Twas a typical day in the Equestrian capital of Canterlot. Posh ponies going about their business, the smell of fresh bread rolling down Satyr avenue and the sound of young fillies playing hoof ball In the Royal Canterlot park. High above the streets of Canterlot stood the royal palace, home of both Princess Celestia and Luna as well as many dignitaries, nobles and servants that kept the day-to-day workings of Equestria moving along smoothly. Today however, the halls of the palace were almost completely silent, with only the occasional marching of a palace guard echoing down the halls. In the tallest tower balcony overlooking the Royal Canterlot park stood princess Celestia, staring at the park below with a pained expression on her face.

A loud rapping sound came from her bedroom door. "You may enter" Celestia said turning eagerly to greet her new guest. A shaggy coated goat adorned in a top-hat and monocle walked into the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Notepad what brings you here this fine day?" Celestia said trying to fake a smile.

"Celestia my Liege" he paused. "You know why I am here. Why have you cancelled the day court on a Monday of all days?" a tone of disapproval in his voice. "It's The busiest day of the week and all the court dignitaries are a tad uppity when they don't get their work done before afternoon crochet." Notepad complained, adjusting his monocle.

Celestia gave a long sigh before staring out from the balcony again.

"My sister sent me a letter late last night, some kind of pale bipedal creature was attacked by the old castle in the Everfree Forest just a few hours after midnight."

"Serves them right!" Notepad interrupted arrogantly. "No one with even a lick of sense ever goes to that dreadful place. Is that the reason day court was cancelled? Why shut down most of the Canterlot government today for some country bumpkin wandering into places he doesn’t belong?”

Turning her head to the posh goat Celestia motioned him to come closer. "The victim we believe is a human, Notepad." she said in a hushed voice. “Also, please refrain from calling those out in the country that, I love all my subjects equally. I'll not have you disrespect them that way in front of me.”

Notepad bowed apologetically before the question struck him. He looked quizzically at Celestia for a moment before asking "What in Star-swirl's beard is a huuu" Notepad paused trying to catch his badly done pronunciation. "Is a human?"

"I've Little information myself. Only a single heavily tattered book in the royal library had any information on what a human is. They existed long before I was born. The only record I could find was a brief manuscript about them being completely wiped out in a war with the Pegasus over three thousand years ago."

Notepad scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, the crypto zoologist's will be raving for months and I dare say that nut job Lyra Heartstrings will be absolutely popping with excitement at the news but even so, attacks and death are quite common in that place, why shutdown everything for a new species discovery?”

"Whatever it was that attacked the human, wasn't native to the Everfree forest, it attacked Luna as well.”

"My word!" Notepad stepped back in shock, monocle falling out of socket. “Surely no creature in its right mind would dare attack a being as powerful as her. It didn't hurt her did it?” He said, a combination of worry and shock still on his face.

"No, the only creature we have ever known to be capable of hurting either of us was Discord. However, as powerful as Discord is, he never actually attacked anything to kill. He could have easily injured or killed either of us at some point but refused to resort to violence... at least at any kind of lethal level.”

Celestia’s head drooped slightly as she continued. "This creature however is a exact antonym of Discord, it tried to kill the human it had captured in the most painful and sadistic way it possibly could, as bad as Discord was, the chaos he brought was mostly just a extended prank in comparison to this ...thing.”

“Milady, your sister did manage to fight it off right? I can hardly imagine anything beating her in one on one combat.” Notepad said in a reassuring tone.

"Yes Notepad but whatever attacked the human nearly forced my sister into using her Nightmare Moon form to fight it off. A creature of that kind of power is a danger to everypony. Our kingdom has faced many enemies but very few could hold a candle to Luna in combat. Except this one, that is why I am worried and that is why I cancelled all the government operations for the day."

Notepad plopped on his haunches mouth agape. "A creature equal to Luna at her best. Truly terrifying."

“Well" Notepad said sheepishly clearing his throat "I will inform the other dignitaries of the current events, my liege."

"No, you mustn't Notepad." Celestia said turning her head to the old goat as he headed for the exit. "I do not want this information going beyond you, me and my sister. I would much rather not incite a panic because of this situation.”

Notepad stared blankly at Celestia for a second then spoke up in frustration. "What am I supposed to tell the other dignitaries then?"

"Tell them to take a personal day off, by royal order. If anypony has a opposing opinion then they can spend the day on the moon for all I care." Celestia just realized what she had said. "Sorry, been reading too much of the new Trollestia comic in the paper recently. You know, the one making fun of Equestria's history."

Notepad shook his head in disapproval. "I wonder what your sister would say about such a tasteless joke."

"She would probably let bats loose in my room like last time." Celestia laughed. Notepad couldn't help but snort a bit at the thought of wild bats causing havoc in Celestia's room.

"Well my liege, I must be off. I bid you a good day." With that the posh goat fixed his monocle, exiting the room with a polite bow.

"I do so hope to get some news soon" Celestia whispered to herself. "All this worry is going to give me grey hairs.”

It was a bit after noon when Celestia finally decided that skipping both breakfast and lunch was a bad idea. Feeling ravenous she headed down from her room into the royal cafeteria. As she entered the cafeteria she noticed that only a couple mares were on staff and only one or two regulars from the senate were having lunch today.

"Hello Red Typhoon." Celestia waved over the glass top of the cafeteria salad bar.

A mare with a deep red coat, black mane and hurricane cutie mark turned her head with a energetic "OI! princess what canna I be gettin ya today?"

"I was wondering if you still had any leftover celery surprise from yesterday." Celestia said while eying over the salad bar.

"Nay yer highness, but I do ave some typhoon n spice tortillas as today's special.” She said, pointing the menu above.

Celestia pondered for a second whether or not it was a good idea to eat spicy food, it always tasted good but her body felt like it was on fire when it was time to come out the other end.

Celestia's ponderous expression wasn't lost on Red however. "Fine, I'll make it mild jus fer you princess, but no complainin if you can't handle doin number two later on."

“Red, can you prepare that with a little shot of firewater on the side?" Celestia asked looking over the mid shelf alcohol in the back.

“It be a bit early fer drinkin doncha think?" Red said while grabbing some tortillas from the breadbasket above the cooler.

"Oh well I just been a bit nervous this morning." Celestia said.

Celestia levitated one of the plates from the end of the salad bar to her. She began to levitate random vegetables onto her plate while Red Typhoon finished preparing her tortilla, she noticed something peculiar.

There sure are a lot of spicy vegetables in the salad bar recently, I will have to ask her to knock it down a notch later. Celestia thought to herself as she set down a horseradish she picked up from the bar.

Coming up to the end of the salad bar Red already had the tortilla done and slid it carefully off her spatula onto Celestia’s plate.

“As fer the Firewater...” Red Typhoon looked back at the midsection alcohol. “It be lookin like we are out yer majesty.”

“Out huh?” Celestia looked downtrodden. ”Anything else you can recommend Red?”

“I may jus ave the right thing fer ya princess" Red smiled grabbing at a little black box on the top shelf. "Tis me families own special brandy, gets rid of the shakes and puts ya on yer behind ta boot" she said in a matter of fact tone. She opened the box to reveal a deep red flask.

"Oh, I couldn't impose Red" Celestia said shaking her head. "That's your own personal stash."

"Poppycock! I won be takin no fer a answer lassie" Red said pouring a shot over ice for Celestia. "Ya been workin yerself too hard recently dealing with all those snooty dignitaries in the senate, tis about time ya set aside somethin fer yerself."

Celestia smiled, remembering why she hired the fiery mare in the first place. No mannerisms at all and always spoke her mind;even in the presence of royalty.

"That would be great Red" she said smiling. "Would you like to join me? Eating alone is never fun." Celestia motioned towards the table behind her.

"Aye, may as well." Putting a carrot burrito on her own plate. "Been deader than a graveyard this mornin" Red said in a bored tone, grabbing the entire bottle of brandy and another shot glass behind her. Both walked over and took seats opposite one another at the table directly in front of the salad bar. They both sat there eating, exchanging idle chatter, Red getting the occasional "hrmp" from a occasional dignitary passing by.

"Red, some of the senate members don't seem take a liking to you as I have" Celestia said with concerned look on her face.

"Bah, tis because I treat them the same way I treat everypony else, as equals" Red said taking a shot of brandy. ”Most of the senators never say please, thank you or even hello. They just stand there like I’m supposed to bow to them or give them some kind of verbal hoof job."

Celestia quite enjoyed Red’s Blunt frankness, it was so nice to talk to somepony without all the formalities stuff getting in the way. "I don't understand, you're the best cook in Canterlot, surely they know that" Celestia said looking a bit puzzled.

"Tis more to do with me treating people equally is all or maybe that whole Senator Iron Chin incident.” Red said before taking a bite of her burrito.

Celestia Raised an eyebrow "Iron Chin, senator from Hoofington? He was on leave the last I heard, something about accidentally falling down some stairs.”

Red burst out laughing, pounding her hoof on the table. "Is that what the overconfident little cupcake told ya? The truth is he was hitting on me a few weeks ago and didn't get the message that I wasn't interested in no prissy little Stallion" Red puased, taking another shot of brandy. "I thought I was rid of him but then he had the nerve to give me a little nibble on me flank.”

Celestia gasped "How scandalous! What happened next?" Celestia bent forward excited, normally she wasn't one for gossip but she had a gut feeling as to what Red's words were going to be.

Red gave a smirk "I kicked him square in his goofy face is what I did" Red pointed over to a wall on the other side of the cafeteria that clearly had some plaster work recently done to it. “He even left a nice stallion sized hole in the wall where he landed" she finished, pouring herself another shot.

Yep, Red's reaction was exactly what I expected from her Celestia thought.

"I remember the doctors report his assistant turned in mentioning broken ribs, not a shattered jaw." Celestia mentioned as she tried to trace out the hole where the senator had landed.

"Oh, he lived up to his namesake, hitting that jaw felt like trying to cut into diamond with a dull knife. I be betting impact with the wall did the rib crackin.”

"Well I guess that means most of the Colts in the senate are afraid of you." Celestia giggled finishing off a carrot on her plate.

"They donna be callin me Red Typhoon for nothing ya know, if you want this mare you better be strong enough to tame er. Last thing I need in me life is some prissy stallion treating me like dirt because he has a silly superiority complex." Red said as she put the cap back on the brandy bottle.

“If i may ask is there any stallion that could ‘tame the hurricane’?”

Red put down her shot glass, blushing slightly she answered meekly. “Yeah there be one, that big red stallion that drops off apple’s to the kitchen every other Friday.”

“You mean Applejack’s older brother, Big Macintosh?” Celestia asked.

“That be the one. He sends me heart all a flutter whenever I see em though. Hes polite, hard working, dedicated to helping his family and I hear he’s so strong that he pulled Berry Punch's entire house halfway across Ponyville. I mean honestly have you seen the build on em? One leg is bigger than me entire body.”

“I can see why you like him Red, maybe you should ask him out?”

“I tried Celestia darlin but every time I open me mouth to ask I get heebe jeebes on em. Like some mare in heat season, I can’t get past how much of a real stallion he is” Red frowned poking at her empty shot glass.

"Maybe I can set you up with a couple tickets for the grand galloping gala then. Maybe that will get his attention." Celestia proposed.

"You would do that fer me princess?" Red said eagerly.

"Oh yes, most certainly." Celestia grinned, thinking back she remembered the last gala and the epic mess Twilight and her friends had made. With just those six there it really was the best night ever and the most fun she had in ages. Surely inviting more vocal down to earth ponies like Red Typhoon would make the party all the more entertaining.

"Thank ye princess, I won't be lettin that kinda gift go to waste." Red said cheerfully.

"No problem at all Red."

Celestia looked up at the clock and realized she had been here far longer than she should have been. "Well Red I best be going now, I'm waiting for a important letter or visit from my sister sometime this afternoon." Celestia got up from the table, finishing off the last bit of lettuce on her plate before levitating it to the sink behind the bar.

“But ya havn even touched yer brandy." Red protested.

"Oh, um" Celestia looked over the shot glass, the ice now mostly melted. "Nothing ventured ,nothing gained I guess." Celestia picked up the glass and downed the shot. A warm feeling of bliss washed over her, it was simply the best brandy, no, alcohol she ever had. All of her worries and seemed to just wash away as the brandy made its way down her throat.

"Wow Red, this is amazing I feel like a whole new me!" Celestia said exasperated as she set the shot glass back down. "We must do this again sometime" Celestia beamed.

"Sure thing princess. You have nice day now, ya hear?" Red gave a grin before trotting back into the kitchen.

Celestia smiled and had to fight to compose herself as she nearly had the compulsion to bounce out the cafeteria like an overjoyed foal.

Well that was certainly relaxing She thought to herself as she made her way down the hall.

Reaching the double doors into her bedroom she heard something akin to snoring coming from the other side. Opening the door she noticed a lump in her bed, one with a familiar smoky billowing star spangled mane.

Oh its just Luna. Celestia thought while doing the best to close the door behind her silently.

Moving towards the bed, she bent down and whispered in Luna's ear. "Time to wake up, princess of the night."

Luna shuffled a bit before letting out a loud yawn. She slowly brought her head up to eye level with Celestia and whispered "Good afternoon sister, did you enjoy your lunch?"

Celestia beamed "You look positively ragged little sister, like you just finished the running of the leaves five times over."

Luna yawned again before continuing. "I have been using my magic since last night keeping our guest from the Everfree Forest alive, twas draining enough having to fight off whatever was trying to kill her. What made things worse is I found out Ponyville doctors for some odd reason are not well trained in any kind of assisted life sustaining spell. I had to send for professionals from Canterlot just to get a break."

Celestia nuzzled Luna. "Brave little sister, I am so proud of you, putting the safety and life of a complete stranger ahead of your own well being is a very courageous act.”

"Twas the right thing to do" Luna exclaimed "Normally I would not interfere with nature, If it was say a snake devouring a rabbit I would have left it be. Animals eating other animals is common in the Everfree Forest so to do so would be unfair to the snake. However, that thing wasn't eating her for food; it was intentionally drawing things out to cause her exceptional suffering" Luna, a somber look on her face. ”I would have let nature take its course until I realized what the creature in the coils was something far more than some random prey animal, It was somehow different.”

"And that was little sister?" Celestia asked.

“Her thoughts screamed out to me, begging someone, anyone to help her. The thoughts were not structured like such of a typical animals flight or fight instincts, they were more akin to a smarter, sentient creature like a pony or a Griffin." Luna sighed “I couldn't let her die sister, to do so would make me no better than the monster torturing her.”

Celestia wondered what Luna meant by sentient. "What do you mean by sentient exactly sister?"

"Many things, organized command structure, advanced language and technology" Luna paused. "Vastly superior technology I might add, nothing in Canterlot or Equestria for that matter can compare to the gadgets we found on her person.”We even found a syringe full of a very toxic chemical nearby. I do not quite grip its meaning or use.”

"Possibly as a weapon, though a syringe seems more akin to a way to commit suicide." Celestia mused.

“That's what I thought. Usually poisons are used on long range delivery systems such as an arrow or crossbow bolt. A syringe would only be useful for accurate quick delivery to oneself." Luna said. "I would say suicide is our best guess.

"This doesn't match the Pegasus manuscript I found in the royal library though." Celestia said with a look of worry on her face. "The small section that mentioned them described humans as stupid, brutish and completely malevolent."

Luna looked lost in thought before speaking again. "Either one of three things is true, they changed drastically since they were last spotted, they are still like that or the Pegasus historian that wrote that manuscript took far to many liberties demonizing a former enemy. I want to say the latter fits rather soundly.”

Celestia thought deeply, hoof scratching her chin. "Only the victorious write history and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a historian of any kind went overboard demonizing an enemy, lest us forget some of the old stories about griffons.”

"Again on target " Luna said. "One more thing doesn't seem to match up, that human is capable of magic.”

Celestia looked shocked. "Are you sure? The manuscript never mentioned anything about them being magic capable.”

"I am quite sure sister, while I was using my magic to stop internal bleeding I found a magic matrix running parallel with her nervous system. However, unlike say an earth pony, pegasus or even most unicorns, her matrix is aligned for more than just a couple types of magic.”

Celestia pushed the question "How many is she aligned with?”

"From what I could gather, she capable of full spectrum casting." Luna paused letting those words sink into her sister for a moment. "I had thought that whatever that thing was set off the magic proximity alarms by the old castle, with the Everfree Forest teeming with magical creatures and all but upon further investigation by Zecora it was shown that she was the one responsible for setting off such alarms. Not only that but the entire marsh nearby was magically frozen solid."

"Well this certainly is a shocker I must say, only us and high end unicorns are capable of full spectrum spell casting." Celestia said with a mixture of worry and excitement on her face. “This all seems so much to take in though.”

Celestia started to pace back and fourth pondering current events. How could a creature that had been thought extinct for who knows how long come back suddenly? How did it make it so far into Equestrian territory undetected? Why was it hanging around the old castle in the Everfree Forrest?

"Sister" Luna interrupted Celestia's train of thought. "You are over-thinking things again" she giggled. "You are going to give yourself gray hairs doing that so much." “Those answers will come soon enough, don’t fret so much about them now.”

Grinning sheepishly about her bad habit Celestia spoke trying to change the subject. "How is the human doing health wise?" Celestia asked, wondering if the Ponyville doctors were up to the task.

"I managed to fix some of the more immediate life threatening injuries the creature inflicted, but I was forced to call in some help from Trottingham, Hoofington and Canterlot due to the heavy strain of keeping her alive. She isn’t out of the woods yet however.” Luna yawned. "I ordered a full rotation of unicorns to keep her body functional while they learn about her biology and attempt to stabilize her. They will need one of us to relieve them tonight I think.”

Celestia shot Luna a worried glance "That bad huh?"

"We will do everything withing our power to get the poor thing through all of this. If both of us take turns she should pull through within the week." Luna said sleepily. "Now if you will excuse me I really need some rest sister, we can talk more about this tonight when I raise the moon.” Luna laid her head back down on Celestia's bed, slowly drifting off to sleep.

"Sweet dreams little sister." Celestia said in a hushed voice nuzzling her sister before closing the curtains and heading out the door.

"ARRRGGG you have got to be bucking kidding me!" Yelled a silver maned, blue unicorn with a star spangled cloak and matching wizards hat.

"I'm sorry miss ummm...err...what was your name again?" The palace guard said meekly.

"Must I, the great and powerful Trixie repeat myself?" she replied haughtily.

"Oh, yes ms Trixie. You are on the palace guest list but all performances have been ordered cancelled by royal order today." The guard said, gulping nervously at Trixie.

“Very well then but if I come here tomorrow and it’s still closed after I traveled all the way from Hoofington well" she grinned "I will turn you into a toad for a day, royal order or not.” Throwing her nose up in the air with a "hmnp" Trixie stormed off leaving the palace guard speechless.

Why do more than half Celestia's guests have to be saddle on face crazy?

Walking down Satyr Avenue Trixie looked about the shops looking for something to blow off steam. "Oh well, I guess I could go for some pepper bread and daises sandwich or maybe browse for new a new hat..” As Trixie rounded the next corner her horn had a sudden tingling sensation to it. "Huh? What could that be?” she wondered.

"Well whatever it is it's putting off quite a bit of magic." Feeling out the magic with her horn to make sure it wasn't anything mundane like a malfunctioning carriage alarm, a realization struck Trixie like a bolt of lightning.

Probably a street performer! I could show them up and make a few bits in the process! Trixie thought to herself.

A greedy grin spread across Trixie’s face. "Lead the way horn!" she yelled. "The great and powerful Trixie has a show to do!" With her horn glowing bright she galloped down Satyr Avenue with great expediency, the promise of fame and bits driving her on.

Trixie Arrived at the junction between Satyr Avenue and Pegasus street only to find that she wasn't the only one drawn to the magical disturbance. More than a few unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi were at a dead stop whispering amongst themselves at the strange activity going on in the middle of the junction. Trixie traced the crowds eyes to the disturbance. In the middle of the street were arcs of lightning dancing around a fifteen foot or greater diameter in the center of the junction. Occasionally a burst of low velocity wind would flow from the center of the disturbance.

Trixie was mesmerized.She had only seen this kind of display come from exceptionally powerful teleportation spells, this on the other hoof looked to be on a much grander scale. Trixie swallowed and shouted over the crowd. "I the great and powerful Trixie will stop this disturbance!" The crowd hushed momentarily, letting Trixie into the edge of the junction where the disturbance was dancing wildly.

Looking back at the crowd she said in a raised voice. "I the great and powerful Trixie will cast a sealing spell on this..." She paused

is this a rift spell? She thought.

"This Rift.” Trixie said to the crowd.

Turning back to the disturbance she closed her eyes in concentration, blue sparks began coming off the end of her horn. The rift suddenly exploded with a burst of of light into a full portal nearly the size of a carriage. Trixie's eyes opened in horror at what she had done, the crowd behind her backing up terrified. Before she could reassure the crowd that this is nothing she couldn't handle something walked through the portal. Seconds later the portal collapsed with loud crack behind the strange visitor.

A strange creature was standing in the middle of the junction. It was kind of short, maybe five feet tall at most and was wearing an ash black coat that flared out on the bottom with gold dragons on either ends. Looking up its body she noticed that it had hands instead of hooves, deep brown eyes and short swept back black...mane? Trixie thought for a second...

No, it's not a mane, it  doesn't go back down its neck any. It looks kinda ..coat-less? Well, only one way to find out what it is...

Clearing her throat Trixie raised her voice in a demanding tone. "I the great and powerful Trixie demand you to identify yourself!"

The creature looked around for what seemed like a eternity before looking directly at Trixie.

"Introductions are in order ...Trixie was it? I am General Hans Elloham Marukavich" The creature gave a short bow, doing his best to keep his eyes on Trixie.

Well at least it has manners and speaks our language. Trixie thought.

Trixie pushed the questioning further. "Err...what are you exactly?"