Spirits and Stones

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight cried, falling to the ground and snapping her eyes shut in a attempt to stop the room from spinning like a mad carousel ride. She had appeared in the throne room of the castle, knowing that would be Celestia's location at the time.

A hoof touched her shoulder. “Twilight Sparkle, is something wrong? You know that teleportation over such a long distance is dangerous.” Princess Celestia cooed, slowly helping her fellow princess to her hooves.

“I couldn't think of another way, they'll be here any second!” Twilight rose from the ground, keeping her eyes at a fraction of their normal size as her sapped strength slowly but surely returned.

“They?”

“Aliens, there are aliens in Equestria!” Twilight's voice was loaded with new-found urgency. Her worry was met with Celestia biting her lower lip and her wings twitching in something that resembled annoyance. Her calm, godlike eyes scanned over them room around her as if she'd never seen it before, not a single corner or speck of dust was left unobserved.

Leaning in close to Twilight's ear, she whispered “What do they look like?”

“They're tall, bipedal, some covered in gems except one red gem they all keep by their chests.” she whispered back, suddenly aware of the ghastly silence around them.

“Then it is as I feared.” Celestia commented cryptically, walking around and approaching the window. Her view casting over the majority of her kingdom as tears formed in her eyes. As quickly as they came, she wiped them away.

“Have... Have you met them before?”

“Once, a long, long time ago...” Celestia's eyes became hollow, starring off as she relived past memories. She snapped herself out of her daze, turning to the guard on duty by her door. “Please fetch my sister for me, tell her that it is of the utmost importance.”

The guard saluted, darting down the hallway to fulfil his princess' duty. Leaving only one guard to protect the two princesses in case of danger, which was a possibility.

Princess Celestia took her place on her throne, Twilight taking a seat next to her as they both focused on the main door that laid in front of them. Soon the throne room echoed with voice familiar to Twilight as she grew more nervous by the second. Looking up at her old mentor assured her that Celestia wasn't faring much better, her resolve occasionally cracking before being covered by a stern look that only Celestia could master.

Soon a royal guard ran in through the main doorway, stopping in front of Celesta's throne and briefly saluting the two princesses. “Princess! I don't wish to alarm you but there appears to be aliens walking the castle, they wish to speak with you immediately.”

“Yes I know, Princess Twilight has already informed me. Call them in for me.” Celestia said, her voice as cold as stone. The guard swiftly nodded and ran back to follow his princess' demands, only to be beaten to it by the aliens.

The aliens looked the same as before, well almost the same. The one that was nicest to Twilight still wore his robes that had the strange arches over his back that looped well over his height, adding a few feet extra to his already impressive height. This time however his visor was gone, revealing his hairless and sharp features. The one which was apparently psychic also had robes on that drooped, making them look several sizes too big for her comparatively smaller size. Her helmet was completely gone, revealing long locks of bronze coloured hair and pointed ears that breached the layer of hair, on her forehead was a single red heart that blended in almost like a cutie mark would.

“Finally, we've wasted enough time already.” Meneria scoffed, barging across the hall followed by Dalrion who was taking the time to look around the throne room carefully. When his eyes fell onto Twilight, he cocked his head a little as if he was trying to work out if she was the same pony he met before.

“If time is being wasted, then let's get down to business.” Celestia voice was still chilled and emotionless, her hollow eyes watching the two aliens.

“Very well, I suppose introductions are required.” She began, placing a hand on her chest before continuing. “I am Warlock Meneria of Craftworld Biel-Tan, survivor of the Mortem Campaign and master of the seventh sense.”

“And I am Dalrion, accomplished Bonesinger for Craftworld Biel-Tan.” He voice was a tad more gentle than the Warlock's.

“I am Princess Celestia, one of the rulers of Equestria and goddess of the sun.” Celestia retorted, trying to big her title up against these aliens. Her head turned to her former student, silently giving her permission to brag.

“I-I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship and wielder of the Element of Magic.” She gave a sheepish smile, clearly showing the aliens that she was not ruler material.

“Now that those pleasantry are over, we can address the issue at hand, or hoof in your case.” Meneria focused only on Celestia, trying to piece something together. In response, Celestia rose from her throne and approached the aliens calmly, never losing the hard mask she adopted for the meeting.

“Before you begin, I would like to say something.” Celestia took a deep breath. “My ponies and I are peaceful creatures, for many years we have lived in harmony and wish to continue living that way.” Her eyes suddenly narrowed, burning at the Warlock like two tiny flames. “However, we are not helpless, this harmony was not achieved without the use of powerful artefacts and brave citizens willing to fight to their last breath. If the worst is to come, I can and will burn this whole planet to ashes in need be.”

Meneria chuckled, crossing her arms with a cocky grin on her face “You're bluffing, your magicks compare to childsplay against our physic might and I doubt you have the power to destroy the whole planet.”

Celestia lips warped into a grimace“Didn't you listen? I'm the goddess of the Sun... I can send this planet spiralling into the burning abyss without even breaking a sweat. I doubt you survived your blood soaked campaign to be killed by a primitive race of multicoloured ponies.” Celestia counted, her voice staying calm and collected the whole time. Minutes flew passed like seconds as Meneria and Celestia stared each other down, seeing who would break first. Finally, Meneria blinked.

“Stalemate then... Very well, no harm will come to your precious ponies, but only because we need this planet relatively unscathed.” She murmured. While she definitely doubted the Princess was a powerful as she said she was, it was hardly worth risking the dying Craftworld as well as Eldar lives just because she was too stubborn.

It would take far too long to kill them all anyway.

Celestia's scowl faded like the morning mist, her features softening back into the Princess Twilight recognised. “Thank you, now that we have that out of the way, we can begin.”

“Did we miss something?” A new voice asked. All heads turned to see the new guest, only to find it was Princess Luna. The Princess of the Night finally stirring from her daytime slumber, her eyes also familiar with the aliens presented before her.

“And you are?” Meneria grumbled, annoyed at another distractions to the already annoying meeting.

“We are Princess Luna, defender of the night.” Luna lowered her head into a timid bow, calmly analysing both both the extraterrestrial beings in front of her.

“Fine, Meneria-” She placed a forceful finger on her own chest “-and he's Dalrion.” She moved the same finger over to her companion, introducing themselves with much less pride and intimidation.

“Now, before we get distracted again, please explain the purpose of your arrive.” Celestia pushed.

“We are here for one thing and one thing only, to recover some lost kin from a Craftworld, probably long buried under your planet due to the countless millenniums that have pasted. If you'd kindly point us towards anything otherworldly we'd leave and never return.”

Princess Celestia and Luna shared a quick, knowing look between each other. “We are not familiar with any 'otherworldly' things around here. Perhaps the craft was destroyed or has degraded over time.”

“Impossible, We've heard the calling, it is here and is very much alive.” Dalrion assured, looking down to his hands and sighing, “Whatever caused the Craftworld to stir after all this time is  still a mystery however.”

“If you can 'hear' this Craftworld, then what's stopping you from finding it now?” Luna asked, getting an agreeing nod from Celestia as well.

“There is too much interference, all you ponies ripple the future like rain on water due to your physic abilities. It is impossible to see where the Craftworld is and the future of this world is so far shrouded.”

“So, let me guess. You want our help, after all we know the land and I'll assume there are more of us than you.” Celestia smiled at her leverage, sitting back down on her throne and giving a comforting wink to her former student, assuring her that it was all going well.

Twilight was too far out of her depth. She was still stunned from watching Celestia threaten to destroy everything she knew without even a thought to the consequence. Just who were these aliens? And how much did Celestia know about them to warrant the destruction of the whole planet at a drop of a hat?

“We have the searching covered, what we need is for your subjects to back down, after all we can't have distractions and you don't want any dead ponies to deal with.” Meneria reasoned, growing tired of discussion.

“I can announce that you are not hostile, but whether they agree is a different matter that I cannot help. So long as you keep your word and not harm anypony then they'll grow to tolerate you.”

“Like I said, if they stay out of our way then they have nothing to fear.”

Celestia smiled and nodded, “Very well, I will advise my subjects tomorrow that they have nothing to fear so long as they stay away from you and you will not harm them.” She once again stood up from her throne and held out her hoof towards the warlock, “Are we in agreement?”

Meneria snapped her eyes and cautiously rose her hand to meet the Princess' hoof like she was expecting pain from it. “Agreed.” she quickly snapped her hand back and wiped in against her robe.

“Your welcome to stay in the castle, the view will not doubt be useful for your search.” Celestia offered with a rather smug look on her face, Meneria face scrunched up but accepted anyway. “You can wander the castle, but please do not go into the city.”

“Dear sister, may I have a word with you and Princess Twilight in private?” Luna asked, not waiting for an answer as she left the hall followed closely by an eager Twilight. Celestia gave a farewell to the aliens and went to join her sister.

“What are you going to do?” Dalrion asked, the warlock folded her arms again.

“I'm going back to the bikes, I need to meditate, perhaps I might be able to get some foresight as this world goes to sleep. Can you keep yourself entertained until then?”

Dalrion nodded, “I'll have a wander, these creatures have... interesting buildings for a race that have no hands.” Meneria rolled her eyes at the bonesinger's antics but wasted no time getting out of the throne room, Dalrion shrugged and looked up, admiring the banners above with an artistic eye.

****

“There we are, we should go undisturbed now.” Luna muttered, casting a sound proofing spell around the room and locking the doors. Before Celestia had a chance to even sit down Twilight had already pounced at her mentor with the burning questions.

“Just how much do you know about those aliens?!” Twilight slammed her hoof against the expensive table to illustrate her point, causing the empty candle holders to jump in surprise.

“Twilight, I know very little-” Celestia began, but was interrupted by another hoof slamming into the table.

“No! Don't try to keep me in the dark, as a Princess I have a right to know everything you know about these aliens.” after a drawn-out pause, Luna spoke up.

“I agree with Princess Twilight, if she is expected to deal with these aliens then she deserves to know as much as we do.”

“You are right to think that this isn't the first time we have met these aliens, we also know where this 'Craftworld' is.” Celestia informed, getting a pat on the back from her sister as she offered to take turns explaining to Twilight.

“Back when Equestria was just formed, we went to go and met with the Saddle Arabia leaders. To do this we had to cross over the southern badlands. During the days of crossing the sands, we felt rumbling underhoof and the sand shifting occasionally.”

“This continued for several days, eventually the rumbling stopped and it never happened again.”

“Days after, we must have been about half way through our journey, when we came across something... otherworldly.”

“It was like a massive black obelisk with glowing green carvings, with stairs that led deep into the earth. Around it there was shards of that material the aliens were so fond of, scattered around but only a few skeletons buried under the sand. We collected this material and continued on, but didn't investigate further.” Celestia recalled, getting a nod of agreement from her sister.

“So do you think that is what they're after?” Twilight asked with d0oubt, she had never seen this 'obelisk' in person but it didn't sound right, the portal was white and vibrate, so far everything about those aliens seemed vain. A dark colourless pillar didn't add up seem like their style, and why would they build stairs going down into the earth? The 'Craftworld' crashed aeons ago, that meant that the inhabitants let it sink into the ground over the hundreds of years but decided to build stairs going back up to the surface.

“You sound unsure Twilight, do you not think that this is the thing they are after?” Celestia asked, recognising her ex-students doubtful tone from many years of hearing it.

“If their craftworld crashed, then why would it waste time burying itself if it's just going to leave something like the obelisk out for anypony to stumble across? Just doesn't make sense.”

After another long pause, Luna took a quiet gulp to calm her nerves, “If its not theirs, then who's buried themselves under Equestria since the dawn of time?”

“I don't know...” Twilight mumbled, thoughts of another race of aliens buried underneath Equestria sent shivers down her spine, especially if the two aliens didn't like each other. “But one of the two aliens in the castle is a builder, maybe I can ask him about it.”

“Perhaps, but what if it is the thing they're looking for, they'll know we've been lying to them.” Luna warned, fearing for the consequences of the lying to the vastly more powerful aliens.

“I'll just say a civilian saw it and sent it to us.” Twilight theorized, trying to approach this carefully.

“Very well, if you think you can handle this Twilight then you can try to talk to the aliens about it, but please be careful, this could get worse before it gets better.” Celestia said, placing a gentle hoof on Twilight's shoulders.

“I promise to be careful...”