Twilight Sparkle, the newly crowned Princess of Friendship, had a lot of things on her mind on this day in Equestria. There were plenty of things to bring up in terms of positives, such as the clear sky, mild weather, and a bright, welcoming sun. A perfect day to spend outside with her friends, and enjoy the picnic lunch they had been planning for nearly a week.

However, it would not be so for Twilight, because at the last minute, she had been called to Canterlot in order to attend a party, at the request of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. However, the party was being exclusively attended by nobles and some of their relatives, and there was no clear reason made to Twilight other than "Why not?".

And it was not like one of Pinkie Pie's parties, Twilight mentally lamented, as this party was formal beyond her tastes. She was wearing a pale blue dress, thankfully one designed by Rarity, so the clothing she wore wasn't one of the problems she faced.

Rather...it was the ponies present she found issue with. She barely knew any of the nobles in Canterlot besides Fancy Pants and Fleur-de-lis, and to a lesser extent, Prince Blueblood. In the case of all the other ponies, she knew each of them only by name and title.

And as much as Twilight wanted to simply excuse herself and teleport back to Ponyville...every time she attempted to do so, a noble would always interrupt her to introduce themselves, a relative, or simply to talk with her.

And Twilight Sparkle, for all her strength, was nearing her limit with how many long stories she had been told, the number of noble stallions that wanted to give her a gift or introduce their son, or been offered a horderve.

"Thank you for your time, Lord High Glass" Twilight said, feigning pleasantry to an older stallion, who bowed and departed respectfully. She was about to teleport herself home when Celestia caught her charging her horn covertly, and showed her to a side room.

"I'm sorry, Celestia." Twilight sighed. "I was completely unprepared for this. And I already had plans made with my friends."

"I know, Twilight." the Solar Princess replied. "And I'm sorry I had to drag you away from the Elements at such short notice. You know the nobles, they protest to no end until they get their way. Some even lose their voices doing so. Keep that between us, though."

They both chuckled, and Celestia embraced Twilight with her wing.

"I know this has been stressful. How much longer can you stick it out?" she asked.

"Not much longer." she replied. "I need to head home."

"Then do so, Twilight. You don't need to ask for my permission." Celestia nodded. Twilight charged her horn and teleported back to Ponyville, and Celestia soon exited the room to return to the party.

Twilight arrived back at her new castle in Ponyville, and once she was changed, headed downstairs to join her friends at Ponyville park.

Only to find her friends waiting for her in the entrance hallway, with all the necessary accoutrements of a picnic ready and waiting.

"Hey, Twi!" Applejack greeted her warmly. "Did that thing in Canterlot go fine?"

"As fine as I could've hoped for." she replied, then she remembered her previous commitment.. "Did you all wait for me to get back so you could be with me?"

"Yeppers!" Pinkie bounced gleefully. "I kept everything warm and ready! Besides, it's only Two o' clock! We've got plenty of time!"

"Indeed!" Rarity chimed in. "How'd the dress fit?"

"It was perfect, Rarity, thank you." Twilight smiled, feeling her stress melt away. "Now, let's go have our picnic."

As they all exited her Castle and headed straight for the park, Twilight gave a giant sigh of relief.

"Are you feeling tired?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"A little." Twilight replied. "The party was so exhausting and just…slow in general. And nopony except for Celestia seemed to be able to take a hint that I needed to go home."

And at that, they heard the sound of running steps from behind them, and Spike sprinted up to them, out of breath. He handed them a newly-arrived letter from Celestia, and upon seeing it, Twilight groaned very audibly, and started to swear, only for Applejack to cover Twilight's mouth with her own hoof.

"Sorry." she sighed. "Let's see what this is all about."

"You just left, though." Fluttershy piped up. "Could something have happened so quickly in between the time you left Canterlot, and now?"

"Apparently so." Twilight said. "And it's not just me that she needs in Canterlot, but all the Elements, and surprisingly, Spike as well."

"Really?" the young dragon asked. "That's cool, I never get to tag along on the adventures you go on."

"Well, I'd better teleport us all there, then." Twilight said. "Get ready."

"Why can't we take the train?" Rarity asked. "Is it that urgent?"

"Yes, and I can tell, because she not only wrote the word "Immediately" in bold size, she double-underlined the word enough to dent the paper it was being written on with her quill." Twilight said, showing the markings in reference. "Looks like we'll have to take a rain check on that picnic, girls."

"Alrighty, then!" Pinkie said, stuffing the basket into her mane. As the seven of them teleported to Canterlot, they soon reappeared inside Princess Celestia's office. To their surprise, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor were present, along with Princess Luna.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked. "Is it something bad, like Tirek-level bad?"

"That's the thing. We don't know just yet." Celestia replied. "Cadance, I'll let you explain, seeing as the reason for this summons,, as sudden as it was, all began in the Crystal Empire."

"Okay…" Cadance sighed. "While you were here in Canterlot, Twilight, in the Crystal Empire, we noticed something going on with the Crystal Heart. Normally it glows white, but this time, it was glowing an odd shade of bluish green. Before we could examine it to see if something was wrong, a portal opened in front of it…and this object came out."

Shining Armor produced a oblong case about the length of his leg, made from a shimmering ivory material. Bolted on were rings and frames of a golden metal, and a blue screen-like finish lay on the top of the case.

"What is that? I don't think it's some fancy makeup box like one that Rarity would use." Rainbow Dash said. "No offense, Rares."

"None taken." Rarity replied. "I've never seen anything quite like it before. What's it made of?"

"We don't know." Shining said. "Even the Empire's best archivists, who, might I add, have been cataloging and studying artifacts since before even King Sombra's time, haven't been able to figure out what it is, what it's made of, or even what it's supposed to do."

"So…what's this mean for us?" Twilight asked.

"Because there's one thing we haven't tried yet." Princess Luna replied.

"What's that?" Applejack asked.

"This." Princess Luna replied, sending a powerful beam of magic at the black section of the case. It shuddered for a few moments, before projecting a holographic map in the air above them. It greatly resembling a star chart of some kind, as Twilight could see a sun, multiple planets, and their accompanying moons and planetoids.

"That's something." Shining Armor said, spinning the map around by moving his hoof. "It's a star chart of some kind."

"That's very accurate, but I don't recognize any of these worlds." Twilight said. "I mean, our solar system is partially geo-centric. This is completely heliocentric."

"And for those who aren't versed in Astronomy, it means that the planets in this solar system rotate around their sun naturally, so no one there needs to raise or lower the sun and moon like Celestia and Luna do here. It happens naturally on its own every day and night." she added, seeing the unknowing look on her friends' faces, particularly that of Rainbow Dash.

"Our Solar System is different. Because we have to raise and lower our Sun and Moon each day and night, our planet's orbit coincides with that need." Celestia added. "So this solar system map can't be our own."

"So…aliens?" Rainbow Dash asked, almost hopefully.

"Possibly." Celestia said. "If this map made it here, then it's very well likely that others could follow. Which is why I need you to be ready if that indeed happens and we receive…visitors."

"So what's the plan?" Twilight asked.

"Go to the Crystal Empire alongside Cadance and Shining Armor, and see if anything happens." Celestia said. "We will handle things here. And Spike shall go with you, as I can send messages to him and receive from him faster than any other method of communication we have."

"Alright, then!" Applejack said. "Let's get to it!"

As the nine ponies teleported out, taking the map with them, Celestia and Luna sighed and turned to the window.

"Do you think it could be…her?" Luna asked quietly.

"I don't know." Celestia replied. "She did say that her emissaries would come, but when that would be was never mentioned."

"But if it is…we must be ready. We witnessed what her offspring was capable of doing to their enemies during their War against…you-know-what." Luna replied. "And now that so much time has passed after that…what could have changed? Are her offspring still the nigh-invincible warriors we saw?"

"I don't know. Who can know?" Celestia sighed as she began to lower the sun. "But what I am sure of, is that if they come…Equestria will change forever. What path we shall take…"

"...Has yet to be determined."

====

Across the stars, and through the boundary between the Origin System and the Tau System, a lone Railjack gunship lay anchored to a vessel known as an Orbiter. And at the helm of the Orbiter, five beings known as Tenno sat in a circle as a hologram message from their returned mentor, the Lotus, faded out.

One of them, an Excalibur Umbra, colored royal blue, white, and gold, stood up and powered up the navigation systems.

"Is everyone ready?" the Excalibur's Operator asked, speaking through the telepathic link that Tenno used to communicate with each other privately, one of their advantages from being exposed to the Void aboard the Zariman Ten Zero.

"We're good." replied a Trinity Prime, with the other Tenno, a Volt Prime, a Zephyr Prime, and a Rhino Prime, stating their affirmation as well. "I still can't believe we've been assigned this mission. The Lotus isn’t taking any chances with this."

"I agree." Zephyr Prime replied. To send us to Tau, so soon after the collapse of Narmer and the deaths of Ballas and Erra. It is a little…unbelievable."

The Tenno were silent for a few moments, out of respect for the Sentient that had turned against Ballas and had aided them in defeating the Orokin tyrant ruler of Narmer. Though Erra had not survived to see Ballas's death, the Tenno respected the Sentient for his sacrifice.

After the death of Ballas and the collapse of Narmer, the Sentients had vanished, with Hunhow and the Shadow Stalker promising to find them, wherever they now lurked. The Tenno's brief and hasty alliance with the Grineer and Corpus had was summarily ended, and now both factions were occupied with hunting down the remains of the Narmer loyalists, along with fighting each other once again.

This suited the Tenno just fine, as they had other work to do. This team had been meditating when the Lotus alerted them to an Orokin beacon activating in a previously unknown section of the Tau System that was reachable from Origin. This portion had been seemingly revealed by the actions of Ballas, and now, the Tenno intended to travel there themselves. But this time, they would be ready for whatever conflict should arise.

"Are we set?" Excalibur Umbra asked Ordis.

"We are ready and waiting to…jump to certain death…depart for Tau, Excalibur Umbra." Ordis replied, his speech tick as present as ever. “All supplies are stowed, and systems on the Railjack are one hundred percent.”

"There’s no turning back now." Excalibur continued, turning back to his team. "This is your last chance to stay behind."

There was no response, as the Tenno knew what they had been tasked with. One by one, they took their seats, ready for the jump to Tau.

"Then we're set. Ordis...you're clear." Excalibur nodded.

"Confirmed! Initiating Void jump!"

As the Orbiter and the coupled Railjack blasted off into the Void, the Tenno heard a voice speak in their minds, a voice that belonged to the Lotus.

"Good luck, Tenno."

Author's Note

WARFRAME IS BACK!

Yeah, I wanted to be absolutely sure that this story would start off strong. And after finishing the New War questline and defeating Ballas...Oh, my god it was so worth it to get this finally written.

Next time - The Tenno arrive in the Tau System, discover Equestria, and upon landing in teh Crystal Empire at the source of the Orokin Beacon...things take a rather unforseen turn...