Author's Notes:

Bold - Character Narrating (Either Perspective or Narrator)
Italics - Character's Thoughts
Color - Character Who's Narrating or Thinking: Starswirl the Bearded
Soldier 1 (No color)
Soldier 2 (No color)
Vallan
Private Pansy
Clover the Clever

The light of the afternoon light shone across a vast forest, creatures of both the mysterious and dangerous kind; a castle stood tall and solemn among the forest, a cavern separating both the castle and forest meeting. The castle while in the outside was made of stone and didn’t shined or glimmer like the castle or buildings of Canterlot, wasn’t built to look pretty. The residents of the castle lived in some of the dangerous parts of Equestria, the Everfree Forest, and because of this the castle was built to withstand any of the Everfree’s more dangerous creatures.

Inside the castle, a total of fifty-three ponies lived in the castle currently; fifteen soldiers, fifteen maids, ten chefs, nine different experts on different professions, a single butler, and three very important figures. The first of the three was a respected wizard and teacher of Clover the Clever; Starswirl the Bearded. The other two were however a special case… for they were the only ones of their kind that were ever recorded in Equestrian history. The first alicorns in existence ever; Celestia and Luna, the future rulers of Equestria.

Celestia, Luna’s older sibling slept quietly in her room… until a quiet knock was heard. Opening her one eye slightly, her bed covers shuffled as the form of a giant white mare rose up; with a quiet and adorable yawn Celestia rubbed her eyes with a hoof. Instead of getting out of bed, the white mare falls back to sleep, grumbling something out. “Five more minutes...” said Celestia, snoring lightly.

In response to her grumbling, the knocks continued to grow louder, with it was a familiar voice to the young alicorn. “Tia! Get up, you overslept again! You missed this morning’s classes and breakfast!” The sleeping alicorn recognized the voice of that being her young sister, Luna; with a groan she stepped out of her bed, trotting toward the door.

Opening the door open was another alicorn, her fur was blue but seemed to show a dark shade to it. Luna looked at her slightly taller sibling, frowning at her sleepy figure. “Tiaaaaa,” said Luna, extending the “a” part of her sister’s nickname. “Why did you have to leave me alone this morning? It was so boring listening to all those classes, that I nearly fell asleep.”

Celestia yawned rubbing her head after noticing what time it is now. “Sorry Lulu, I stayed up last night and was studying this spell Starswirl was teaching me,” said Celestia.

“Wait, you were up last night? Did you see the night sky then!” said Luna, her expression changing instantly.

“No sadly, I was so deep in my learning I kind of kept my eyes glued to my books. Why, was there something interesting tonight?” asked Celestia.

“Interesting? Interesting! You should of seen it, the sky was as bright as the sun, filled to the brim with so many different colors… and that music,” said Luna, grinning. “I don’t why, but it was really catchy. It went something like this; dun, dun-dun dun, dun-dun dun, dun, dun, dun-dun-dun dun, and something after that… but it was a really catchy tune!”

Celestia tilted her head in confusion; her sister giddily hopped where she stood, remembering what she experienced the night before. From Celestia’s perspective it seemed as if her little sister may have eaten a little bit too many late night snacks before going to bed. “Luna… maybe you should lay off the cookies before going to bed,” said Celestia, leaning against the door-frame.

“I wasn’t seeing things! Ask one of the guards or anypony, maybe they saw it too,” said Luna. “It’s not my fault you’re too busy being a bookworm!”

“I wasn’t reading, I was studying! They’re two different things!” said Celestia.

“Reading, studying; tomayto, tomahto… It’s the same thing,” said Luna, in response.

“No, it’s not!”

“Yes, it is.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

Both the alicorn sisters kept going back and forth with agreeing and disagreeing when from the far end of the hallway… was a bearded unicorn. The old unicorn wore a hat strung with bells and a cloak with stars adorning it’s cloth… who sighed from seeing the spectacle of two unique beings… arguing like a bunch of fillies.

“Well… they are pretty much fillies, though they are older than I,” said Starswirl, speaking to himself. “I should probably stop them before they cause an incident… again.”

Starswirl trotted toward the two alicorns, each one arguing back to the other. Turning from the other side of the corner was one of the fifteen soldiers, with him was a scroll in his mouth. Both the alicorns stopped their bickering to look at the frantically running stallion. “Ecuse muh!” said the messenger, through clenched teeth.

“Yikes!” shouted Celestia, stepping back into her room.

“Hey!” shouted Luna, leaning back to the hallway wall. “Watch where you’re running!”

“Sworry!” shouted the messenger back to Luna. The messenger turned to face in front of him when he spotted the pony he was looking for; in an instant, the messenger stopped to a halt screeching against the castle’s floor. The stallion stood in front of Starswirl who was equally confused as the alicorn sisters; with a quick salute the stallion spat out the scroll onto the floor. “STARSWIRL SIR! MESSAGE FROM THE OUTER PERIMETER PATROL, SIR!”

“How many times have I told you; call me Starswirl, I’m a wizard not a captain!” said Starswirl, directing his focus to the scroll. Using a simple levitation spell, Starswirl unwraps the scroll and reads it, mumbling some of the words out of habit. “Light… noise… critters running… fighting…” Starswirl’s eyes widened until he screamed out the last part of the scroll’s message. “ALIENS!”

Both the alicorn sisters looked at one another, both their eyes bulged out in intrigue. “ALIENS!?” shouted both Luna and Celestia. Instantly, Celestia and Luna teleported behind Starswirl to read the scroll he was given. “WHAT ALIENS!?” said Celestia and Luna, leaning behind Starswirl.

Starswirl quickly teleported the scroll to his private chambers before turning to face both his apprentices, giving each one a powerful glare. “Ohhhhhhh no you don’t! You two are staying in the castle and continuing your studies, or I will enchant this whole castle… again!” said Starswirl.

“That thing,” said Celestia, waving her hoof in front of Starswirl. “I already know where you keep the runes and know how to disable them.”

“Is that so? Well tell me then… where are they?” asked Starswirl, expecting an answer.

“Why, one’s in the kitchen, another in the library, and you keep one both under mine and Luna’s beds,” said Celestia, folding her hooves in triumph. “Beat that!”

Starswirl began to clap his hooves together, grinning. “Well done well done… except… you forgot I always place five,” said Starswirl.

Celestia’s triumphant smirk faltered, facehoofing herself for forgetting that. Drat!

“I told you we missed one...” said Luna, whispering to Celestia.

Starswirl sighed again, rubbing his eyebrows in frustration. How in the world were these two were prophesied to be Equestria’s new rulers? Still… I promised I would do all my power to teach these two, and show them the destiny they were given. After going through his thoughts, Starswirl looked upon the messenger standing before him.

“Send a patrol to check where you last seen these… aliens. I’ll come too, but I must first send a letter to my apprentice about this,” said Starswirl.

“Of course, sir!” shouted the messenger, saluting. After the messenger made his way down the hallway, leaving Starswirl with Celestia and Luna; Starswirl turned to face the two young alicorns, raising a brow.

“Now… What exactly were you two arguing about?” asked Starswirl, crossing his front hooves together.

Both sisters gulped, knowing they’re in big trouble now; both sisters began to nervously laugh slowly shrinking in size. Sometime earlier in the day within the Everfree Forest, a small patrol of soldiers are going through a designated path made specifically for them so nopony would get lost in the large maze-like expanse of the mysterious forest.

Booooooring… I swear, after this I’m going to ask the captain if I can do guard duty in the castle. At least there I’m warm, have some decent food, and don’t have to deal with this creepy place. The soldier yawned, beside him was another soldier giving him the stink-eye.

“Now now, don’t go dozing off on me. I don’t want to let last time’s incident happen again,” said the soldier, angrily bonking the other soldier’s helmet.

“I said I was sorry… I didn’t see that cockatrice,” said the first soldier rubbing his head.

“It was because you fell asleep while I almost turned into stone… You’re lucky lady Clover was visiting his teacher, and saw us in trouble,” said the second soldier. “I rather deal with whatever she has to go through than your sorry plot!”

Before the first soldier could retort… a loud noise was heard. Both guards panicked expecting an attack… but the noise only grew even more. Suddenly from the bushes on their left came a torrent of critters and other dangerous animals, running by them as if they weren’t there at all. “GET DOWN!” shouted the second soldier, pushing her fellow ally to the ground.

Both soldiers kept their heads down; when the noise finally died down, they both looked where the critters ran from. “What-was-that-all-about?” asked the first soldier.

“I don’t know… but it’s better than walking back and forth,” said the second soldier, grinning deviously. “Come on!”

“Wha- WAIT!” shouted the first soldier, catching up with his comrade.

Both soldiers trot through the shrubbery and trees, until they both find themselves in an open field. The field has grass that reached up to their legs; in the center of the field was a pillar of smoke… and a putrid smell. What’s that smell?

The second soldier focused her gaze ahead… until she felt her stomach drop. In the center of the field was a giant crater, surrounding the crater were several Timberwolves of varying sizes… but among all of them, there was a figure that stood taller than a pony… maybe taller than a minotaur. The figure wore something around his legs, a brownish cloth; he wore a white shirt with a collar around his neck; he had no hair on his body or head… except around what was assumed to be his mouth. The figure’s eyes were thin so nopony could see his pupils; he was bleeding from a number of claw and bite marks on him, possibly from the Timberwolves. Below him was another figure, possibly unconscious who was smaller in size and shape than his gigantic counterpart. The giant figure bellowed out a word or noise, that shook the air around the field; the female soldier shivered from the noise, slowly trotting away from the scenario she was seeing.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” screamed Tim, raising both fists in the air.

At the same time, all the Timberwolves began to rush forward; the giant figure stood his ground raising both his fists in a defensive poise. Punching through bark as hard as steel, he shattered through all the Timberwolves that came into impact with his fists. Not slowing nor moving, the giant figure continued his defensive onslaught, while more of the Timberwolves seized the chance to find an opening; both soldiers watched until the first soldier shook her comrade into reality.

“We need to report this, asap!” shouted the first soldier.

The second soldier nodded; pulling out a scroll she begins to write something down. Once finished she uses her magic from being a unicorn and sends the scroll to the one pony who could make sense to who… or what these things are. Come on Starswirl, you better get here quick… because I don’t know who’s a bigger threat. The Timberwolves… or… that… “thing”.

Back in the present, Vallan wakes up from what he can guess was an hour or so. Looking around, the sun was still up but, was slowly descending now. Standing back up, Vallan sees the shorts he used to swim have dried quite quickly now; grabbing the rest of his belongings Vallan sees his weaponry is dry and in ready condition. Searching through the pile of scrap he collected, Vallan finds a silver box with his organization’s symbol on it. At least some of our stuff fell with us. Opening the box, inside is three separate compartments; the first compartment had medical supplies, the second had ammunition ranging from bombs of multiple uses, bullets, and small but very sharp dagger. The final compartment was the most important one; inside were three crystals, one yellow, one red, and one purple. Each crystal had their uses but with quick movement he placed each crystal in a pocket around his waist. Taking a handful of bullets and placing them in a container, some grenades, a roll of bandages and a bottle of pills… and Vallan was ready.

Good… now I need to hide this stuff… but how? Vallan looked left and right, until he spotted some branches with leaves on them still. Grabbing as many branches he can, Vallan covers the pile of junk with leaves, sticks, some rocks, sand, and some dirt as an extra precaution. Once done, Vallan began to climb the tallest tree he could see.

Okay, this is the plan; I search my surroundings and find another and better vantage point. From there I mark my location and draw a good idea of the area around me. Once from there I find the nearest form of civilization on this realm, however if the locals aren’t… friendly; then I go into hiding. I find the others, we return back to this lake, we gather what we can from this pile and find a good location for a temporary HQ.

Finally reaching the top of the tree, Vallan scours the area; pulling out a compass Vallan sees he is currently looking north from where he stared. From the north was a tall mountain, from the side of the mountain he could see a castle; from his east is a small settlement, barely complete but stable from what he could tell. On his south was nothing but from the distance was complete barren land… possible zero civilization too, making it a perfect place to go to hide; and finally on the west was something that peaked Vallan’s curiosity. In the distance was a military camp guessing by the tents and sound of metal… but what truly caught his attention was the two pillars of smoke, signaling the locations of his other comrades. One pillar of smoke was at some mountains northwest of him, while the second pillar of smoke which was closer was south-west of Vallan. Rubbing his chin Vallan decides to go the closer pillar of smoke. Whoever is there might still be there… and by guessing by that military camp… whatever beings from the camp get to that pillar of smoke first… Vallan stopped his own thoughts, realizing that one of this allies were in danger; with a quick flick of his hands he began to hop from treetop to treetop not slowing the slightest.

Some distance from Vallan’s position, a small group of pegasi soldiers, accompanied by Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy begin searching the area, from Pansy’s description; a smoldering rock the size of a carriage. While all of the pegasi could possibly fly up and find whatever their looking for quicker that way, Commander Hurricane can sense danger ahead and flying would possibly let what or whoever their looking for their position. One pegasus grumbles angrily for being unable to fly, kicking a rock from his path. “Commander, permission to speak freely, sir,” said the pegasus.

“Permission granted,” said Hurricane, pushing a branch from his path.

“Commander Hurricane, how do we know that… whatever Private Pansy saw...” said the pegasus, at the same time glaring at Pansy. “Was just some star that shone brighter than the other stars, or was simply a bunch of fireflies, sir?”

Commander Hurricane stopped at his tracks, but continued to face forward. “Soldier… I have believe in what Private Pansy has seen and said. Whether what she saw was simply a squirrel or some dust in the wind; it is our responsibility to check every disturbance no matter how small it may be. What if it were a small brigade of bandits, or a group of enemy scouts from another nation? What then would happen if we lazily stayed in our camp and did nothing? We would of failed our responsibility of protecting this nation and it’s ponies!” said Hurricane. “Now quit bickering like a mare, and continue stomping those hooves forward!”

The pegasus continued forward, right after he gave Private Pansy a harsh look. Private Pansy didn’t noticed, when a noise rang across the forest; everypony stopped at their tracks, slowly pulling out their swords. Hurricane raised his hoof, making everypony halt; the rustling grew… until a small bunny popped out, hopping away. “Just a bunny soldiers. Forward!” said Hurricane.

Everypony sheathed their swords, when Pansy saw something in the corner of her eye. Stopping to kneel down, she picked up something sharp and metallic; it was a strange object that resembled a star with four pointed ends facing all directions of north, south, east, and west. What is this? Pansy placed the object into her saddlebags, until she heard a shout of a fellow soldier to catch up. “Coming!” shouted Pansy, running to the rest of her group.

The second Pansy left… two figures came out the shadows; both the figures looked exactly like the other… but one smiled while the other frowned. “Ohhhh, that was my favorite throwing star,” said Lov, kicking the ground.

“No worries sister… once they reach our trap…” said Eliya, pulling out a kunai. “We strike.” With a flick of her wrist, Eliya threw the kunai until it embedded itself in the bark of a tree. Both sisters returned to the shadows, slowly following the group of ponies.

Elsewhere, a small group of ponies led by Clover the Clever were given permission by Princess Platinum to search the mountains near Canterlot from the west. Last night, Clover spotted a rare arrange of comets raining from the sky; one of these comets crashed near Canterlot from the mountains adjacent of the city. Sent to check these comets, Clover’s group reaches the mountains; luckily the season isn’t too cold and didn’t needed to heavily clothe themselves for the cold temperature. “We’re almost there! Just a few more trots and we’ll reach the crash site!” shouted Clover.

The team of seven ponies including Clover, with two researchers, three soldiers, and a guide made it to the top of the mountain. Once reaching their destination, a tall pillar of smoke rose from the bottom of a crater. The first to notice the crater was Clover, instantly teleporting to the bottom of the crater. “Miss Clover, what are you doing!?” shouted one of the researchers.

“Don’t worry, I just need to get a close examination of the area,” said Clover. That was a lie, in reality Clover wanted to be the first to be inside the crater of a comet or star or anything. Clover was giddy with excitement, ready for the unexpected… what she saw made her freeze. Under the rubble of what she assumed was pieces of the comet… was a hand; it wasn’t like a hand of a minotaur who only had three fingers, for this had five instead. What in the name of…

Before Clover could finish her thought, the hand twitched; Clover reacted out of instinct and stepped away. Tripping on a rock, Clover lands plot first on the ground with a loud thump. What’s wrong with me… something like this shouldn’t freak me out. I’m the apprentice of Starswirl the Bearded for pony’s sake… but… for some reason… My instincts are telling me to not go near that hand… There’s something… wrong with that hand.

When Clover was rising back on all fours, the rubble began to move; not moving an inch the rubble moved and rising from it was a figure that stood slightly taller than her, but was short enough if she stood only on her hind-legs. The figure wore glasses, it’s only sign of hair was the top of it’s head; the color of it’s hair had two separate colors, on the left side was a dark green while the right side was gray. It wore a light blue lab coat similar to the researchers back at Canterlot; it’s clothing was covered in dirt, dust, and dried blood. The figure stood tall staring at the wall behind Clover; thinking it hasn’t noticed her Clover slowly sneaks away until it spoke.

“Excuse me miss,” said A.I, coughing to get Clover’s attention.

Clover slowly turned her head to stare at the blank expression of the tall being. In return the being kneels down until it’s eyes met with Clover’s; both beings, separate races but shared an equal knowledge of both their worlds. Clover could only open her mouth in shock while A.I. sighed, scratching the back of his head; looking back at the shocked pony A.I. extends his hand in an unfamiliar fashion towards the pony, but recognized it as a form of greeting.

“It’s nice to meet you miss. My name is A.I, and… I would like to ask you of your assistance…” said A.I, smiling to make himself more appealing. “Please.”

Clover continued her shocked expression unable to respond a single line… except one that answered both her situation and the being’s request.

“What?” said Clover, bluntly.