Three figures stood in a room. A device of unknown ability was hooked into the wall, its displays showing information of varying clarity. Just outside the room, a fourth figure in a lab coat bent over to speak into a microphone.

"Do you three understand?" he asked in a vaguely Russian accent. The three men spoke their confirmations in their own accents, some heavier and more identifiable than the others. Satisfied with their answers, the scientist continued. "Our future operations may hinge on this. If you mess this up, the boss will have all of our heads." He turned a few more switches, before pressing a button that was clearly meant for starting the machine. As he watched, the room started filling with both light and noise from the device. The three men shifted nervously in place, but otherwise stood still. Soon, the brightness was too much to look at, and the scientist averted his gaze until he heard a loud pop and the noise started winding down. When he opened his eyes, the three men were gone.

He sighed; he hoped the radio worked on their end, assuming they haven't just died.

---

Celestia was bored. She was in the middle of day court, listening to the umpteenth noblepony giving reasons why they shouldn't have money deducted from their personal budget. She had mastered the art of mostly tuning them out, but it was still draining on her nerves.

"...and furthermore-"

To the princess's delight, something interrupted the currently-speaking noble. Her delight vanished, however, when she saw what the reason was. A fairly large ball of energy had formed in the middle of the throne room, and it was pulsing and spinning ominously. All of the ponies gathered started murmuring worriedly, while Celestia just watched in silent curiosity.

Soon, the ball had seemingly stopped growing, before it suddenly gave a loud pop and shrank down to nothing. In its place, though, were three... odd creatures. They seemed to be wearing a vaguely military uniform, along with masks. They held some sort of device in their arms, which one of them started pointing at the ponies in a panicking fashion. One of the others stopped this by smacking it on the head. The same one who smacked its colleague walked towards the princess.

"Hello," it said, in a very heavy accent that Celestia couldn't quite place. "We are-"

The third creature pulled the second back to stop his speech, then walked forward himself while pulling off the mask, revealing a weathered face, yet Celestia could tell that, at one time, he might have looked charming.

"Hello," he said, in a much less accented voice. "We honestly do not know where we are, so could you fill us in, please?"

As the gathered nobles gawked speechlessly, Celestia answered. "You are in Equestria. More specifically, you are in Canterlot, the capital."

The three shared a look with each other, the non-speaking two shrugging, before the third resumed speaking. "Charming place. Anyway, we were traveling as representatives of a fairly large company, and we were wondering if we could, say, strike a business deal."

"What do you mean, exactly?"

The creature checked a device on his shoulder, making it emit a short burst of static. Grinning, he pulled it off and extended it to the princess. "You can ask my boss yourself."

---

In a matter of weeks, ponies across Equestria had learned of this new incoming "company". Calling themselves Nostra, they were pointed to a large section of the Badlands as one of the only places available for massive building projects. Surprisingly, they accepted, and a huge collection of buildings and strange vehicles were transported in the same way those first three humans, as they called themselves, were. For the most part, they kept to themselves, sending contraptions that ponies would learn were named "trucks", "helicopters", and even the odd "jet". When they were asked what they were doing, whoever was in charge of Nostra's PR that day usually said something along the lines of "getting used to the area."

Occasionally, convoys or one of the flying machines would pass through and near towns, but they never bothered anypony, with the possible exception of noise complaints. Soon, Nostra had become a regular part of Equestria, mostly keeping to themselves but not too hard to find if you look.

It's a shame none of the ponies could understand their real purpose here.

---

Technicians were looking at their computers, all of them baffled by what they saw. After that whole "Four Horsemen" scare, they had been searching for the last remnants of Nostra, in order to shut them down for good. They had been proving mostly elusive, even nabbing one of their experimental teleporter projects, and now they had just up and vanished. Not a trace was left. Even the facilities they were using seemed to have up and gone with them. No one knew what it meant, or what it could ever mean.

On the bright side, now that Nostra had essentially disappeared off the face of the planet, the I.E.S. had more or less accomplished its goal. Sure, they were hoping for them to surrender (or at the very least for them to be confirmed dead), but now they simply no longer existed. It was reason enough to take it easy from now on, for a little while. And besides, they still had their ace in the hole, in the form of the most sophisticated and deadly vehicle in the world, along with its driver. Even if Nostra came back, they'd be prepared.

But of course, nothing is ever that simple, is it?