“hey. hey kid, are you alright?” Sweetie Belle opened her eyes tiredly to see a small skeleton, she knew him from somewhere, yet everything sounded funny. “what happened? dam...darn, looks like she over used her magic.”

Sweetie tried to shake her head to rid herself of the haze yet her body wouldn’t move. A white pony with a pink mane ran over and got her onto a gurney. She began to panic when she remembered that her sister was missing.

“What are we going to do now?” a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane. “Not only have the Princesses vanished but the heroes as well. The sun has not risen and there is nothing to protect us against Sombra’s invasion.”

“There is always something!” Apple Bloom told him slamming her hoof against the crystal ground. “Sombra has taken the castle, but he hasn’t moved beyond that. We also have an idea on what kind of creatures he has on his side. We need to find out what they are and where they are from.”

“It depends on what world the Legion had conquered that they are from.” a voice spoke, causing all the ponies in the room to look towards the strangers that were brought with them.

“Mana Well, are you sure?” one of the taller cloaked figures asked still looking up at the one who spoke. “We might be too close.”

“It has been a long time since our people have left, we are the best option.” answered the tallest of the group before magic surrounded the hood. The ponies backed away when the hood fell back revealing a pony like creature. The mare beside him had removed her hood as well revealing something very similar. Both had a blue coat, cloven back hooves, thick tails with what looked hair at the end showing their pony origins, and glowing eyes. The stallion had a thick forehead plate that seemed to surround, tendrils coming from his face, and the tail was more erect as he had more muscle than the female. The mare had the tendrils coming from the back of her head and her plates were more like horns. Her tail wasn’t as muscular as her male counterpart.

“It depends on how many worlds the Legion had corrupted, how many species fell to their whims.” the male spoke again not caring that the ponies were afraid of them. “They were not Eredar, perhaps demons from the Twisting Nether.”

“That seems all too possible.” spoke the female before looking back at one of the strangers who was examining the castle walls. “Ley Finder, if we give you scrolls from our travels will you be able to track down the origins of those demons?”

“I didn’t touch it!” squeaked the stranger pulling her hoof away from the wall. “I mean, of course, Rune Keeper and I will examine the writings. Writings from a different world….”

“How exciting!” the stallion next to Ley Finder was almost bouncing in excitement.

“Hold it right there!” one of the unicorn guards said slamming his hoof against the ground. “Ouch, what is this stuff made out of? How are we sure we can trust them? Something was possessing our princess and they suddenly show up? They could be part of the reason they’re gone!”

“We would never put them in danger!” snapped one of the still cloaked ponies glaring at the one talking. “Our ladies of the sky are precious, what they love we will defend!”

“Nightweaver calm down.” spoke a cloaked stallion placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down Helios! My brother is missing, the ladies are missing! What are we going to do?” snapped the mare using some of her magic to rip off her hood revealing long pointed ears and glowing eyes. “They are blaming us!”

“Calm.” the stallion whispered into her ear and she began to sway. “We will take care of this beloved.”

“What are you?” the guard asked stepping back. “Are you even ponies?”

“Not like you, we have not even seen other ponies since we fled.” answered Helios as his magic caught Nightweaver. “Many of us changed and became more suited to where we ended up. That was so very long ago.”

“What do you mean by fled?” Apple Bloom spoke up tilting her head to the side as she approached them. “We aren’t that dangerous.”

“We did not flee from the ponies, something much more powerful.” Mana Well told her gently, voice thickly accented. “Day Bringer, could you and Helios….”

“Even with just the two of us it will still be hard without the rest….” Day Bringer answered still cloaked yet the ponies could make out glowing green eyes. “Fine, I guess we can try, it does not feel right raising our Lady’s Star.”

Day Bringer and Helios walked out of the main hall heading for one of the balconies. The doors shut behind the two.

“It still doesn’t answer our question, what are you?” the unicorn guard spoke again his face firmly in a frown as the other guards tensed ready for a fight.

“Not yer enemy, laddie!” snapped one of the stouter strangers walking forward, his voice was thickly accented. “Get it through yer thick skull! Right now we are all stuck in this situation together so deal with it! Sky Dancer, what do the winds say?”

“Our ladies and the ones that vanished are not on this world. More have appeared from a time long forgotten. The winds speak of a great warrior who is like the sea and a king who is burdened by great loss.” this time it sounded like a mare that responded. “Where do they come from, I wonder. Should I go look?”

“Nah, keep yer feet on the ground. Don’t want you getting lost… again.” the stout pony said reaching up to pat her on the shoulder.

“SANS THE DESCRIPTIONS THAT STRANGE PONY HAD SAID, DO THEY REMIND YOU OF SOMETHING?” Papyrus asked causing all the ponies to look at him and his brother.

“they do?” replied Sans thinking for a bit and the taller skeleton nodded saying. “OF COURSE A GREAT WARRIOR WHO IS LIKE THE SEA? WHY DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR?”

“... she could be talking about Undyne. you know the one person that is able to get you into the royal guard.” Papyrus stared at him before saying. “WE MUST FIND THEM!”

“alright.” the smaller skeleton made no move to leave, that seemed to irritate the taller one. The hands flew to his hips and his foot began to tap against the floor. Ponies around them seemed to relax at this. The unicorn guard walked off wondering what they were going to do now that the castle was sealed off. His ear twitched when he heard some of the “humans” that were allowed to stay in the castle talking.

“We should help them.”

“We barely know what is going on, besides we don’t know what we can change.”

“We are here because of Twilight, we should be doing all we can.”

“I don’t know what we can do to help… we’ve got Spartans II’s and Noble squadron here, not to mention Dr. Halsey, Master Chief, and Cortana. What can a couple of nobodies do?”

“Thompson….”

The unicorn backed away from the door frowning a bit. He knew what that felt like, sighing he headed off down the hallway. His mind wandered to the Princesses and wondered what they were up to. It had been about three and a half hours since they vanished.

The next day the ponies who were at the gala wondered if the were going to have to live without their Princesses. The strangers seemed content on raising the moon as well as the sun, though there were complaints. Yet nothing more was known about them. They rarely removed their cloaks and most avoided other ponies as much as possible. Sky Dancer had chosen to help with the wounded the best she could. Most were grateful but still wary, the appearance of King Sombra and the demons had made them a bit suspicious of strangers. Those from Ponyville did not mind the humans as much as those from Canterlot did. They went back to their studies once they were assured that King Sombra was not going to attack. This was an observation of Halsey’s and the nobles were surprised that the residents listened to her opinion.

“Honestly, they take the words of strangers over our own.” huffed a yellow pony glaring at a Spartan as they passed by. Only to be ignored earning a screech of disdain from the upper class pony.

“I know, this is simply dreadful.” a light pink pony replied shaking her head. “I have been writing to the princesses about these ruffians since they appeared and they have yet to get back to me.”

“Probably because they were the ones who allowed them to stay in the first place.” The guard from earlier told them as he walked up. “The humans are under the protection of Princess Celestia herself and from what I had seen at the party the strangers are under Princess Luna’s protection.”

“They could be controlling the Princesses.” huffed Upper Crust turning her nose up at the guard who just rolled his eyes saying. “Oh yes, controlling the Princesses. They are soldiers and according to Twilight Sparkle, as she was the one who brought them here from a land of technology and steel. No magic, as for the strangers I believe them. And they are helping other ponies, something I don’t see you doing at all.”

“And what are you doing?” Jet Set inquired earning a glare from another guard who replied. “Patrolling, I’m doing my job to keep these ponies safe. We all are, look, I may not like the situation we’re in but we can’t just lay down and do nothing while others are sticking their necks out for every pony.”

“Good on ye laddie.” a voice spoke as one of the shorter strangers spoke up. “The two skeletons are back, thought you should know that they found their friends.”

“Thank you for telling me…” the guard paused knowing that he had no knowledge of who this pony was.

“The name is Fire Harvester.” the stallion said walking away as he looked around. “Good stone….”

The guard didn't hear the rest as the smaller pony walked away because some of the humans were walking past. Jet Set was about to say something but was silenced by the unicorn guards magic. He watched as the walked by. They all did, they couldn’t tell which ones they were. To the higher class ponies all humans looked the same. To the guard he was more distracted by the armor, he shook his head before waiting until the were out of earshot before dispersing his spell.

“Next time you want to say something rude to the guests of this kingdom or even try, don’t. We are too used to turning on each other and right now we need all the allies we can get.” the guard told them before heading off. Apparently he had some sort of test to take. He was greeted by the rest of the unicorn guards. “Dragon Heart!”

He nodded in greeting before taking his place as a strange unicorn walked into the front of the group. He explained that in order to defeat Sombra they were going to have to access the magic deep within themselves and find the core of it all. Just like all of the ponies in Ponyville did. After that all of the guards fell into a deep slumber.

Author's Notes:

I do not own MLP or any other series in this fanfic.