Twilight Sparkle is a studious pony. Why wouldn’t she be? She’s the personal protegeé of Princess Celestia, who, along with her sister, Princess Luna, rule over Equestria. She’d also been sent to Ponyville specifically to study the subject of friendship. Over the years, Twilight’s grown to be quite the student, and now a princess too, as of late.

Doesn’t mean she stopped studying, though.

This morning, Twilight Sparkle was going through the same old motions. Getting up, getting ready for the day, waking up her dragon assistant, Spike, and preparing a simple breakfast for the both of them, which was usually oatmeal. After that, her studies would begin.

These studies were extensive, and there was nary a fact or figure she didn’t know about, or at least had an inkling of. So when Spike walked down the stairs with a letter in his claw, of course Twilight Sparkle would be excited. She dropped her studies and rushed to her assistant.

“Is it from Princess Celestia?” she excitedly asked, wings fluttering slightly.

WIthout a word, Spike handed over the scroll. Unrolling it, Twilight read aloud:

“Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

I feel that it is time that I give you your first official assignment as a Princess. All your studies in friendship will guide you as you carry this out. I have confidence you can do it. You may or may not know the Legends of the Kingdoms of the Far East.”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin, trying to recall such a legend. She could not, but she read on.

“Nevertheless, I feel it is time to put those old legends to rest, and open relations with these kingdoms. Because of the extreme distance between us and them, they have only been able to travel here recently. The first emissary will be in Ponyville in a few days. I ask you to welcome them, and to open relations between us. Try to arrange trade agreements, alliances, etc. I have faith that you and your friends can be successful in this task.

Your Princess, Mentor, and Friend,

Celestia.”

“I finally got my first assignment as Princess!”

A squeal erupted from Twilight as she danced on her hind legs, forearms gripping her face.Spike tiredly nodded and half-heartedly walked up the stairs to his bed. Meanwhile, Twilight’s happy dance was interrupted by a knock on the door. She rushed to it and greeted the mailmare, Derpy.

“Hiya, Derpy!”

“Hiya, Princess!”

Derpy then procured a package and held it in her mouth, presenting it to Twilight.

“P’k’gh fo’hu.”

Twilight accepted the package with thanks, and after saying goodbyes, she excitedly opened it up. It was a book she’d never seen before, which to her seemed impossible. It seemed incredibly old, too. Oh, how she liked to read old books!

Excitedly, she unbound the book, set it down on her desk and began to read the tales that lay within. These tales told of a race far away, their kingdoms, and their struggle for survival. Their bodily structure and biology were fascinating to her, as was their unique history. She then learned that not all those who lived in the world lived in harmony as the ponies do. Eventually, she came to a section entitled The Story of the Three Kingdoms, as told by Starswirl the Bearded (And translated from Classical Equestrian by Steel Quill).

The second name sparked a great interest in the book. From what she remembered, Steel Quill was one of the greatest linguists in all of Equestria, and the one who translated a lot of important historical documents. She then grinned and read on. This would be good.

I, Starswirl the Bearded, have witnessed the rise of Equestria through the efforts of the pony races, and I have also seen the sudden reveal of the Alicorn Sisters, and their spontaneous rise to power in Equestria. I have seen them tie together three pony races and cultures together in harmony. I knew then that they could and would do great things for ponykind. I was proud to be their friend and advisor.

It was all in harmony, and I couldn’t imagine anything going wrong.

So you can imagine my surprise when a new problem did arise.

One day, a refugee from beyond the eastern far lands came to us, begging for sustenance. The sisters, in their kindness, received him in their royal court. We had never seen such a creature before, but we were stunned as he told a story of struggle, of senseless violence, and of horror. I have transcribed his words below.

Note from Quill: This is the only account of the refugee’s story, so the following might or might not have been said as Starswirl transcribed it.

“I have come from a very far away place, your majesties. One where three different kingdoms are fighting for survival against their surroundings, and themselves. The kings are very greedy, and they desire nothing more than the rich, fertile lands of their neighbors. They send their soldiers out against each other instead of our proper adversary, the dangerous wildlife that hounds us so. We are a very proud people, but I see now that our pride will either destroy us, or weaken us to the point where our very surroundings could very well wipe away our existence. Please, help us.”

The princesses immediately left me in charge of the royal court and swiftly flew him back to beyond the eastern far lands, across the sea and the eastern territories. I do not know the precise distance, but the refugee has told us that he did take many months to travel to Equestria on foot and by sea. The royal sisters, however, could travel by air, bypassing whatever terrain existed to impede their path. I do not know precisely what the sisters did, but they did restore harmony among those lands, and they returned our own, and again ruled with grace and wisdom. I am still troubled, however, as to the sister’s unwillingness to tell the whole story, for an important lesson could be learned from the story of the kingdoms beyond the eastern far lands. Sometimes, I wish those who live there weren’t so far away. I would like to meet them again.

~Starswirl the Bearded

Note from Quill: There are several theories as to what exactly happened when the sisters brought harmony to those kingdoms, but here are the most popular theories.

1. The princesses simply showed these peoples the error of their ways, then they decided to unite and become one in harmony. This is the most idealistic, but, in my professional opinion, very unlikely.

2. The princesses showed them the error of their ways, but their kings were still too set on their evil ways, so the princesses (forgive me for even thinking this) removed the kings forcibly, and so they lived in harmony under wiser kings. This is another popular theory, but is a little bit edgy, and largely discredited, what with Celestia and Luna being out of character.

3. The princesses showed them the error of their ways, and some of them changed their horrible ways, but another portion of their populace resisted the change, and so instigated a terrible civil war amongst them. After a terrible duration of fighting, and a series of decisive, gory, and critical battles, the more harmonious of the lot won with the aid of the sisters, and so the farlanders lived on in harmony. I really wish this wasn’t the most popular theory, but it’s proved to be so thus far.

Twilight winced at the thought of a civil war. So terrible, but it was terrible that it was necessary to restore harmony amongst them. She then looked at the clock. It hadn’t been too long a while since she checked last.

Good. There was still time to study that night.

She went back to the book.

She then studied the ancient language that was Classical Equestrian. She knew that other names were used for it, but she didn’t bother to look at the books brought in from other libraries outside Equestria to check the other names for this language. She learned that the dead language actually formed a lot of the language used by everyone inside and outside Equestria today. She also learned that what was known as Classical Equestrian also was the language spoken by the far-landers, which was a very curious thing indeed.

Twilight Sparkle then delved deeper into the language, learning all its sentence structures, words, meanings, and how to be courteous and polite. Eventually, she tried speaking it, which went well despite the fact that she knew nothing to begin with. She was learning very quickly. She would have to, since she was chosen to meet the first one soon. They would be the first to arrive in Equestria since the famed refugee.

She had every reason to be excited for the day when the dignitaries arrived.

She ran around town, telling her friends, who, after some explanation of the situation, also became excited. Pinkie Pie in particular (to exactly nopony’s surprise) was excited at the prospect of a party for the dignitaries from a super-far-away land.

However, the only thing the ponies could do now was wait for the visitors to complete their long and tedious journey.

As the days rolled by, everypony (except for Twilight and Pinkie Pie) forgot that there was even to be an envoy of strangers to arrive any time. Twilight Sparkle kept up her studies on what was known of those strangers, and Pinkie Pie continued to plan her party. Each day found some new addition for her to include, be it extra streamers, more balloons, or other assorted gifts and surprises. None of the other Ponyville residents noticed as the party grew larger and larger, just attributing her behavior as Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, ballooning out further and further throughout the town until not even she had the faintest idea how big it really was. She knew it was going to be enormous.

The fateful day finally arrived when the dignitaries arrived.

Twilight again went through the motions, preparing for a long day of studying Classical Equestrian, when Spike groggily slumbered down the stairs with a letter in an outstretched claw. Princess Celestia had written a letter to Twilight saying that they would be arriving sometime this day by train, and that she was to personally greet them to Equestria, while Princess Celestia would arrange for other dignitaries from the other nations neighboring Equestria to come greet these new friends. She was overjoyed at the oncoming possibilities. With a hasty goodbye to a sleepy Spike, she tore out of the house to gather her friends.

Twilight practically raced through the street, thumping hooves disturbing the morning air as she made her way to Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie was easy enough to find, what with her love of the place. She was about to greet Pinkie when she said,

“Is it today?”

Twilight nodded excitedly, and the both of them bolted out of Sugarcube Corner, leaving a pair of confused Cakes in their wake. Next was Rarity’s Carousel Boutique. They led Rarity out of the Boutique, her asking questions like, “What is their exotic fashion like? Are they good little gentlecolts? I wonder what exotic tastes they must have. Oooh, I wonder if their stitchwork is any good? Do they use a lot of color in their ensembles?”

They then tried to track down Rainbow Dash, to no avail. She wasn’t to be seen all over town. Perhaps they could have better luck finding the rest of the group.

As they walked to Sweet Apple Acres, their thoughts and conversations were interrupted by a pair of mares hoof-wrestling. It was Applejack and Rainbow Dash, with Fluttershy meekly spectating, hoping that their playfighting wouldn’t get out of hoof. Now that all the Elements were assembled, they headed for the train station. Twilight looked over that dusty old book one more time as she walked, which drew the attention of her friends.

“Twilight, darling. You’re going to get your nose stuck in that book. Just relax.”

Twilight walked on, apparently not having heard Rarity. Rarity sighed, shook her head, but walked on. Twilight again reviewed the story and a bit of the ancient language. Then she, with her friends, waited at the edge of the platform of Ponyville’s train station for the ambassador from beyond the eastern far land would arrive.

The scenery was less than ideal. The weather schedule for the day was overcast, and it cast a grey light as the line of ponies waited. Pinkie Pie was bouncing up and down endlessly, thoughts moving a million miles a minute. Rarity had several trains of thought chugging along, trying to determine what and how their fashion worked.

Applejack was there, as was her applecart. It was her intention to feed the dignitaries who must be very tired and hungry from such a long journey. She also had a small ulterior motive, that being a possible chance to expand business for Sweet Apple Acres.

Oblivious to the importance of the occasion, Rainbow Dash simply waited there, slightly disinterested by the turn of events. She might actually have dozed off if Pinkie Pie wouldn’t stop bouncing on the wood, creating enough repetitive percussive noise to keep her head in the here and now.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was conversing with Twilight about the specifics of those who they’d be meeting soon. She was also interested in their behaviors, in their mannerisms. She sympathized with their difficulty with their immediate environment which was actively hostile towards them. She also expressed hope that they would work together to bring peace to the land, and give the “poor creatures” some peace and quiet. Fluttershy then turned to her own thoughts on how she could get those unruly animals to behave.

They were so absorbed into their own conversations that they might’ve missed the train approaching, had it not been for Pinkie Pie excitedly pointing at the horizon at the approaching smokestack, giddily giggling on in tangents only she could follow. The ponies went silent as the train made its approach. Even Pinkie went silent as the train eventually neared.The ponies glanced at each other, but then they refocused on the oncoming train.. This specific train had some passenger cars, but looked to be mostly for commerce. The angular boxcars posed quite a stark difference to the idyllic environment around it, which included the gentle curves of the other train cars.

The train stopped, and the ponies eagerly moved to the back of the train, where the passenger cars rested. They came to a stop, and mentally prepared themselves for the visitor. The door opened with a squeak, and one of them stepped out, boots thudding against the wooden planks of the boarding platform.

He was quite an imposing sight to behold. He seemed to be around six feet tall, and quite slender in appearance. Twilight was immediately reminded of the crude sketches of the bipedals in her notes, but they didn’t even come close in comparison to the real thing. He also wore a dark dress uniform that an officer of the royal guard might wear. Covering most of his clothing was a black cloak that hung over his shoulders and back, with a white cross pattée embroidered on the right side. Twilight then looked at his face.

He had a square jaw, a small nose, and steely blue eyes. He had a greying mane that was cut extremely short, and he had ape-like ears. That wasn’t his most striking feature, however.

He seemed to be a weary, worn being, with wrinkles that cut into his face, betraying his age, and two deep, parallel scars, possibly from horrible conflicts ran from his hairline to his left ear. He also had smaller nicks and scratches along his face that indicated that he had lived a long, hard life full of violence and chaos.

This caused Twilight to start thinking, ‘So, this is what a man looks like...’

Author's Note

List of Contributors (Thank you all!)

Prereaders/Editors:

totallynotabrony

LunarSeraph

Sandvich Brony

Alicorn Priest

Art provided by:

kdogfour

Alicorn Priest:
See, I sort of realized this. If there was a well-documented occurrence of aliens meeting the Romans and speaking Latin, it would make sense that we would try to speak Latin again to them if/when they returned. We have more languages, they would have more languages, but we'd speak the language we both remember the other knowing.
Now, if you have a scene in the next chapter where they speak a new language, only speaking Classical Equestrian to the ponies but their own modern language to themselves, I'd be impressed. ;)
Tyrannosaurus Tux:
That's... actually better than what I was going for. See, Celestia's visits to the kingdoms would kinda dictate their language for a long time, and as a result, they know more Modern Equestrian (with a bit of ye olde) than they probably would otherwise.