march down, and sure enough, a bit further first metallic shards could be seen. Luna neared her sister, still keeping her gaze locked with what she had seen ahead.
"Actually, I believe we are now very close."
"Auxiliary systems restarting."
Stanley slowly regained consciousness, breathing heavily in the smoke-filled pod. He attempted to move his arms, but then remembered they were still being held by the restraints. The same went for his legs.
"Auxiliary systems restarting."
Already conscious enough to think, Stanley looked upwards for the first time, careful to stabilise his breath. Through the thick smoke he could see a few red lights in weird patterns blinking at regular intervals. From his experience, he could tell that at least some of them were not working. To tell the truth, Stanley was now happier than ever that he's had his helmet on, as he was convinced even he would have suffocated after such a (possibly) long time with little to no oxygen. Looking briefly to the right, he was glad to notice that at least his weapons still looked intact.
"Extensive damages detected. Exerting icucine."
As it turned out Stanley was still stunned, at least to some degree, as it took him a few seconds to realize what the computer had just said. His eyes suddenly widened.
"NO! Negative!" he shouted as loud as he possibly could, desperate to prevent the injections.
As he did so, dozens of needles shot out from the sides, but stopped just a few centimeters short of Stanley's body, the medicine slowly dripping from the syringes' ends.
"Command registered," said the computer. "Retracting needles."
As such, the many needles proceeded to slowly hide inside the walls, until they were no longer visible at all. Stanley sighed with relief. As he concluded, he probably had no Youn Pills on him, and so an icucine injection would basically mean death, unless he is able to regroup with allied forces in time - which, judging by the fact that he was basically shot down, he may not be able to do.
Having dealt with this small issue, Stanley proceeded to free himself from his restraints, which, as he had suspected, were not working, and so he had to use quite an extensive amount of force to release them. Even then though, the debris laying on the floor greatly limited his movement. Stanley picked up his main weapon, the multirole AR-v441 rifle, from its slot on his side, and proceeded to try to open the pod. He was careful the entire time, ready for what may await him on the other side, and already switched the rifle's safety off. From what he had heard so far though, it looked like the area was clear. What little he was able to see through the semi-transparent walls and the thick layer of smoke inside only seemed to confirm that. The smoke also meant that once he opens the door, he would be given a brief visual cover. What worried Stanley the most though was that his HUD seemed to be somewhat broken. It displayed almost no information, except the ones coming from his own body, saying that 'connection to appropriate systems has been lost'. The small scanners inside the individual pod could have broken down, sure, but there was no way that Sazana had been entirely cut off from the satellites. Not so quickly, even if he saw what looked like another Swarm attack during the drop. Even some of the most basic systems seemed to have malfunctioned - for example, the digital clock was not moving at all. What it displayed - '1134 CUT, Fri 14.06.6193' - suggested that Stanley had only been stuck in the pod for a short time, but then again, as the clock seemed not to work, this data was not reliable at all.
Just as most of the mechanisms inside the pod, the door's mechanical controls did not work, but luckily Stanley didn't have to break through them and was able to forcibly make the door open along their intended rails. Just before snatching them open, he once again analyzed his situation.
Okay, he thought. Weapon at the ready, find cover quickly. Do not stay in the open, analyze the terrain. Dammit, I'd really prefer to have at least some info to work with.
Stanley switched to thermovision (which to his relief was still working), and with one, quick motion, jumped forward, releasing the massive cloud of smoke in the process. Through his new filter, he was able to idetify his surroundings, and quickly concluded that the best option would be to get to the treeline. Turning on the Intelligent Patterns function of his suit and careful to remain low, after a few seconds, he was already concealed in the lush bushes just next to the clearing he seemed to have crashed on. His armor now adapted to the surroundings, changing its colour in a way that would hide him best. Safe, Stanley searched trough the available comm channels in his helmet, trying to hail someone - first his team, then the command, then any allied unit at all. Everything was unavailable. Everything.
Suddenly, a message appeared on Stanley's HUD - a communique stating that the most basic functions of the pod have been restored and the computer now moved on to trying to bring the AI back online. Sure enough, the HUD soon sprung to life, displaying various data, although most of it still only read 'N/A'. But for now, none of this data concerned Stanley, as he quickly read trough the initial area reports. To his relief, but also confusion, there were no Swarm biosignatures in the 10 kilometer radius. None at all. Granted, it was only a little more than three hundred square kilometers, but coupling that with the wild environment...
Perfect, thought Stanley. Outside the combat zone.
Now certain about his safety, Stanley emerged from the forest and jogged back to his pod, in the meantime getting a notification that the pod's local AI was back online. As he went though, he noticed something peculiar. The sun was already up, but it looked like it was still very early in the morning. For starters, 'early morning' contrasted greatly with his planned drop zone, but there was something even weirder - the sky was clean. Completely clean. Normally, as battle raged on in the orbit, it was possible to see small explosions from the surface of the planet, and from what he had seen during the drop, this attack certainly struck the transport flotilla, which orbited on an altitude of only 200 kilometers. The fighting should surely be visible. Maybe it was already over? If that was the case, he should pray that the Coalition won, otherwise he's screwed. Or maybe he'd been flung SO far off course?
Turning to the now-online AI, Stanley took the opportunity to ask some questions.
"Mind telling me what sector it is?" he said, getting straight to his point. He did want to ask what exactly was it that happened during the drop, but that was irrelevant for now, and thus would have to wait.
"Unknown," answered Selina through the speakers inside Stanley's headgear. "I have no connection to GPS systems as well as basically any other tactical data. Also, I can't connect with TA-3125's main servers. MY main servers."
"Huh, nice to meet you then. I told you you're another person in my pod," answered Stanley jokingly.
"Ha-ha"
"Is the pod really that badly broken? Almost every system that supplements the satellites seems to be offline, according to my HUD," Stanley continued, once more seriously. Unexpectedly, he didn't have to wait long for an answer.
"Actually, not really. Sure, the pod is pretty beaten up, but the computer's just still working on restarting all of the systems. Also, I've allowed myself to help it a little bit, it's computing power without me is laughable. Sorry," answered Selina, to Stanley's relief.
"Yeah, no problem. As long as we're cut off you can have full control," he replied.
The red lights inside the pod changed their colour to blue and flickered a few times, indicating the AI had understood. Knowing that he's going to stay in the clearing at least for a while, Stanley attempted to analyze his options in case an attack came, but was soon prevented from doing so.
"Alright, most scanners online, just scrambling for power to light them. It will take a while to relay the data to your HUD though," Selina suddenly announced, after what couldn't have been more than ten seconds.
"Damn, you're good," whistled Stanley. "Just tell me anything important about the area as soon as the systems are running."
After about two minutes, Selina spoke up once again.
"Initial precise scans indicate this forest is huge, six-and-a-half klicks to the nearest thinning."
"And our location? Relative to the nearest confirmed allied position?" asked Stanley, hoping to at last be brought out of the darkness.
"...That's the other thing. The geological patterns seem not to match any region of Sazana."
Stanley froze briefly.
"Although there may be some error, especially considering the damages sustained."
"Check that," ordered Stanley. "Anything else?"
"Another wave of systems coming online in 5, stand by," stated Selina matter-of-factly. "Carrying out extensive movement scanning..."
Suddenly, Stanley's HUD flashed red.
"Unindentified contacts, three o'clock, sixty meters! Exact numbers unknown! No Coalition IFF, no Swarm signature! Stay frosty!" Selina virtually shouted.
Not thinking much, Stanley crouched next to one of his pod's remaining solid walls and aimed towards where the new contacts were coming from. He once again turned the Intelligent Patterns on and set his rifle to caliber .223 fully automatic, but turned trajectory support off for the moment. Holding his breath, Stanley analyzed his location. He was holding a position next to his pod; a good cover, especially as it could be used against an attack from almost any direction, if he manages to reposition himself in time that is. He just had to be careful not to be forced inside the pod and cornered - he would have no cover nor any maneuvering space then, and his adversaries would have a straight, unobscured shot at the soldier. Unacceptable.
And if things went especially south, only about six or seven meters separated Stanley from the treeline behind him. An easy escape route. Satisfied, Stanley grasped his rifle harder, finger resting on the trigger, ready to take the shot if necessary.
Even though Stanley had already been able to see glimpses of the approaching creatures a bit earlier through the incredibly dense treeline, he only got the opportunity to study them more closely after one finally decided to cross it... at least in a way.
Luna, having gone slightly ahead despite her sister's protests, poked her head through the last trees, coming out a little closer to the construct than the last time. Everything looked almost like she had remembered it, and the wreck in the middle ultimately confirmed that the column had reached its goal. A few things were off though. For starters, a middle-sized smoke cloud hovered above the clearing, slowly rising up and clearing the view more and more, although most of it was already fairly well visible as the cloud had managed to reach the altitude of the surrounding trees' upper branches. Secondly, there seemed to be more smoke coming from inside the contraption than before, which in turn caused Luna to notice the most worrying thing: parts of the machine's walls seemed to have been removed, and although she couldn't say for certain because of the smoke and darkness inside, she was pretty sure the creature from before was now gone. Luna's heart skipped a beat, but reassured by the bushes' rustling behind her, meaning that the rest of the column was already there and ready to back her up if the need arose, she took a deep breath and cautiously stepped into the clearing.
Stanley watched as the indigo-coloured horse stepped into the clearing. Ready to take the shot any second, he kept analyzing the situation all the time. Although he was looking at the new creature, all his senses were on high alert, meaning he was paying high attention to his entire surroundings and was prepared for virtually any attack. He didn't move, but he was prepared for every possible action.
When Stanley first saw the horse, a thought about it obviously being the Equus Caballus flew through his mind, but left it as soon as it entered. The noticeable small differences in biology could just be an effect of it being a rare subspecies, potentially even one artificially created by some billionaire, but there was more. First, the animal had wings and a horn, and Stanley highly doubted humanity ever created anything like that, which Selina soon confirmed. Furthermore, Republican digital archives had no mention of any creature like this. Second, it wore a lot of ornate jewellery. The thirty nine others he was able to identify and target through the treeline similarly wore different kinds of armor. Something like that would be highly unlikely even back in the days of private property, and plainly impossible nowadays. Whatever it was, it was not Equus Caballus. Have the Cyanosians brought something with them? That seemed like the only possible explanation as to why the Republic could not know about such creatures, and if Stanley's clock had really malfunctioned, it was possible they had finally arrived. But the radar still showed no allied signals nearby, and he doubted the animals would just run off tens of kilometers away from deployment zones, finally escaping the combat zone. That left one other possible explanation...
Slowly walking forward, Luna could glimpse the guards still trying to position themselves in the bushes. She sighed inwardly. She understood that the Badlands needed more squads due to the changeling threat, but were these really the best forces left in the capital? The EUP truly needed more training, even for the sake of promoting the noble ideas of harmony itself, which by now they had become one of the symbols of, willingly or not, being so frequently associated with Celestia. Luna halted her trot just outside the treeline, not to stress the guards out even more by walking straight into 'danger'. Doing so, she also allowed her sister to join her in the clearing, at which the Solar Guards wasted no time chaotically rushing there too. Their Lunar counterparts however remained in the shadows, traditionally more disciplined than regular EUP. While she waited though, Luna noticed something new; on the side of the object there were several lines of weird symbols, what she guessed must have been some type of writing. Looking at her sister, she realized she was gazing at the same spot, a serious and cautious look on her face, yet with barely noticeable glimpses of curiosity. For Celestia, the script was especially important, as it decisively confirmed the object was not of Equusian origin. Regardless of whether these were some weird drawings or truly a writing form, she could say with certainty that it didn't match any race or culture in the world. Having looked a bit longer, judging by how the lines of symbols were arranged, she guessed that if it was a writing form, it could have possibly been the same thing written in multiple languages, although she obviously couldn't tell for sure. Sharing a brief look with Luna, Celestia coutiously resumed her walk towards the alien construct, joined by the guards and her sister soon after. Luna knew she could handle herself if danger was to come. And so did Celestia.
Stanley was furious; well, maybe 'angry' would be a better word because of his emotions management skills. He remembered seeing the fold during the drop, but he could swear one had to be named Stanley Martin to be unlucky enough to actually fall into it. It was a one in a billion chance due to the immense distances in space.
But on the other hand, if his conclusion's been correct and this was truly not Sazana, it also meant he had hit another jackpot, this time probably something around one in a quadrillion, by actually falling into a terrestrial planet on the other side.
Stanley cursed quietly. A while ago he had asked Selina if she could scan one of the horses and possibly examine what had happened during the drop, as it finally seemed to become relevant, but he was informed that the deep scanners were still rebooting. By his orders the former was given greater priority, and because of that (as well as not to waste any time explaining), the latter would have to wait for now.
Soon, more horses emerged from the treeline, including a white and very tall one, which was the only creature except for the indigo horse wearing ornate jewellery. He could also notice slight differences in the newcomers' anatomy. To Stanley, they seemed like a highly organised flock of sorts, at least from their behaviour. Maybe a primitive hive mind? But then again, they had armor and jewellery, which suggested intelligence, although it seemed highly likely their gear had been assembled by someone else, but then again, why would someone use such an organized species? For an animal, at least? Maybe for some unknown reason it was the only one suiting their needs?
"Deep scanners online," Selina's voice suddenly rang in his helmet. "Attempt the scan?"
Stanley thought for a while. The deep scanners, unlike regular ones, would be visible. If a bright blue light wave suddenly emerged from an unknown object, there was no way they wouldn't be scared away, sentient or not. If this was to work, he had to reveal himself prior to that and at least attempt to show the creatures that the scanning process was harmless. If they were animals, they'd just run regardless. If they're sentient, maybe something can be achieved. Stanley told Selina his plan, then cutting her complaints regarding it short, and as the two largest horses began to approach the pod, he took it as his cue to show himself. Cautiously, he stood up, weapon still at the ready, and disabled the Intelligent Petterns. Precautiously aiming at the creatures, he stepped out of the shadow. He knew he could handle himself perfectly, anyway.
And the staring contest began, as Stanley stopped just next to the front of his pod, still cautious, and Celestia and Luna's pupils shrunk to pinpricks.
If you got all the way here, please consider leaving a short comment detailing what you did or did not like. Form, grammar, plot, too expansive writing, characters (both MLP and not), anything. It would help me improve a lot.
Just please go light on me, it's my first fic ever 
Seriously though, it would help a lot, especially if there is something you absolutely despised.
Also, I'm not a native English speaker, so I apologise for any grammar errors in advance 
Rate, comment, tell me what you think!
Anyway, enjoy! I hope you have a good read!
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The switchs between point of view are confusing. You should divide the text in a whole half from Equestrian's perspective and another with the human one.
9899318
Thanks for the tip! Most of the time I try to mark it every time a perspective changes, its just that last section that's been made like that. It was kinda done to emphasize how all of this is unfolding simultaneously, with no intervals whatsoever, while still keeping the dynamic (if I had split it into two perspectives, one after the other, it would've already been known what is going to happen when the story moved on the the second perspective - obviously the same, and that's what I tried to avoid). It was originally meant to only be a short segment.
Nevertheless, I get it's more comfortable to read it as you suggest, and so I'll try to go with it in the future. Thanks again for the tip!
You're not a native English speaker? Seriously, I had no idea! You write really well.
9900850
It's really nice to hear that! I'll try to keep it up! 
Thanks!
9900824
Then you may be happy to hear that it will be explored a bit more in the coming chapters, as I think it would be only better if the lore used some more explaining!
Can't wait for more
9902301
Actually, it's not discouraging at all! I actually anticipated there would be a lot more things wrong, even if it's just the first couple paragraphs. The comment actually gives me a lot of guidance, while also kinda providing belief that... you know, there is at least some potential to build on.
The thing with this story is that it was LONG in the making. At least technically. The very beginning (what you've read) was written like, a year ago, while the rest over the course of the last few months. The 'newer' part begins somewhere in the middle of the talk with the AI, although I sadly can't remember exactly. Personally, I feel like the newer part is better, but then again, I'm in no way objective. That's why I'd be extremely glad if you took your time sometime in the future to at least look the rest over, although I'm a bit hesitant to even outright ask, since, you know, it would kinda be like a chore for you.
I even thought about rewriting the beginning for a while, but ultimately decided not to, which I think was a huge mistake. Then again, as I'm in no way objective in my opinions, the rewrite could have not improved it at all.
As for the '40s' part, it was actually the latter. I also feel like only giving hints to the lore of this world confuses people, which is in no way good.
Regarding the vague description ('white admiral clothes'), it was actually intentionally written like this, since the purpose of this part wasn't to describe the uniform, but rather to 'subtly' say 'Nikolai is an admiral'. If it reads badly though, then it clearly seems I've done it... poorly, at best.
The thing that demotivates me the most is getting dislikes while not knowing the reason, but that is fortunately changing for now
9903134
I'm glad you found it helpful
I hate to say this, but I probably shouldn't agree to do that, mostly just 'cause of the time investment--20 kilowords to read and nitpick would be, um... I don't really see myself making it through the whole thing and I don't want to get your hopes up
Sci-Fi isn't usually my cup of tea, nor are AUs and OCs in fanfiction, so I'm probably not the best judge for a story like this anyway. Best of luck with it going forwards, though!
9906480
. And thanks, I'm definitely going to move forward with this, hopefully getting better along the way!
No problem, I completely understand
This story, is AWESOME!!!
When next awesome chapter!?
9908335
I'll try to get it out in about two weeks, so that it'll be published three weeks after the previous ones. Although I'm trying to make the chapters a bit shorter in order for them to be more pleasant to read, that also involves changing my writing style a bit, so it might take a while. I'd also like to get an editor before the next chapter's out, though I AM going to publish it anyway if that takes too long.
9909509
I look forward to it!