Local café: Ponyville; 10:00 am; Four days after the Newcomers arrival

Quiet. Peaceful. Ordinary.

One massive lie that every pony seemed to willingly accept in order to return life back to the way things were before the sky fell. Ponies walked the streets once more with seemingly little on their minds outside their daily tasks. Even the sight of construction crews repairing damaged buildings, clearing the last bits of rubble, and rebuilding one of the town’s fountains did little to remind any of what had caused it all.

It was sickening.

Lyra stared up at the sky, wondering. Her mind still raced with questions and dreams of what lay beyond the blue that hung over her head. She had not forgotten. Even if the whole town seemed to have willingly thrown out any concept that actual aliens had arrived and had been the reason for the destruction, she had not. She would not. She could not.

She took a sip of her coffee as she continued to stare up at the sky. The bitter taste of the coffee mixed with the sweets that were blended with it and teased her taste buds. The warm liquid heated her throat as the caffeine already seemed to send small charges through her body. But that was most likely the surge of excitement that caused her to shiver.

The town may have forgotten, but Lyra had not. Instead, she had been all the more excited each passing day.

“Lyra? Lyra. Lyra!”

Lyra nearly jumped out of her seat at the call of her friend. She quickly grasped her cup in both hands to keep from spilling it contents and stared across the table at Bon Bon with an annoyed glare. “Don’t do that.”

“You spaced out again,” Bon Bon said, given a smug expressing as she sipped her own concoction of coffee. A blend of numerous sweets that practically drowned out the coffee altogether. Even she seemed to have forgotten everything. Or at least acted like she had.

Lyra relaxed and looked at the coffee in her cup, peering at her dull reflection in the liquid. “I…I just have a lot on my mind.” She dissolved her reflection as she took another sip.

Every pony around her was acting so natural. Other patrons casually drank their own coffee concoctions or some other drink they had ordered as they listened to a local guitarist play on the stage of the patio. The music was upbeat yet portrayed the same ordinary feeling that the other ponies had about them. Normal.

Disaster, resolution, move on. That was how the average pony seemed to deal with any major event they faced. Regardless of what happened, they always seemed to move on like nothing happened once things resolved or, in this case, calmed down. They lived in willing, blissful ignorance.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that the entire world had changed. Despite the physical presence of actual aliens from somewhere beyond the sky, even if they had kept their distance for the past few days. Every pony seemed to be willing to forget. So long as the aliens remained away from the populace, the ponies would be content with forgetting. Out of sight, out of mind.

But Lyra had not forgotten, nor would she.

She took a large swig of her coffee to finish it and stood, ignoring the burning sensation down her throat. “I’m gonna head out. Catch you later?”

Bon Bon looked at her in confusion then at the sky. “But it’s still morning. Not the best time for stargazing, right?”

If Bon Bon wanted to forget, so what? “I’m not going to the observatory. The Ponyville Astronomer’s Society is holding their picnic today. Remember?” That was true but not why she was leaving.

Bon Bon finished another sip, still acting like nothing had changed. “Didn’t they have to cancel it with the military conducting training drills in the area? Or did they find somewhere else to go?”

Lyra was never one to get angry but for once she was furious. She could not take the foolish ignorance any longer. She spun and slammed her hands on the table, glaring at her friend.

“What’s with you and every pony else?” Her voice was low but filled with fury. She ignored the looks of the other ponies as she sat back down, bringing her voice lower to avoid causing more of a scene.

“What in Tartarus is wrong with every pony? Four days ago, aliens, actual bucking aliens, crash land right in our backyard. The town got trashed because of it. And military training drills? It’s a bucking cover-up, that’s what it is. We all saw it with our own eyes. I saw them. They crashed through your bucking roof! Damnit Bon Bon, why does every pony want to go about their lives like nothing happened?”

Bon Bon gripped her cup tight and her face curled into a scowl as she stared into the cup. In a single moment, she hurled the cup across the café patio as she quickly rose and stormed off. The act turned all heads and even cut off the musician on stage. Once again, Lyra ignored the stares and gasps of the other patrons as she rose after her friend.

“Bon, wait!”

Even only walking at a brisk walk, Lyra was forced to run to catch up to her steaming friend. She grabbed Bon Bon by an arm and tried to stop her. “Bon stop, please.”

Earth ponies were known for their natural strength but Lyra had never experienced it until now as Bon Bon easily yanked her arm from her grip, making it feel as though she would tear her arm right off. She tried to move in front of Bon Bon only to be nearly shoved to the ground as she pushed her way past. Finally, as Bon Bon turned a corner behind a building, Lyra threw her arms around her friend. Both stopped.

“Bon Bon, please. I’m sorry.” She braced herself to be thrown to the side again or have her embrace easily broken. Instead, the two stood still. “I’m sorry Bon. I didn’t mean to be mean to you. I’m sorry.”

Bon Bon was silent for nearly a minute as she stood where Lyra had caught her. “It’s because I’m scared,” she finally said. “I’m terrified and probably so is every pony else.”

It was true. Lyra could hear the quiver of Bon Bon’s voice as she spoke and she could feel her friend tremble. As though she had bottled up her fear while she wished away what made her so afraid.

Bon Bon slowly turned and Lyra loosed her grip and dropped her arms to her side. The earth pony brought her own arms up, wrapping them around herself slightly as she continued. Tears filled her eyes as she seemed to fight the urge to look away, struggling to look her friend in her eyes. Her face was that of forced anger and Lyra could practically sense her friend silently scream to her for comfort from her fears.

“We’ve seen a lot of terrible things over the past couple of years, haven’t we?” Bon Bon’s gaze finally fell and she stared off to the side at the ground. A trembling smile hung on her face, one used to hide fear and insecurity. “But each time, some pony fought against it and made all that terror go away. Each time, life returned to what it was before. And no matter what changed, whether the Crystal Empire being reestablished or Twilight Sparkle being named a new Princess, life itself seemed to always go back to normal.”

Her grip on herself grew tighter and her smile faded. “But that’s not what gets to happen this time. We don’t know if we’re really being threatened and we don’t know how to cope with this change. Even so, nothing will ever be the same. Will it?”

Lyra was not sure what to say. It made sense but it all came back to a simple fear of the unknown or change. But no matter how fearful it may seem, ignoring it as though it would just vanish if one never thought about it was no way to cope.

“Bon Bon…You can’t just-”

She was quickly interrupted as Bon Bon continued. “I have this bad feeling that something terrible is going to happen. Something worse than anything we’ve ever seen before.” She looked up at Lyra, her face filled with sorrow and terror as tears streamed down her face. “I’m scared, Lyra. Scared for you, scared for every pony.” She tried to speak more but only ended up sobbing. “I…I just…”

Lyra grabbed her friend in a hug, trying to calm her as her emotions were let loose. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will be alright. We just have to tackle this together, right?”

Even with her face buried in her friends shoulder, Bon Bon said on last thing. “Don’t go see those things anymore. Promise me you’ll stay away from them.”

Lyra said nothing. She had gone to see the aliens where they had set up their impromptu settlement and thought she had been careful enough for no other pony to know. Not even the military. But it seemed her efforts had not been good enough.

She thought to what Bon Bon had said about her bad feeling. She had always had a pretty good intuition, a couple of times being incredibly spot on. Lyra had trusted her friend’s intuition before. But despite that, she found it hard to keep the promise she had been asked to make. She wanted to know more about the aliens and about the things beyond their world. But it only tore her to think of how to stay loyal to her friend and fulfill her own curiosity at the same time.

So, she said nothing. And it hurt.

But as she continued to comfort her friend, Lyra began to feel legitimate fear and terror. But it was not her fear or terror she felt, that much she knew. In fact, it almost felt like it was emanating from Bon Bon. A strange feeling but one she could not dwell on at the moment. So she pushed the feelings aside and went back to comforting her friend.

The two friends stood where they were for another two minutes as Bon Bon allowed her emotions to revert to as normal as possible. Lyra, stared up at the sky. Her mind fought between two thoughts vying for dominance. Continue to feed her curiosity and risk her friendship, or stay true to her friend and fall into the same cycle of ignorance as all of the others. Either way, Bon Bon’s intuition was bound see truth eventually. And by then, would anything matter?

For once, she hope her friend’s all too accurate intuition was wrong.

Republic Forward Command Outpost; Outskirts of local settlement, Ponyville, Planet Equis, Wild Space; 375 days after Battle of Geonosis

A moment alone, away from worrisome clones ensuring he was well, was all he wanted at the moment. They were good boys, no denying that, but the childlike worry that occasionally slipped through their mature bodies was tiring. Of course, it was important for the morale of the soldiers they were that their commanding officer be in the best shape possible. Even if it was mostly an act.

Aldair eased himself up and allowed himself a moment to stand on both legs unaided. Though the pain was mostly gone, replaced more with a constant numb, his leg still refused to hold its footing. He wobbled and caught himself with his cane. A sharp pain coursed through his chest as he gave a heavy gasp.

One broken leg, three broken ribs, and several cuts and bruises across his body. Miraculously minor injuries that would have normally left him in a medical ward for weeks at best and months at worst. He should not even be standing much less walking, cane or no, were it not for sheer stubbornness, the healing properties of raw injected bacta, and treatments of local medicine.

He would have to thank the young Twilight Sparkle for the medicine. A potent concoction that one of the medics had described as a form of naturally occurring bacta. Not only did it speed up his recovery, it had saved several lives.

His com chimed as one of the sentries reported. “She’s back, sir. Keeping her distance still but still watching.”

Aldair smiled and gave a short chuckle at the thought of the curious native that had started visiting over the last few days. “Just keep an eye on her. I’m sure she won’t bother you but I’d hate for us to get in trouble because she got too curious.”

The sentry acknowledged and another clone called in moments later. “Sir, Captain Leonis has returned and awaits you back at the command center. Major Atto is also ready with his report.”

Aldair parted the flaps of the temporary structure that made up the command center and addressed the clone at the com station. “Right here, son. Just went for a short walk.” He looked over at the station in the center and gave a nod to Leonis and the holo image of Atto. “Alright, let’s begin. Atto?”

“We’re doing fine here. We got one of the landing struts extended and that’s given us access to the hanger doors. Shouldn’t be long before we can start rolling out more gear and the tanks.”

“Good,” Aldair said, “because I have a feeling we might need them.”

“To deal with the natives?” Atto scoffed. “I thought they fought by talking. Or are you trying to keep that princess away from the droid?”

Aldair shot Atto a glare. “Are you trying my patience? Cut the sarcasm for later.”

“Sorry, sir,” Atto responded without much in the way of regret.

“Leonis?”

Leonis keyed the console and pulled up a holo of the available map of the region. A small dot marked a location in the clearing of a local forest. “Our newest friends set down here, a set of ruins in the area known to the locals as the Everfree Forest. Supposed to be a bit of a dismal place. Local superstition aside, we only noted about four occupants exit the small craft. They set up a base camp then moved out in standard recon fashion so they have experience. I have men on their trail now and monitoring their craft. No markings were on the craft and none had anything openly visible to identify them as anything outside of mercenaries or bounty hunters.”

“Species?”

“Two humans, one Zabrak, and one Twi’lek. I’m not sure of the motives or goals or even affiliation.”

Aldair rubbed his chin as he thought. “Just scouts or hunters then. But what’s their target and who are they scouting for? We’re too fortified for their numbers, even for experienced hunters. And there’s no reason they would be after any locals.”

“You sure they have a target?” Atto said, crossing his arms. “Could have gotten caught like us.”

Aldair shook his head. “No, too much coincidence. By the sounds of it, their prepared and here for a reason.”

“Has to be the Seps then,” Atto said, giving a short shrug.

Aldair continued his thoughts. “Perhaps. Maybe a hired group on their payroll. Atto, speed up the recovery but be ready to dig in. Leonis, get back to recon and keep a close eye on our new friends. Don’t let them out of your sight.”

Atto scoffed again. “Why not just take them out now?”

“What would you think if you sent out scouts and then they just suddenly went dark?” Leonis retorted.

Atto sighed. “Alright, I get it.”

Aldair keyed off the map holo. “Well then, let’s prepare a welcome for whoever wants to set up a new home.”

The image of Atto faded and Leonis gave a quick salute before leaving. Aldair moved to the back of the command center and called to the scanner clone. “Begin a scan of orbit. See if we can find whatever ship our friends came in on.”

The clone acknowledged and Aldair began to plan. Regardless of who had arrived, Seps or mercs, there was little doubt that they had been following the clones. Finding the ship would answer at least one question.

Author's Note

Guitarist pony at the cafe is the fan OC Retro Beat by user That One Rodimus Fan. I apologize if the user's name has changed at all but thank you still.