Author's Note

For thousands of years I laid dormant. Now I rise again to...

Oh hey it's been a while since I updated this story, I'd probably better get on that.

Bodhisattva 1

Canterlot Castle: 21:09 Local time; 11:55 Operations Time. Local Date Undetermined. Operations Date 0-06-00. Ongoing Observation - Bodhisattva Manjusri.

Princess Luna paged through the mountain of guard reports that covered her desk. A part of her regretted insisting on taking over as the Equestrian Guard's Commander-in-Chief. Even if it was a part of her ongoing campaign to convince her exasperatingly stubborn sister that dividing tasks of rule between them was a good idea. Even if she believed that the Guard needed a good, old-fashioned kick in the rump after centuries of peace. Even if Luna was the logical choice to do so due to actually being able to fight among the troops without setting a good percentage of the landscape aflame. Even after her arguments had finally taken root and the position had been added to her titles (Keeper of Dreams, Bringer and Warden of the Night), Luna wished that she could hoist the inevitable mountain of paperwork onto Celestia. The elder sister had far more patience for such nonsense.

Three months in, and still the number of reports far exceeded what Luna believed to be necessary. She snorted in distaste as she flung yet another redundant equipment report over her shoulder and into the fireplace. The alicorn was silently disappointed with how the Guard Companies had responded to the change in command. While a period of confusion was expected, it was also expected to be brief. This was supposed to be her nation's standing army! The steadfast guardians of the realm! Professional soldiers at the very least!

The Royal Guard in Canterlot had long ago adapted to her command, including the split into the Day and Night "Watches" and the new magics the Night Guard had been introduced to. The same could not be said of the Civic Guard.

In Luna's time, the Civic Guard had been the front line against the wilderness that lay between the towns and cities of Equestria. Monsters and criminals had been a constant threat, but the vigilant and valiant ponies of the Civil Guard held back those threats. Usually at the cost of their own safety and, far too often for either of the Princesses' comfort, their lives.

The modern Civic Guard, in contrast to its predecessor, was a mockery. With the wilderness mapped, the creatures tamed or driven to lands such as the Everfree Forest, criminals detained more often than not, and enemies turned allies, Equestria had enjoyed centuries of almost unbroken peace. Those centuries had dulled what once had been a peerless blade. Now the Civic Guard was an understaffed travesty commanded by nobles who were too foalish, prideful, and/or lazy to earn a place in the Royal Guard. This sorry state was compounded by a labyrinthine system of officer's reports, NCO reports, situation reports, and reports on reports. The only purpose such a bureaucratic nightmare might serve, as far as Luna could discern, was to allow officers familiar with its workings to either escape from or cause trouble within the ranks.

The very idea of such ponies being allowed into the Civic Guard she remembered made Luna want to scream, cry, break something, and throw up. Not necessarily in that order. Perhaps, once the dam of her emotions truly broke, simultaneously.

Luna was resolved to reforming the Civic Guard and forging it into something worthy of its proud history. So here she was, wasting precious moonlight skimming through this mess instead of walking the dreams of her little ponies as she should. Redundant or useless paperwork was given just the amount of attention it deserved, a condeming glance and a dismissive toss into the fire. Every so often the Princess would set aside a specific paper.

Hours seemed to pass as the alicorn flung sheet after sheet of paper into the fire with gleeful malice.

This routine was broken when she heard a papery thwap directly behind her.

Freezing in place, Luna cautiously turned an ear behind her before the rest of her head joined it. Her mostly empty office greeted her, with a single white rectangle laying conspicuously on the floor between her desk and her fireplace. The alicorn squinted her eyes, and she thought she could see...

"Princess! Report from the Manehattan Civic Guard!" Luna felt her concentration shatter when the Night Guard burst into the office. Her eyes twitched to regard him, but in that minuscule space of time whatever presence she had detected had faded away. With a sigh, the night princess leveled her gaze towards the intruding guardspony.

"Lieutenant, this report had best be very, very important to justify barging into ou-," Luna paused and sighed, composing herself and shifting her syntax into the modern age. "My private office. I have no patience for yet another fumbling excuse for a so-called officer's incompetence."

The guard saluted, weathering his princess' venomous glare with the stoic patience characteristic of a veteran Royal guard. His horn lit up and a small slip of yellow paper floated towards Luna's desk. "A top priority telegraph from Manehatten Civil Guard HQ. For your eyes only, your Highness."

Luna raised an inquisitive eyebrow, dismissing the guard with a wave of her hoof while magically slipping the message from its unassuming envelope.

++ UNKNOWN AIR VESSEL DOWNED SW OF MANEHATTEN STOP ++

++ PRELIMINARY INSPECTION OF SITE SIMILAR TO BRIDLE POINT INCIDENT STOP ++

++ REQUESTING AID FROM RIIS STOP ++

Slowly the telegraph floated down onto the desk, but its recipient was already in motion.

As Luna ran through the halls of her castle, bellowing orders to any and all her Guard, her office sat empty. Silence reigned but for the crackle and pop of the fire. Then an unseen force lifted the telegraph, careful not to warp the paper in its grasp. After a few seconds of hesitation, or perhaps consideration, the message was gently returned to the desk. One report among the thousands of unread documents was delicately extracted from its fellows, folded into quarters, and vanished into the air.

C(X)M

Equestrian Wilderness: 7:03 Local time; 20:49 Operations time. Local Date Undetermined. Operations Date 0-06-00. Continued observation - Bodhisattva Manjusri.

The crash site was a total mess.

Fallen trees lay haphazardly across the scorched battlefield, smoldering fires and dried, splattered fluids added color to the silent forest. A trail of shattered stumps and scarred earth lead to the newly created clearing where something big, and heavy, had crashed into the earth.

All around, ponies serving in the Equestrian Royal Intelligence and Investigations Service swarmed the site. Samples were being taken, patterns were being studied, and witnesses were being interviewed. Unicorn, pegasi, and earth pony experts were busy cataloging every out-of-place leaf and twig they spotted. The painstaking process had been going on since before dawn and showed no signs of stopping, requiring the Guards protecting the parameter to send a few flights to Manehattan to retrieve coffee and pastries to fuel the investigators in their quest for answers.

Through all this, a very disgruntled and sleep-deprived Princess Luna sat on the sidelines, watching the bustle from a hastily-raised tent and feeling completely unnecessary. She knew better than to make a nuisance of herself, walking into the site to search herself would only tread on the hooves of ponies trying to do their job. So she sat, waiting and watching, while each piece of evidence was found, collected, and given a basic analysis.

"Run me through our current timeline again," Luna said to the unicorn to her left as another piece of discolored wood was added to a growing pile outside the tent by cautious hooves.

Point-of-Fact, RIIS Special Agent and the leader of the team combing the site, nodded and adjusted his spectacles. He turned his attention back to the portable chalkboard/corkboard filling the back half of the tent. A rough timeline had been sketched on the black slate. Lines and circles of colored chalk highlighted the events, connecting them to field notes pinned messily to the corkboard.

"Yesterday afternoon a lone cargo drafter on this road witnessed a crash. According to him, the aircraft in question was about the size of an airborne yacht and was accompanied by another aircraft of approximately the same size. A third, larger aircraft appeared shortly after." Point paused as a new note was added to the board, skimming the contents then marking it with a colored sticker.

"When the third aircraft arrived, it hovered in place for approximately five seconds and then took off at high speed. Our witness claims that the creatures that survived the crash came under assault by invisible forces shortly after."

Luna cast her gaze across the broken, burning battlefield. "From what we've been able to gather, both of these combatants used some form of high-energy spell to do combat," Point removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes before continuing, "but our own detection spells and equipment have found no spikes or valleys in the local field. Whatever they used must be incredibly efficient."

"Or magic was not involved at all." Luna crushed her empty coffee cup and hurled it into the garbage can. "Neither option fills me with optimism, Agent. We may be facing a crisis beyond what we have overcome in the recent past."

The Special Agent turned his head away from the timeline board and joined his Princess in her survey of the crash sight. "I doubt anything can be worse than Tirek, your Highness."

"Tirek was a lone being. Powerful and dangerous, yes, but he could only do so much damage alone. He only became a true threat after teaming up with Discord, and even then the fool cut his ties with his ally once he believed the draconequis had no further advantage to offer him." Frowning, the Princess swept her right hoof over the landscape before her. "Cast your eye around this devastation, take it and our evidence into account, and what do we find?"

Point-of-Fact did as he was bid, although he did not see much of a point. The combatants had left too little behind for him to make any conclusions, yet.

At the agent's silence, Luna continued, "Take the whole into account, Special Agent. Both forces use ranged weapons. The crash's survivors took defensive positions behind the fallen trees and brush as soon as they knew they were under assault. Their attackers approached from uphill, were the cover is thickest and their lines of sight were clearest. Every combatant was constantly repositioning themselves throughout the battle, seeking maximum advantage against the enemy. And after the attackers claimed victory?" A silver-shod hoof thrust in the direction of the deep gouge carved by the crashed airship, now ominously empty. "They immediately recovered what spoils they could from the field and disappeared before any local response was marshaled. Every corpse, every scrap and fragment of equipment, scoured from the scene in under an hour."

"Leaving us with nothing but an empty and scarred battlefield," Point responded, replacing his spectacles and looking back at their gathered observations and evidence. "How does this indicate a threat to Equestria?"

"Two forces, undoubtably military in nature. Both are well organized, well trained, and equipped with technology and techniques we do not understand. Their transports can travel at speeds impossible for our own airships to achieve, and they have the means and motives to swiftly obscure their presence and abilities from us. Indeed, we are lucky to have found what we have here." Luna craned her neck down to the unicorn's level, fixing him with a stare that was equal parts stern, frightened, and determined. "How many of these engagements have taken place were we could not witness them? How many small, isolated settlements were taken, left empty, before whichever of these two organizations decided to abduct Bridle Point? Now that we know, how can we even begin to respond to them?"

Palling at the implications, Point-of-Fact turned his attention to the marked topographical map laid on a nearby table. In his imagination he saw a map of Equestria, littered with markings indicating crash sights, abducted towns, and hidden bases. "We are being invaded. We are being invaded by two unknown, technically and strategically superior forces with equally unknown motivations."

"Exactly," was the Princess's solemn response.

Trying his best to keep his legs from shaking, the unicorn looked up the his sovereign. "What do we do?"

Luna's own fear beat strongly in her heart, but it was dwarfed by the fiery determination she held. "What we can."

Again, a messenger appeared to shatter the privacy of Luna's moment. This time it was a welcome interruption, as an earth mare bounded up with a deer-like gait and eyes bright with excitement. "Princess! Boss! We found something!"

C(X)M

Ponyville: 10:22 Local Time; 21:16 Operations Time; Local Date Undetermined; Operations Date 0-06-00; Continued Observation - Subject Apples, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara

Twilight's wings fidgeted as she approached Fluttershy's cottage alongside Applejack. "I'm sure she's fine AJ. I know it's a little sudden, but it's not like she's become a completely different pony overnight."

"Ah know yah think so, Twi, but yah didn't see her yesterday. Somethin' about this whole thing's fishy, Ah know it." The farmer didn't even pause for a second, stepping up to the cottage door and knocking smartly. When Twilight fidgeted again, AJ lifted an eyebrow in her direction. "Somethin' botherin' yah Twilight? Ye're twitchin' like a squirrel after a double shot of expresso."

The alicorn nodded, stomping her back left hoof in agitation. "I've had this weird feeling all day. It woke me up a whole hour early, and ever since then everything's felt… I don't know? Off? Like there's a new piece of furniture in the room and it doesn't quite fit in, or a frame that tilted while all the others are level?"

A humble earth pony, Applejack would never really admit that she had a certain sensitivity to her environment. It served her well on the farm, cluing her in to certain issues before they became a problem too big for her to solve. She had long ago learned to trust her instincts, and she had a feeling that Twilight's intuition was not something to brush off.

Unfortunately, there was plenty of things that her friend's intuition could be locking in on.

"Could be the megalomaniacal unicorn yah just moved into yer castle," AJ pointed out. "Or the little nephew or niece on the way, or the hundreds of other things that are begging yer attention now that ye're a princess."

"Starlight isn't a megalomaniac, she is just a misguided pony who needs to learn what true friendship feels like again," Twilight corrected, glaring at her friend. "One who we all agreed to help change her ways. In fact, weren't you one of the ones who first suggested we reform her?"

"Ah'm not sayin' Ah don't have mah doubts. Ah figured that between Discord an' that Sunset filly yah keep mention'n we got a good streak goin'. We should just keep a close eye on her, s'all Ah'm sayin'."

"Which is why I'm having her stay in my castle where Spike and I can watch her progress. I'm not ignorant of what we risk by her backsliding."

"Just stay on yer guard around her. Ah don't much care for how crafty she is." Silence hung between the two ponies for a few long moments, both watching the door to avoid the other's eyes while tempers cooled. Applejack coughed awkwardly and knocked on the cottage door again.

"Oh, and Cadance is doing just fine, by the way. She's at the tail end of the first phase and the doctors all say that her pregnancy is going perfectly." Twilight said, breaking the silence and hoping to begin a friendlier conversation.

"That right? Ah bet yer brother is pretty excited," the orange pony said with a knowing grin.

"Hah, you bet he is," Twilight smiled as she recalled the letters she received from her big brother the last few months. "And nervous, and worried about being a good father, and impatient to see the baby, and about a half-dozen other things."

"An how about yerself? Yah ready to be Auntie Twilight?"

Twilight's smile became slightly manic at the mention of the word. "Am I!? I've already set aside a room for her to stay in if I ever need to watch it for Shining and Cadence, I bought three sets of pajamas and blankets for it , coordinated for every possible gender and coloration combination it could have. That one took a while to research, because I don't know Cadence's biological family tree, but I was able to make a few educated guesses. Did you know that the gene for white fur is dominant in unicorns but recessive in pegasi? Of course, there's no telling how alicorn transformations affect genetic information, so for all we know the baby might be red and black! Which would of course be unfortunate for it, and I didn't take that into account. Oh, do you think I should get more blankets just in case?"

As the alicorn rambled on her friend could see the telltale signs of an 'episode' joining Twilight's already agitated body language. Acting decisively, AJ lifted a hoof to pat the purple princess on the back and pull her back down to earth. "Okay, girl, calm down. Ah'm sure that the baby ain't gonna be born with poka-dots or somethin' ridiculous like that."

Taking a deep calming breath, Twilight giggled a little at her own fears. The two enjoyed a companionable silence for about a minute. Then, with a twitch of her ear, Twilight came to a realization. "It's too quiet."

Applejack stood alert, realizing that while the normal sounds of the cottage's animal inhabitants still filled the grounds, there was none of the subtle indications of Fluttershy going about her day within. Perturbed, the earth pony knocked a third time on the cottage door, calling, "Fluttershy! It's Applejack and Twilight! Yah home?"

Twilight hummed, "That's strange, she's normally home at this hour."

Knocking again, measuring her strength and concern so she didn't pummel the door into splinters, Applejack turned her head toward her friend. "Now do yah see why Rarity and Ah were so worried?"

Halfway through voicing a platitude that she didn't really feel, Twilight jumped in surprise when one of the bushes separating the cottage grounds from the surrounding woodlands began shaking vigorously. Both ponies instantly went on guard, ready to fight and flee if one of Fluttershy's Everfree "neighbors" had decided to come calling.

Instead of a wild pony-eating monster, what jumped out of the bush was much less dangerous but just as concerning.

"Angel?" Twilight gasped in surprise as the panicking rabbit made a beeline for the ponies, panting from exertion and squealing his little heart out.

"What's wrong lil' fella?" Applejack said, lifting a hoof out of the way as Angel ran about her and Twilights leg's, desperately trying to get their attention. Grabbing her right foreleg, the rabbit squeaked and squealed while frantically waving a paw towards the dark forest he had just emerged from.

"Is Fluttershy in there?" Twilight asked incredulously, prompting the rabbit to nod vigorously and scamper towards the forest edge, beaconing them to follow. After a moment's hesitation the two grimaced but galloped after Angel, running pell-mell through the forest. Luckily they did not have to go far.

A short distance away, in a rare clearing of green grass, a yellow and pink figure lay unconscious. Applejack immediately ran to Fluttershy's side, while Twilight turned head and horn towards the woods behind them. Her horn simmered with a Crystal Prison spell, ready in case one of the forest's savage inhabitants came to investigate. The last time she had let her guard down in the Everfree she had been petrified by a cockatrice, and she was not about to let that happen again. "Applejack is she…"

"She's breathin'," Applejack assured in a steady voice, "an' unharmed, s'far as Ah can reckon. Out cold." Angel walked up to the unconscious pegasus' head, patting her eyes and muzzle in an effort to awaken his master. "Ah'll try to wake her up."

"Hurry," the alicorn responded. Her eyes and ears constantly scanned the woods, twitching with each small noise, wings spread and ready to carry her away.

"Fluttershy," Applejack called gently into the pegasus's ear. She began to rock the back of her friend with a gentle but firm grip, trying to rouse her. "C'mon girl, this ain't the time or place for a nap."

"Hm?" Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes, rubbing them with her hooves in an effort to clear her blurry vision. "Applejack? Oh, I'm sorry. I was gathering some flowers in the backyard. I must have dosed off."

Relieved that her friend was okay, Applejack leaned her side against Fluttershy's, helping the other pony to her hooves. "Darlin', ah don't know if yah dozed off in yer yard or not but we sure ain't there right now."

Fluttershy gazed at the farmer in sleepy confusion for a moment before she saw where she was. Spiking adrenalin brought her to full wakefulness. "The Everfree Forest? Oh no, we need to get out of here." The yellow pony was about to bolt when she suddenly froze, gaping at an unseen sight behind Applejack. "Goodness!"

Slowly, lest she startle whatever was behind her, the earth pony turned her eyes in the same direction. Disbelief hit her square in the face, stunning her for a few seconds before she called out. "Twilight, yah better take a look at this."

Still watchful, Twilight turned around. The sight she saw broke her concentration, her ready spell fizzling out on her horn. "What the?"

One side of the clearing had been cleared, opening an additional hundred feet to the meadow. The thick and oppressive vegetation of the Everfree had been thoroughly scoured from the area, leaving only a short carpet of new grass and an astonishing number of tree stumps. Each tree had been cut down to the same hight, a bare three inches above the dirt, with such incredible precision it seemed as though a giant saw had swung through the forest. In the center of the clearing was a pile of burned lumber. Applejack's eyes widened as she recognized one of the leafless twigs still intact amongst the ash. "Holy moly, those were timberwolves!"

"What could have done this?" Twilight couldn't help but feel a sense of awe and fear at this sight. But when Fluttershy began to whimper and tremble, she came to her senses. "We need to investigate, but later. Now let's get out of here."

"Yah don't gotta tell me twice." Applejack turned back towards the cottage, gently turning the trembling pegasus away from the devastated grove. "C'mon sugarcube, let's get yah home."

C(X)M

Morpheus Base. 1:43 Operations Time. Operations Date 0-07-00. Alien Containment (Haven Variant), Level 2, section 4.

Clear Strike glared at her meal.

She reminded herself that it wasn't their fault. Her captors were aliens. They didn't have any idea what she normally ate. If she was honest with herself, it was probably impossible for them to just jaunt down to Baltimare and fetch her a nice, crisp, fresh watercress salad from Lockdown's cantina, with orange vinaigrette and spiced black beans. And a pint of ale.

If she was honest, she was lucky that they were feeding her at all. They could have just zapped her with some kind of freaky 'nutrition beam' and called it good. Heck, they could have been vivisecting her instead of keeping her safe, cozy, and fed.

The problem was what they were feeding her. She didn't mind that what was on her plate equated to what she believed to be highly nutritious mush. It was about as bland as it could be, colorless, odorless, and tasting of slightly sweetened cardboard. None of that was what she had a problem with.

It looked like applesauce.

Clear Strike hated applesauce.

She would almost take vivisection over applesauce.

The problem was that she had little else to do right now than eat. She had talked herself in circles trying to logic her way out of her cell. When that had gotten boring, she had went to sleep on the strange, squishy cot in the corner of the room. After waking up she had poked around the cell trying to find out what it was made of. To her surprise, the desk by the window-mirror had some kind of touch sensitive device in the surface. It had some kind of display that let her move illusionary shapes around on the desk. If she moved the shapes in certain ways, things would happen. The whole thing seemed like a way for the aliens to test her intelligence.

In the interest of keeping herself sane, Clear decided to save her real investigation into what the desk could do until the boredom really set in.

She had turned the mirror into a window again a couple times to observe her observers. They where strange, but she could almost tell them apart by their mane styles and colors. She was about seventy percent certain there were five of them, but at least two of them looked almost identical. They both had dark brown hides with black hair, slender builds and strange bumps on the upper torso. The taller, broader ones seemed to be more focused on other things when she changed the mirror. The slender ones always waved those weird, fragile-looking hands at her.

Clear snapped out of her thoughts, reconsidering her meal. With a sigh and an aggressive shrug, she scarfed down the muck as quickly as she could. She resented every squishy, slightly grainy mouthful she managed to choke down. Finished, she turned her head to the mirror-window and stuck out her tongue while making a classic 'yucky' face.

"Bleh."

It made her feel like a foal, but it was the only way she could think of to communicate her distaste to her captors.

None like that food.

Clear jumped in place, sending her plate clattering off the desk.

"A voice in my head?" the unicorn asked herself. Confused, she looked across the other window into Guiding Star's cell. The pegasus was still unconscious and hooked up to alien medical equipment. "Yep, a voice in my head. I've gone crazy already, didn't take long at all. Guess it runs in the family."

Voice in your head, yes. Not yours. No crazy.

"Oh? Then where are you? Huh?"

Look up.

Clear did, finding the mirror shimmering into a window again. On the other side was another of the tall, broad kind of alien. It's mane was stark white, and it's eyes were glowing an unnatural dark purple color. Meeting Clear's eyes, it waved.

Hello.

The unicorn stood shock still. Part of her wanted to respond, contemplating the gravity of the situation she was in. Another, more logical part of her backed her away from the desk's edge so she wouldn't bash her head open on it when she fainted dead away.

Too much, too soon.

Yah think? she thought back at the creature before falling into unconsciousness.

C(X)M

To my fellow Princesses: Celestia, Bringer and Guardian of the Day, Keeper of Hopes; Mi Amore Cadenza, Heart of Light and Love, Keeper of the Crystal Heart; Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of Magic and Harmony, Bringer of Friendship.

It is with great trepidation I write you this missive. As the Commander and Chief of Equestria's Guard and Warden of the Night, a great and inevitable failure has fallen upon me and I fear our nation, and all the world, may suffer for it.

In response to the incident at Bridle Point and the crash south of Manehattan, my ponies and I have worked tirelessly to identify and respond to the unknown forces operating in our nation. In this, we have not yet failed. We have begun to identify and study what evidence has been left behind. The conclusion we have reached thus far are sobering, to say the least.

What we face is a war, not against ourselves or our country, but against two nations or organizations that far outstrip the nations of this world in technological might. Airships capable of covering hundreds of miles in minutes. Weapons capable of incredible and precise damage over long distances. We cannot hope to match either of these forces in conventional warfare, at the tactical or strategic level. We are simply outmatched.

My fear stems from the fact that one of these factions, or both, have designs on our little ponies. The disappearance of Bridle Point was unquestionably the work of these beings, and one of the hamlet's streets bears the unmistakable scars of their combat. Trapped between these two forces, we may be forced to stand against them for our very survival. It is not a war I believe we can win. Not as we are now.

My Sister, Dearest Niece, and Precious Friend, it pains me to advise this, but it is my firm belief that we must ready our nations for war. Bring all our resources to bear. Develop new weaponry and technology to aid our soldiers. Prepare fortifications and defenses. Stockpile supplies. Call on what allies we can. Our final hour may be before us.

Always yours
Luna, Bringer and Warden of the Night, Keeper of Dreams, Commander-in-Chief of the Guard of Equestria.