The next morning the Mane 7 and Spike were in Canterlot bright and early. Princess Celestia's letter the evening before had been short and to the point, only saying that Twilight and her friends come to the capitol as soon as they could.

While this was hardly the first time they had done this, Twilight had felt there was something more to this than normal. Call it a hunch, but she felt it might have something to do with the meteor the night before.

She and Starlight had been planning on trying to find the impact crater today. While she hadn't seen it like her mentor, the idea still had Starlight excited.

But now though, Starlight couldn't help but be nervous. This wasn't her first time in Equestria's capital, but it would be the first time she would meet either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna.

Anxious would be a good way to describe her feelings as she and her friends were lead to Canterlot Castle's Throne Room. On entering, they found both princesses with grave expressions on their faces.

This immediately set off alarm bells for Twilight. "We came as soon as we could princess. What's wrong?"

"Is it some new bad guy we need to beat up?" Rainbow Dash added.

Princess Celestia shook her head. "I wish it were that simple miss Dash, but it is not. Something I have feared for nine hundred years has returned. Something that first came to Equus during the Griffon Kingdom's attempted war on Equestria."

Twilight bit her lip. "The war? Didn't Shadow of Clan Kicker and Archmage Sunbeam end it before it could escalate into open war? Sunbeam was my ancestor, so it's part of my family's history."

Celestia smiled slightly. "That is the official story at least. Myself, Sunbeam, and Shadow all agreed to keep what really happened a secret and swore those that did know to the most stringent oaths to never speak of it."

Her smile grew. "As ruthless and uncomprimissing as she could be, I am glad Sunbeam kept it a secret to even her own family."

"Wait, so what really happened then? You mean it's not the truth?" Applejack asked, annoyed at the thought.

Celestia shook her head as her expression became grim. "No, it is not. What I am about to tell you never leaves this room, understood?" Everyone nodded as she ignited her horn and summed a screen and began her tale.

"Nine hundred years ago, Equestria was still recovering from adjusting to only one ruler. The Griffon Kingdom saw this as a weakness and threatned all-out war if we did not give in to their demands."

Celestia frowned. "It did not help that they had inside help from traitors inside Equestria's borders. Those who thought even one princess was one too many. From what we discovered later if the war had been declared, these traitors would have struck at the same time."

Luna nodded. "A blow Equestria could not handle at the same time as open war. We do not know how, but they had gained access to some of the most forbidden magic in the Canterlot Archives. Magic I will not speak of here."

Twilight and Starlight shared a look. Their recent time travels had made the idea of forbidden magic quite common for them, even though neither tried to think of it.

"But there was no war in the end," Fluttershy said.

Celestia nodded. "Sunbeam agreed to meet with the Griffon High King to try and settle our differences without open war. Shadow went with her as an escort and if things went wrong."

She rolled her eyes. "Though to the day she died, Shadow refused to call herself an escort for anypony, let alone Sunbeam. It was one of the few things they agreed on."

That got a chuckle out of everyone. "So then, what happened?" Spike asked.

Celestia frowned. "The negotiations never happened. The two of them found the king's bodyguards some way from where the meeting was to take place."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Pinkie added.

"They had all been skinned alive and hung up like hunting trophies. From what they told me, they found hunting arrows all over the place, as if the bodyguards were firing in all directions. But they never hit anything," Celestia continued.

She paused as Rarity and Fluttershy both fainted from the very idea while everyone else looked very green in the face. "And, the king?" Twilight asked, fighting to keep her stomach where it belonged.

Celestia's expression turned grim. "They eventually found what was left of him." She paused before continuing. "His skull and spine had been ripped clean off his body all at once."

Celestia had the foresight to teleport buckets to each of the ponies and dragon before her as they proceeded to lose their lunch at what they had just seen. Neither she or Luna could blame them.

After a moment, Twilight was able to look up, though her face was still very green. "How? What could do that? Why would anyone ever do that to anyone?"

Celestia shook her head. "We wondered the same thing. Shadow could find no trace of what had killed the king and his bodyguards. All that was found was what looked like plasma scoring on the bodies. Sunbeam could only say that it had come from a powerful source."

Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. "But nothing in Equestria uses plasma as a base. Or at least at the time it didn't. Plasma based anything didn't come into being for several more centuries."

Luna nodded. "You see then the conundrum sister and her fellows faced at the time. At the time I could not help, for obvious reasons. But hearing this brought back something I had all but forgotten."

"What is it?" Starlight asked.

Luna gained a faraway look in her eyes. "About a few days before this happened, I witnessed what I thought was a shooting star fall over Equestria. I had no magic at the time, so I could do nothing. A century ago, I saw the same thing."

Celestia nodded. "Equestria had a spat of murders that were never solved at the time. Only later did I learn that they had been committed by the same beings who had prevented a war."

Her brows furrowed. "Last night, they returned to Equus. You only saw what looked like a shooting star. It was not."

"You're saying aliens did this?" Spike asked, both grossed out and excited at the same time.

Celestia nodded. "We know very little about them, or even what they look like. All we do know for sure is that they use highly advanced technology in all they do, far and avove anything Equestria or Equus as a whole has."

Luna nodded. "And that they are, for lack of a better term, sport hunters. Hunting the most dangerous creatures on Equus. We can only assume the same applies to the rest of the galaxy."

"But why hunt ponies?" Applejack asked.

Celestia shrugged. "Something about certain ones must appeal to whatever they use as a criteria for what they hunt. Griffons at the time were only second to Equestria in wealth and power. Their king was no slouch either when it came to a one on one fight from what I knew."

Luna nodded. "There is a reason the Long Patrol exists beyond the stated goals. It does indeed help keep the worst creatures from affecting Equestria or its ponies. But that is not the real reason."

Celestia sighed. "It was in fact created to try and make Equus so boring to these, hunters, that they would never come back and leave us in peace. Shadow was in fact the one to suggest we create it in the first place once we discovered what we were dealing with."

Luna looked out a nearby window. "Clan Kicker is one of the few outside this room that know as much as we do. They have trained in fact to fight them based on what we do know of these things."

Celestia followed her sister's gaze. "As to whether it would work against one, we do not know. None have ever fought one and lived to tell the tale as far as we know."

"The Long Patrol obviously didn't work out since they came back," Rarity added.

Celestia nodded. "Indeed. But I will not hold that against them. They have all admirably served and protected Equestria for nine hundred years. I will not do anything to besmirtch that."

Twilight stood straighter. "What are we meant to do then Princess Celestia?" Her friends all nodded.

Celestia and Luna shared a smile. "Watch out for anything odd or suspicious," Luna said as she looked at Fluttershy. "If your animal friends say anything about something odd in the Everfree Forest or beyond, let us know. We need all the information we can."

Fluttershy nodded, though she didn't look very thrilled at the idea. No one could blame her in the slightest.

Author's Note

Those who've read the Lunar Rebellion story series will recognize Sunbeam Sparkle and Shadow of Clan Kicker from it. I do have permission to use them.

Aside from them and a few other things though, this has no relation at all to that universe. Probably the biggest I'm taking from the series is the Long Patrol. It exists for a good reason here.