Twilight

Twilight and the others reached the library 30 minutes after leaving the orchard, twilight went inside, her friends slowly following after, as she called out for spike. He came rushing down the stairs, excitement clear on his face, before stopping a worried expression taking over his features at the sight of the down trodden faces of every pony present. Unsure what to do, he decided his best option was to go assist his snow white princess any way she needed.

Twilight turned to Apple Jack, said mare being the last to enter.

“Are you sure you’re alright Apple Jack?” She said, clearly concerned for her friend.

“I told y’all I’m fine twilight, I just… *sigh* I don’t want to talk about it right now.” The orange mare said, her body almost sagging at the exhaustion from the previous events.

Twilight wasn’t convinced, after all, it wasn’t very often she saw Apple Jack this tired. But she knew how stubborn her friend could be and decided to leave her alone for now.

Looking around, she saw that every other pony (and dragon) in the room had found a spot and settled down, she was racking her brain trying to come up with what to say before Spike, who was currently brushing Rarity’s mane, per her request, spoke up.

“So… what happened? Judging by your looks I’m guessing it didn’t go too well.” He said, his concern giving way to curiosity when he saw no one had been seriously injured.

“Didn’t go to well?! He kicked our flanks!” Said Rainbow Dash. Clearly upset by their apparent defeat.

“I hate to say it, but Rainbow Dash is right. We couldn’t land a single hit on him, and it’s evident that he is quite strong, after all, he blew through your barrier like it was nothing.” Said Rarity, gesturing to Twilight with a hoof.

“Not just the barrier, remember how he got out of the stair?” said Pinky Pie, her hair having darkened and lost much of its volume.

“Indeed!” Said Rarity, “What sort of barbarian dislocates his own leg just to escape?!”

“It m-must have r-really h-hurt.” Said Fluttershy, slightly shaken from the disturbing memory.

“Well, there’s no point sulking,” Said Twilight, determination clear on her face. “Right now we need to learn from our failures and move on. Spike, take a letter!”

As Spike pulled out his scroll and quill, he suddenly belched out a letter which twilight quickly caught in her magic before unrolling it and reading aloud. “Dear Twilight Sparkle, I have something urgent to talk to you and the other elements about. Pleas Board the next train to Canterlot as soon as possible, the guards will be expecting you… Oh my gosh, this is perfect! We can go to Canterlot and tell the Princess directly about this strange stallion! I’m sure she’ll know what to do! Come on girls!”
With a nod from those in the room they all stood and ran to the train station.

Canterlot Palace

Celestia put the letter down and immediately informed her guards to prepare to receive the elements. She didn’t know what they wanted to talk about, but it sounded urgent. She had been confused by the lack of a signature, but she knew how distracted her student could get.
As she waited, she also sent for her sister who arrived a few minutes later. Luna had been taking her turn for lunch, the result of a special schedule they had set up upon Luna’s return, making it so that they would each go to breakfast, then court, where they would listen to the concerns and petitions of their citizens for a few hours, then, when the time came, Celestia would take her lunch turn, followed by Luna on Celestia’s return, after she returned they would each continue until it was time to close court for the day, have dinner, and go to bed. This made it possible to have at least one princess in court at all times. The court was open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Exceptions were, of course, made for emergencies.

“What is it sister? Is something wrong?” Asked Luna, confused by her sudden summoning. She even still had some crumbs on her muzzle.

“I apologize for cutting your meal short, but it seems the elements have something important to speak to us about. They’ll be arriving shortly.” Celestia replied, suppressing a giggle at Luna’s messy face.

The two sat and waited for a few minutes, during witch Luna cleaned the crumbs of her face, before a guard walked in to inform them of the elements arrival, the princess bid him let them in before being greeted by the site of her loving student.

“Princess Celestia! It’s so good to see you.” Said Twilight, rushing to embrace her teacher, who had already stood in anticipation of this.

“It is good to see you too Twilight.” Said Celestia gladly accepting the small hug.

“So,” Said Twilight, a curious expression on her face. “What did you need to talk to us about?”

This time, it was Celestia’s turn to be confused. “What do you mean? It was my understanding that you needed to talk to us.”

At Celestia’s words Twilight’s confusion grew, along with a new feeling of dread. “B-but your letter.”

“Twilight, I never sent a letter. It was I who received one from you.” Celestia levitated the letter and brought it before her.

“What?!” Said Twilight, she immediately took the letter in her magic and began to read aloud. “Dear Princess Celestia, I humbly request an audience at your earliest convenience, the elements and I have very urgent business to discuss with you. We will be aboard the next train to Canterlot and should arrive within the hour… Princess I didn’t wright this!”

The princess put a hoof to her chin in thought. “But… if you didn’t wright this… and neither I nor Luna wrote to you… then…”

Suddenly, the castle began to shake before the shaking faded just as quickly as it had come.

“Wowy-zowy, what was that?” Said Pinky Pie, picking herself off the floor after her brief fit of vibration caused by the shaking.
After every pony was done looking to each other in confusion, all eyes turned to Celestia who had a look of fear plastered across her face.

“No… no, how can this be?!”

“W-what is it princess?” Twilight had never seen her teacher this frightened before.

Celestia’s managed to calm herself before sitting down and massaging her temple. “After Luna’s banishment, many ponies thought me weak enough to be defeated without my sister’s assistance. I found myself defending myself from would-be assassins on a near daily basis. After the 42nd attempt on my life, I grew tired of the small fights so I put up a barrier I believed no pony could possibly could get through, it consisted of 20 layers all compressed together to make one solid and near impenetrable barrier.”

“I don’t think I like the sound of ‘believed’ and ‘near’.” Said Rainbow Dash.

“Correct Ms. Dash, there have been a few who have found a way to slip through the barrier, but they have never gotten very far. Whoever just passed through however, has just destroyed it with a single attack and walked through the front door.” Sweat was visible upon Celestia’s face, the only being she knew of (who was still alive) strong enough to outright break the barrier was discord and he didn’t need to when he could easily slip through unnoticed with his chaos magic. Which he had done several times since his reformation to pull pranks.

Every pony’s eyes went wide at this new information, surprised that anyone had enough power to go through one of Celestia’s barriers. Once they all got over the shock, they all got into a battle stance ready to face whoever came through the front door.

David

As I came in the door I noticed that the princesses and elements were all staring at the front door looking ready to kill the next thing to come through. ‘Seriously? What idiot walks in the front door? Sure I walked through the main gate but that’s only because I knew I would be fine until the throne room.’

As He sat there observing the situation a brilliant idea came to mind. ‘This will be difficult. I’m going to have to channel all of my inner pinkie for this…’
Throne Room

Pinky pie had been at the back of the group when they had gotten into position, so it was there she had decided to stay. She was more than ready for whatever big, bad, bully of a beast may come through those two giant doors. Her and her party cannon that is.

*crunch munch crunch munch*“So, what are we waiting for?” said a hushed voice beside her.

“We’re waiting for you to come through the big doors, duh.” she replied, not even sparing a glance at this new pony.

“Ah, I see.” *sluuuuuurp* “You think I’ll come through any time soon?”

“How should I know, you’re the one coming through the door.”

“Ah yes, quite right.” *nom nom nom* “Cupcake?”

Pinky’s eyes widened with excitement “Oh my gosh, YES!”

As she turned to receive said cupcake, she screamed, smacking the hoof that had been holding the small confection in the process.

Rainbow dash, having enough of the antics of the two ponies at the back of the group, turned to berate the goof balls. “Would you two stop messing around?! We are supposed to be ready for-”

Confused by the commotion, and their friend’s abrupt stop, every pony present turned to see what was going on only to have their faces shift to match the shocked expression of their rainbow mained friend… absolute shock.

What they saw before them was pinky siting on her rump eyes wide as she stared at none other than the very stallion who had been causing them so much grief, sitting on a lawn chair eating a bag of popcorn and sipping a soda, a cupcake splattered on the ground being the only thing separating the two.

He had taken a second to stop and rub his hoof due to the pain of pinky slapping it in shock.

“Ms. Pie, that was quite rude…” he said before finally looking away from the pink mare to the rest of the assembled ponies. “… Guten Tag!”

This seemed to brake the ponies from their shock all of the elements immediately taking action, getting into position and ready to fight. The stallion never flinched, and his smile never wavered.

Before anything could happen the princesses came up behind the ponies Celestia walking up beside her pupal and resting a hoof on her withers. Once the tension had been defused, she looked to the new addition before speaking to her student, never taking her eyes off the new face. ”Twilight, who is he?”

“He showed up today out of nowhere, he knows pinkie’s full name, he knew mine and Fluttershy’s names without us telling him, he knows about rainbows friendship with Gilda, and he knows about the elements. Not only that, he attacked Applejack!”

When her student was finished, she cleared her throat and, in an even, neutral tone, began to speak. “Tell me sir, is what she said true?”

“For the most part.”

“And should I assume you are also the one who sent the letters?”

“Mm-hm.”

“And I assume you are the intruder who has broken into my castle and destroyed my barrier.”

“The one and only.”

“So… tell us sir, who do we have the honor of receiving in our home?”

“I’m afraid the who will have to wait a bit. But I believe you’ll find the what far more interesting.”

“Oh?”

“Indeed, after all it’s not every day you meet an alien.”

Author's Note

sorry this took so long guys, but hopefully I wont hit a lull like that again during the coarse of the story. I had some shit going on, along with the broken computer and stuff.

time to start work on the next chapter!