Celestia experienced a small jolt as the wave of magic reached her. She looked out a nearby window, her brow furrowing as she noticed the statue of Discord, still frozen in place. But what she had felt could not have been a mistake. No, she was far too familiar with this type of magic to believe that what she had felt was anything else. She stood, calling for a guard.

“Yes, my princess?” The guard asked, not noticing anything wrong as he stepped inside the throne room.

“Please retrieve my sister for me. I believe that we--” She was cut off as said sister burst into the room, startling several maids who had been cleaning.

“Celestia!” Luna began, short of breath. “We need to speak with you! It is a matter of--”

Celestia held up a hoof, silencing Luna. “I know. You felt it as well?”

Luna nodded, casting a brief glance at the guard.

Celestia turned towards him, taking a deep breath. “Gather five full squadrons. I want no less than forty soldiers with us.”

The guard started, nearly dropping his spear at the princess’ grave tone. “Of course, but if I may ask, why?”

The solar and lunar princesses shared a glance, then Celestia answered. “I fear that a powerful magic has just come into Equestria. One of chaos.”

The guard seemed to stall for a minute as he flashed back to discord’s brief return. Celestia nodded, thoughts of cheese raining down on Canterlot returning to her. She was eternally grateful that nopony had been hurt, but she was losing track of herself. Returning her attention to the throne room, she found that the guard had departed, as had several of the palace staff in the room.

Luna had returned to her room, likely to brace herself for a fight. Celestia opted to leave Shining armor out of this, the unicorn currently sleeping through the night with his wife.

She made her way to the front of the palace.

She had expected the guards to be prepared in just a few minutes. Instead, Celestia found that the changeling invasion had turned her entire guard force into minute-ponies, prepared to fight at just a moments notice. Luna walked into the corner of Celestia’s vision.

“Should we--er, I gather any of my Lunar guard?” Luna asked, her anxiety showing through with her near relapse into archaic speaking.

“No.” Celestia answered, a touch of sadness in her voice. “If forty soldiers isn't enough, then the entirety of the guard force won’t make a difference.”

“What of the elements?”

“We cannot rely on them to protect Equestria forever. You know as well as I do that there is enough going on already.”

Luna nodded, her hard gaze as unwavering as ever. “And if we do need them?”

“Then flee.” Celestia said, frowning. “You are a faster flyer than me, by far. Get to the bearers and seal whatever threatens Equestria in the bowels of Tartarus.”

It had proven easy enough to locate the disturbance. Even so, Celestia and Luna were not prepared for what they found.

It was a clearing close to the edge of the Everfree forest. A perfect circle of grass had been completely incinerated, turned to ash by the energy release. In the middle of the circle, lay an earth pony. He had a gray coat with a brown mane. Very dull and drab compared to most ponies’ bright colors and radiance.

Despite being an obvious earth pony, he wasn't built like one. Most earth ponies were well muscled, built for work. This one had a thinner frame, more akin to the magic driven unicorns. Another major distinction was his complete lack of a cutie mark. While most ponies got one during early adolescence, this pony lacked one entirely, despite young adulthood.

One of the guards took a step forward, before turning towards Celestia for confirmation. She nodded, confusion managing to show itself though her normally passive mask.

The guard edged towards the pony, who was showing no obvious signs of life. He lowered his head, putting his ear against the stranger’s chest. “No heartbeat." He reported, picking up his head. "Not breathing, either. He’s dead." The guard set the butt of his spear on the ground with a soft thud. As soon as the sound reached Celestia’s ears, the pony’s eyes snapped open. The guard jumped back in surprise at the princess’ warning cry.

The sky was clear, but a lone bolt of lightning arced through the air, touching ground for just a fraction of a second before it dissipated. That fraction however, was all it took for the pony to rise from the ground, facing the contingent of armed guards.

Celestia wasn't paying attention, as her mind was riveted on an image that had been burned into her retinas by the lightning. That of the pony who was now laying on the ground, eyes glowing a dark red. That pony laying waste to everything around him, including misshapen silhouettes that she could not identify. The silhouettes shifted and faded in and out, some rising to fight alongside him while others took the forms of various ponies or creatures that were trying to fight against him.

What shook her most, however, was Canterlot.

The city was constantly shifting, just as the silhouettes were. Sometimes, it was a battered and scorched ruin, towers and buildings falling to the ground. Other times it was pristine, serving as nothing more than an onlooker over the battle. It's location also changed, as the pony either fought to get at the city, laying siege on the structure, or to defend it, the walls guarded by him.

The silhouettes around him and Canterlot's appearance constantly shifted, changing from him standing with or against a battalion of ponies, a few of which appeared to be in royal guard armor, to a conflict involving beasts of so many different possible sizes and shapes they were too numerous to clearly recall.

The only constant was the battle and the pony himself.

It was clear that this was the future, as near as Celestia could tell. The circumstances would be decided in time, as the pony etched a place for himself into Equestria. The question, then, is what will he end up being?

A guard, savior, or destroyer? A thief, murderer, or protector? Will he have allies or will he stand alone?

And why was he here, in Equestria, to begin with?

“Sister. Sister! Celestia, wake up!”

Celestia shook herself out of her daze. “Who--what?”

She saw several of her guards trying to apprehend the stranger, who was busy avoiding them with a look of panic in his eyes. Eventually, a group of five guards managed to encircle him, slowly closing in.

The pony screwed his eyes shut, apparently having given up. The guards prepared to apprehend their quarry, when the pony’s eyes snapped open. While his eyes before had been a gray-blue, they were now glowing a dark red over the entirety of the eyeball, just like in Celestia's vision. The pony picked up his fore hooves and slammed them into the ground, releasing a blast of chaos magic in a wave away from him that knocked away the nearby guards.

The pony shook his head, the magical attack having drained him considerably. He glanced around, obviously confused as to how he had done whatever it was that he managed to do.

Celestia looked on at the pony who was ever so slowly backing away from the remaining guards. He was terrified. He was shaky on his hooves as well, as if he wasn't used to walking on four legs.

Surely, this could not be the warrior she had seen? The fact that he wielded the magic of chaos was undeniable, but it was also unlikely that he had ever had any contact with it before now, given his reaction to it.

She looked at Luna, who was also trying to make a judgment on what she had just bared witness to.

The gray and brown pony ended up being backed directly into a tree. He glanced back for a split second before returning his gaze to the large group of guards. His eyes began to glow red once more, terror on his features.

He wasn't controlling the magic, Celestia realized. His emotions were driving it out, forcing it to the surface. That was something that only occurred when a unicorn had just undergone a burst in the growth of their magical ability, before their body adapted to compensate. Such occurrences were typical of a pubescent or even prepubescent unicorn, but an earth pony of any age? Regardless of this being chaos rather than unicorn magic, that could only mean that he had either acquired his power extremely recently, or it had been unnoticed up to this point in time.

The guards closed in again, readying their spears.

“Enough!” Luna called, ordering the guards to back off, but not to lower their defenses.

The threat growing further from him, the gray pony’s eyes returned to normal. He swayed for a bit, shaking his head as he regained control of himself. Luna stepped though the line of guards, slowly approaching the disoriented pony. He eventually turned to face her, but his reaction upon seeing her was one of sheer disbelief, as if he thought he was going mad.

“Princess…Luna?” He began, when the lunar princess touched the tip of her horn to his forehead.

“Peace.” She stated, as the pony’s pupils dilated first to encompass most of his iris, then reversing and becoming little more than pinpricks. His eyes closed, his body falling to the ground. A light snore escaped him as several guards picked him up, preparing him for transport back to Canterlot.

Celestia nudged her sister. “Do you think that this is a good idea?”

Luna sighed. “I don’t know for sure, but I do know what you saw when the lightning struck.” Luna’s face turned grim, her eyes darkening. “When I put him to sleep, I also performed a magical sweep of the area. There is something here, watching. Possibly whatever brought him here.” Luna smiled, her eyes filled now with a mix of determination and amusement. “Whatever it was, it is gone now, and left this pony behind."