"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." John F Kennedy.

The entire city of Canterlot was booming with livelihood. In about a few days, the most important ceremony was about to take place. Naturally, hundreds and sometimes, thousands of ponies would make a pilgrimage to view the most spectacular sight of all, their leader Celestia raising the sun.

The Capital of Equestria was still ignorant however about the presence of Xenos on their world. Twilight and Mayor Mare had made a great job of keeping reports of humanity confined in Ponyville.

Despite what Ponies believed, Celestia was not omnipresent, there were secrets, scarring secrets she did not know. Especially now that Twilight was an alicorn, the solar 'Godess' no longer felt the need to constantly check up on her.

What made this day even more exquisite however, was that was the most important royal summit there was in Equestria was going to take place. There were Crystal Summits held in March in the Crystal Empire hosted by Cadance and the Lunar Summits held in December hosted by Princess Luna in Canterlot as well.

An hour before the current time, a carriage transporting Princess Cadance and her Crystal royal guards arrived in the city. Much expected fanfare arose at the sight of the Alicorn of Love. The trip was long, but she had managed to sleep early in order to avoid exhaustion form waking up early.

The 3 rulers of Equestria sat in the throne room, eagerly awaiting the fourth. Small talk passed the time until Twilight arrived. It was not like the purple alicorn to be late.

In the front of the castle laid the entrance crowded by citizens of Equestria, eager to see the 4th alicorn.

Suddenly, a bright purple light flashed and the princess of magic materialized. As usual, the crowd bowed in respect and worship at the sight of their princess.

Some confucian had run amuck however; Why was Twilight not wearing her dress or crown? Why did she just teleport? Surely she knew it was expected to take a train or carriage? And finally, why did she have such a simple carrying case?

While Twilight collected herself, two solar guards approached her and offered to escort her in to the castle. Twilight politely insisted she could handle herself and merely requested her bag be taken somewhere else.

To the surprise of everypony, Twilight immediately began galloping in an un-lady like manner into the grand entrance.

'I don't have much time until Shadow does something sadistic.' she thought.

Finally she approached the large door to the royal hall and hastily opened it.

Just when Twilight panted from exhaustion, a series of musical notes startled her enough to give a yelp. She witnessed a series of solar, lunar and crystal guards stationed in two single file lines standing proudly.

Twilight nervously walked forward, only to bump into a tan pegasus solar guard with a blue mane.

Said Pegasus Guard was unfazed and simply helped Twilight up and announced her arrival:

"Her highness, Princess Twilight Spark-"

Twilight cut him off with a hoof wave. The other alicorn princesses approached Twilight gleefully.

Cadance gave a laugh. "Twilight! I haven't seen you since the coronation!"

Celestia spoke next with her motherly tone. "We have so much to discuss-"

"We do." interrupted Twilight.

"You seem troubled Twilight." noted Luna with utter concern.

"Have you been using that technique I've been teaching you?" reminded Cadance.

"I have uncovered world shattering news." responded Twilight glumly. "I think it's best if we discuss the matter in private."

Celestia nodded.

The 4 alicorns quietly traversed their way trough the castle. A feeling of anxiety was beginning to creep the other 3 alicorns as well. Soon, the 4 made it to Celestia's private study. The room was large with thousands of books stored everywhere on shelves along with paintings of previous Alicorns.

Cadance broke the pause. "So what is it that you want to discuss?" The pink Alicorn smiled to lift Twilight's attitude.

Twilight collected her thoughts and looked up at the other Alicorns. "Do you remember the object that descended from space that you asked me and the other elements to investigate?"

Luna grinned gave a quick nod. "I myself tried to investigate what had befallen using my magic, but every time I did so, I got a splitting headache and my powers dissipated."

"When I did not hear from you for a day," began Celestia. "I began to worry horribly. However, I remembered that if one of us died, we would have sensed it through our connections. A few days later, I received a letter from Spike detailing me that you arrived to Ponyville soundly."

Twilight's ears flipped up. "Did the letter say anything else?"

Celestia shook her head no. "Did you find the elements useful in your situation?"

'The elements'. Thought Twilight. There was no way she could just lie to her mentor and the other princesses that Scarecrow destroyed them with a grenade. She would get blamed and she and her friends would get banished.

Twilight decided to tell the truth. But not the whole truth. Twilight calmed herself using Cadance's technique, much to the pink alicorn's amusement.

"The elements proved counter productive to our situation." chirped Twilight.

"So how is the object from the heavens causing you this stress?" asked Luna.

"It is not the object that is making me perplexed, it's what came from it." trivialized Twilight.

Cadance suddenly flashed back to a date with Shining Armor she had 3 years ago. The one where they stared at a brilliant star and Shining lightly brought up the idea of aliens.

The pink Alicorn inhaled. "Twilight are you saying-"

"There are aliens in Equestria." answered the alicorn of magic.

Luna on the other hoof looked somewhat excited. "Xenos? I always knew there was life amongst the stars. Does this mean what landed was a spaceship of some sorts?"

"I didn't see the object that landed." Muttered Twilight nonchalantly. When me and my friends made our way through the forest, we were ambushed by the 4 aliens."

Luna's smile was wiped off. Celestia took the lead.

"How many aliens are there?"

"4." answered Twilight. "They also claim to be male."

"They can speak equestrian?" yelled Cadance.

"They call the language english or something." shook Twilight. They accuse us of stealing the language from them."

"That absurd." snorted Luna. "This is the third incarnation of the equestrian language, to get similar results, one would have to start from phase one."

Twilight gave a nervous chuckle. "Here's the thing, they claim english is the third form of their language too, right after what they call ancient greek and roman."

"Let's keep the cultural things away from now." insisted Celestia, sweating lightly. "What do the aliens call themselves?"

"The scientific name for their race is homo sapiens, although we can call them humans." answered Twilight.

"You said there were 4 humans. Are they soldiers or scientists of some sort?" questioned Luna.

"They're soldiers alright. But elite ones, gifted with enhanced intelligence, speed and strength." said Twilight. "The unit which they descend from scouts possible planets to live on as well."

"Goodness! You mean to tell me an entire alien race is going to colonize Equestria." beamed Cadance. She calmed herself with her own technique.

"They informed me that because intelligence has already inhabited this planet, the humans will have no intention of taking this world for their own." assured Twilight.

"Define they." whispered Celestia.

"The humans refuse to tell me their real names or anything about their past. All history I know about them is....shadowy." stammered Twilight. "They have call signs however. The leader of the unit is named Scarecrow, they have a man who blows things up named Scorch, some tech expert named X-ray, and what they call a marksman named Overwatch."

"Those names sound antagonistic. Names I'd give to ponies who're complete jerks." panted Cadance.

"They think our names are silly." gritted the alicorn. "Apparently, humans don't use nouns for names. They've mentioned human names to me, but they're just so off...and unpronounceable."

"Why did you not inform us of the situation earlier?" asked Luna.

"They wouldn't let me leave their sight. Come to think of it, I'm surprised they let me see you 3 at all." remarked Twilight. The alicorn remained ignorant that Shadow was hearing everything they said.

"Can you describe the appearances of these humans to me?" requested Celestia.

"Here's the thing, they're nearly indescribable." whimpered Twilight.

"How so?" asked Cadance.

"For starters, they don't look like anything that came from Epona, something about their coloring, yes coloring, feels off." beamed Twilight.

"It's also as if they're too detailed. When I look at them, it's like I'm looking at a million more objects at once. All that detail to their appearances gives me-"

"Headaches." said Luna and Twilight in perfect coordination.

"What's scary, is that they claim everything outside our planet is design like them. They call our forms simple and animated. Whatever that last part means."

"Are sure you can't describe them at all?" asked Celestia.

Twilight placed a hoof on her chin. "Well, I can't explain what they look on the outside, since they wear a strange, completely black outfit they call recon armor and cover their face with a white cloth and a pair of technologically advanced sunglasses."

"Are they Equestrian like us?" questioned Cadance.

Twilight shook her head. "They're bi-pedal and claim to be a subspecies of ape. They don't have hooves, instead they have these weird claw like things called fingers. Except without the sharp nails."

"Is there anything you might know about their appearances under garments? Have you seen a picture of their race that shows them bare?" piped up Celestia.

Twilight faced hoof. "The one called Overwatch drew a picture of me and the rest of my friends as humans, but I forgot how the picture looked like. But from what I remember, they have no fur, requiring them to be clothed all the time. And judging by the imprints of their masks, their eyes are tiny and they lack muzzles."

"How tall or short are they?" said Luna.

"The 4 humans I met claim to be taller than the average human, but they're huge. Each one of them is taller that you Celestia." pointed Twilight.

The princess of the sun looked rather puzzled. She took a rather guilty pride in knowing that she was tall, she thought her hight was indomitable.

"They each have a slightly different physique." noted Twilight. "X-ray is rather skinny with long limbs. Scarecrow on the other hoof, or hand in human standards, is slightly bigger. Overwatch and Scorch look the same on the outside.

"I don't mean to be rude, but the human look sounds rather frightening." mentioned Cadance.

"One can only guess what lies under masks." muttered Twilight.

"I see. But I still cannot find a reason for you to be so stressed. What are these humans like?" added Celestia.

Twilight took a deep breath. "They're hyper intelligent, hyper advanced-"

The princesses looked interested.

"-but hyper lethal, aggressive, cynical and sometimes scary."

Suddenly the princesses shared the same stress as Twilight.

The purple alicorn continued. "The unit in which these 4 come from is called Shadow squad."

"Sh....shadow squad?" squeaked Cadance.

"Yes. The technology the human race possesses, is utmost extraordinary." reviled Twilight. "They have space ships that can travel through star systems. The humans have manufactured holograms that they can operate with their minds with little to no physical action as well as robots and devices they call computers. Why, they don't even have to read books physically any more."

"My, these humans must possess a thorough understanding of magic." awed Celestia. "In all my Godhood, I never thought a race could ever break the containment of their mother planet."

Twilight gave a chuckle. "Here's another piece of interesting news, turns out there's no such thing as magic at all."

The other princesses burst into laughter.

"That's a good one Twilight." joked Cadance. "I guess you aren't the element of anything anymore."

"SERIOUSLY!" yelled Twilight. The other princesses stopped laughing.

"These humans are in possession of some of the greatest minds I've ever seen." continued Twilight. "I don't want to sound selfish, but their thought processes and methods of thinking surpass even mine. They've figured out magic."

"Twilight, surely you of all ponies should know magic is an unexplainable force." pointed Luna.

"Well tell that to them. They've debunked every single spell or magical principal I've brought up as if I told them to do math homework given to foals." shook the purple alicorn. "They've proven to me that magic can be reasoned with."

"But you've been studying magic under my wing for many years." remarked Celestia.

"Exactly, what do those humans know?" added Cadance.

"What do they know?" spat the alicorn of magic. "They know that we've completely disregarded a field of study. Rather than studying why magic works, we've only studied the things we can do with it. So far everything I've told them about pony society only makes them think we're more and more ignorant!"

"The nerve of those aliens!" gritted Luna.

"The nerve? Did you even know that all the other suns and moons in the Universe turn on their own?" mocked Twilight.

Celestia tried to catch her breath. "But that can't-"

"Be possible, have we gone into space?" sarcastically said Twilight. "Did you also know that plants and animals are supposed to take care of themselves? Of course not. Did they know that, of course they did!" she cried.

"I just can't see myself explaining some of the anomalies that have occurred in my life." shook Celestia.

"Well I said the same thing about Pinkie Pie, and they called me a lazy thinker!" teared Twilight.

"Twilight, please try to calm down." begged the alicorn of the night.

"I'm sorry." she whimpered. "I always thought of myself as an intelligent mare. Now, I'm laughable compared to the methods of rationality of a human. There are times when they start discussing concepts that I'm totally ignorant on."

Suddenly, the princess of the night began to rethink her statement. The other alicorns thought the same thing; had they really been ignorant all along.

"Don't say that, you're still the smartest pony I know." encouraged Cadance. The leader of the crystal empire placed a wing to comfort the purple alicorn.

"What of their power?" spoke up Celestia.

"Let's just say Shadow can exceed the power of the elements of pushed." said Twilight.

"I don't believe that. The elements are unbeatable. If they can conquer Discord and Nightmare Moon, surely 4 soldiers would be no trouble." shook the solar princess.

"These 4 aren't your royal guards Celestia. They represent the elite of humanity not only in terms of knowledge but in terms of sheer might." countered Twilight.

There was an awkward pause in the air.

"Do you want to know why those dragons never came flying back up, or why those Griffins never reported back to you?" trivialized Twilight.

"Because the 4 of them slaughtered them all."

The 3 princesses gasped. Color began to drain from their faces. Even Celestia looked paler than usual. The 3 alicorns could not decipher what was worse. The fact that 4 individuals took out 2 Dragons and a Griffin army or the fact that they killed at all.

Luna started stammering. "Are you sure they murdered them all?"

"I saw the corpses. The bleeding, dead, mutilated corpses." wept Twilight.

Celestia gasped and motherly nuzzled Twilight. "I'm so sorry you had to witness such a thing like that."

"How could they just...murder like that? What about the concepts of harmony?" whimpered Cadance.

Twilight wiped a tear. "They claim to have been attacked first. As for how did they kill them? One of the technological wonders of humans allows them to kill easily."

The princess of the night took a deep breath. "Surely if they were attacked...they were justified. But I don't know what type of pony could resort to murder."

"Gee, what type of human?" gritted Twilight. "Scarecrow is a control freak, X-ray has anger issues, Overwatch suffers from depression and Scorch has an affinity for blowing things up!"

"Depression." breathed Cadance. "Something must have happened to those humans. Maybe a traumatic experience of sorts. Shining Armor might be captain of the guard, but I sure know he wouldn't advocate murder."

"We're talking about colts, I mean men, who would kill a foal if ordered to and just dump its body like trash!" shrieked Twilight.

"Such frightening behavior. How could humans raise such sadists?" said a disgusted Celestia.

"That's not the scary thing," sighed Twilight. "they don't even flinch. All emotions of regret pass them like...a shadow."

"What do you mean?" asked Luna.

"I saw them kill a hydra king and a pack of timberwolves. All they did after they slaughtered something was shrug it off." answered Twilight.

"Those aren't soldiers, those are psychopaths!" blasted Celestia. "How could 4 men like them not be locked into an asylum?"

"The division were Shadow comes from is called the 23rd. They claim the others in that division behave the same way. I believe it's somehow intentional." explained Twilight.

"Why would the government want to hire people like that into the armed forces?" questioned Cadance.

"Why did we hire Discord?" countered Twilight.

Twilight slumped to the ground. "It get's worse. You so much as insult them in a light joke, they'll declare you a threat and point their weapons at you."

"And they just say anything they want about you in return?" gritted Celestia.

"Wow, it's like you were there." sarcastically remarked Twilight.

"Do they just bully you when they're not busy killing?" inquired Cadance.

Twilight faked a grin. "It's not so much as they bully me as it is them thinking our race is a joke. They refuse to take us seriously on all grounds."

"These so called humans need to be expelled at once. Discordic beings like them have no place here!" yelled Luna, it was a miracle she did not resort to the royal Canterlot voice.

"Wait, let's not get so hasty." started Twilight.

The other princesses looked at the purple Alicorn confusedly.

"Let me explain. To be fair, I can't honestly blame them for the way they're acting."

Cadance calmed herself with her technique. "What do you mean? Why would somepony let their emotions get the best of them?"

"Let's just step in their hooves, uh, feet. They're separated form their starship without any means of communication, and the similarities of our planet vs theirs is getting on their nerves." justified Twilight.

"What kind of similarities?" asked Luna.

"For starters, they claim to have ponies on their world." began Twilight.

Celestia smirked. "Well isn't that a lovely coincidence."

"To them it means the greatest conspiracy of the universe." bumbled Twilight. "Apparently, everything we have on Epona, they have on Earth."

"I don't see the reason to get so worked up over a few coincidences." pointed Cadance.

"Well, they're turning Ponyville upside down to solve their theory." grunted Twilight.

"Elaborate on this theory." requested Luna.

"Basically, they're convinced that ponies are 'evolving' like humanity. They claim our past and cultures matches theirs." explained the alicorn of magic.

"But that's absurd. Everypony knows we were created but the original alicorn herself and we progressed from there." defended the alicorn of love. "Our history can't be that similar."

"And why waste time over such a theory when they should be focusing on things such as preserving harmony?" added Celestia. "If humans need to have soldiers like our friends, Shadow, than surely their race if violent and war like."

Twilight shook her head. "I don't think it's very fair to call humans war like just because of Shadow. I mean, would it be fair to judge ponies based Pinkie Pie or Derpy alone?"

"Your point...is valid." nodded Luna. "Such a stereotype would be unfair."

"But to resort to tactics like murder and violence, Is that not cruel?" asked Cadance.

"They're soldiers. I guess this is how humanity deals with threats." sighed Twilight. "The humans claim to have been like us at once point, so I suggest we rather not question their methods for now."

"Twilight is correct. If the humans visiting were poets or artisans, surely we would have received a different welcome." justified Luna.

"And while I hate their methods. I refuse to call Shadow evil, when we were traversing the Everfree Forest, they did risk their lives to protecting us. If it were to come down to it, I'd expect they give their lives for the greater good." Twilight couldn't believe she just defended them.

"Regardless, I can not tolerate such individuals like them. Equestria is a place of compassion and harmony, not ruthlessness, sadism and sheer arrogance." boasted Celestia.

"To be fair. My intuition is telling me that this branch of humans isn't popular with the rest of the species. The fact that I'm not dead or hurt physically proves that we can trust them." defended Twilight.

"I still do not see what gives them authority to run amuck making ponies feel bad about themselves." gritted Luna. Suddenly, Luna's horn, after being charged by brain pulses, began absorbing more and more energy and radiation from the atmosphere.

"Auntie Luna, try to control yourself." pleaded the alicorn of love. The princess of the night quenched her anger using Cadance's technique.

"What do you know about the history of these humans anyway?" asked Cadance.

"They've refused to tell me anything about human history or culture." shook Twilight. "On the other hand, they constantly demand answers and threaten us every time we refuse to share."

"So until then, we are dealing with a race we know nothing about?" said Luna.

"Not until they meet the three of you at once. That's when they'll talk." remarked Twilight.

"I don't think I could meet such barbarians." hissed Celestia.

"To be fair, we're the barbarians by their standards." justified Twilight. "Besides, they're not the real first contact team. They're just making sure this planet is safe until they can re establish contact."

"And when might that be?" questioned the solar princess.

"I don't know. But I wouldn't count on it being anytime soon. After all, I don't think telling them to leave would be such a great idea." noted Twilight.

"And why's that?" beamed Luna.

"They'll more than likely view it as a threat." explained the alicorn of magic.

"You forget we are Alicorns, Twilight." reminded Celestia.

"You forget that they're humans." replied Twilight What's to say they don't have a gigantic laser that will rip this planet from the universe with ease?"

"UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE WE TO MAKE THEM MAD!" screamed Twilight in the royal Canterlot voice.

"Shadow squad would have no trouble ripping us apart like wet tissue and under no circumstances are we to keep secrets from them! They're omnipresent I tell you!"

The other alicorns froze. Twilight blushed after realizing what she just did.

"So until then, we have to tolerate them?" sneered Luna.

"Well, that's what we ponies do best. Besides, I don't know why, but I feel that deep down, a natural instinct instructs me to obey them." stated Twilight.

The alicorns ignored that last part.

"So what are we going to do about them?" wondered Cadance.

"I propose that we give them what we want and meet with them they want." sighed Twilight. "It's the only way to be sure they won't get mad."

"Are the ponies out side of ponyville aware of their presence?" questioned Celestia.

"I'm afraid not. I controlled the situation so no news wouldn't be leaked." said the alicorn of magic.

"Then why not have a grand reveal of some sorts?" proposed Luna. "We reveal the arrival of aliens to the public, bring Shadow Squad here, find out about each others race, and make contact with the less....aggressive parts of humanity."

"That does sound like a good idea." complimented Twilight.

"I still refuse to associate myself with such inconsiderate assassins who can not grasp the concept of harmony." sneered Celestia.

"To be fair princess, I really am making them out to be worse than they appear." said the alicorn of magic. "I guess I'm still afraid that's all."

"You know Tia, the first contact with an alien race would provide enough stress to render somepony violent and glacial." added Luna.

"Besides, if we can reform discord or NightMare Moon, what's to say we can't reform a group of mere young adults with a case of Blueblood-ego." chuckled Cadance.

The atmosphere brightened up. Celestia returned to her cheerful manner. "Alright then. If they misbehave, I'll just blast them into our sun."

"And then get humanity distraught and have them declare war on us," muttered Twilight. "Am I the only pony who is aware of consequences of antagonizing this race?"

Celestia rolled her eyes. For the next hour the 4 princesses debated how to plan out the 'First Contact' ceremony. From media, to food to publicity.

Then, the rulers of Equestria laid out the plans for the summer sun Celebration. They hoped by then Shadow would reestablish communication with humanity. Regardless, they devised a plan to convince them to be the official security of the Solstice. They believed such an offer would make them behave during the gathering.

Finally, Twilight decided it was her time to depart.

"Well, looks like I'm off everypony."

"What! Twilight this is the most important royal meeting of all time, we have festivities to plan." pointed Cadance.

"I'm sorry Cadance, but I really should leave." said Twilight quickly.

If you didn't plan on staying so long, why bring luggage?" inquired Luna.

"Oh that? I almost forgot." In an instant Twilight used her horn to generate enough energy for her to see through space time to search for her carry on, find the desired object, energize enough energy for the bag to be able to vibrate through walls and pull it towards her with a certain type of magnetics.

The bag materialized in front the of the other three alicorns.

"Last night I took some notes about Shadow that you might want to read." warned Twilight.

The alicorn used telekinesis to open the bag. She hoped to find documents, only for the bag to be empty.

Celestia sniffed something familiar. "Does anypony smell smoke?"

Twilight gritted her teeth. "Scarecrow. Last night he must have burned my papers because 'Shadow has to be so secret'."

Celestia chuckled a bit. "I have to admit, they sure remind me of that spy story Pinkie Pie once told me about."

"Should we not send guards to help protect you?" proposed Luna.

Twilight exhaled. "Sending guards would only threaten them."

"I wish you luck in dealing with them Twilight." assured Celestia.

"Why do you have to leave so early anyway?" remarked Cadence. "It's barely the afternoon."

Twilight formed a worried look. "They've probably put Ponyville under Martial Law by now."

And with a purple flash, Twilight vanished from the castle.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the inconsistent spelling of Alicorn.

The next chapter will be a bout Shadow's tour that happened in conjugation with this chapter. :)

What would you like Shadow to see in their tour other than the school?

Terran out.