As the swirling multi-colored light faded from the place where the void-tainted alicorn of the night stood, Twilight and her friends, as well as Umbra, stared in the area in anticipation as they awaited the results of their use of the Elements of Harmony.

Once the light faded, a small midnight blue alicorn with a light blue mane and tail emerged, collapsed on the floor.

As the seven slowly approached the small mare, she groaned as if she had woken up from a long sleep. “Ugh, where am I?”

“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked.

Luna nodded, “Indeed. Now, we need to remember that spell that dulls the pain of a headache.”

“Allow me,” Starlight offered as she walked over to her and lit her horn. The next thing the alicorn realized was that the fog within her mind began to clear up. “Better?”

“Much. Now, can somepony tell me where we are? We know we were locked away in the moon by a group of assailants who subverted the Elements of Harmony.”

“You were locked away for a thousand years, Princess Luna,” Twilight offered. “These are the ruins of your former castle.”

Luna looked around and snorted, “A thousand years? Surely thou jest. We would have hoped that Equestria had advanced enough to turn this ruin into a museum at least. Have we finally made use of black powder yet?”

The mares looked at the princess in confusion before Rainbow responded, “What the hay is black powder?”

“Allow me to explain,” spoke a familiar voice. The mares turned around to see Sophia entering the chamber with Princess Celestia. “Apologies for the late arrival, apparently Celestia was late to the Summer Sun Celebration because she was waylaid by a group of protesters in Canterlot who didn’t like the idea of the event being hosted in a town of ‘chaos bringers’.

“Figures…” Starlight grumbled.

“It would appear that ponykind truly has not changed over these thousand years,” Luna commented. “It surprises us that Equestria is still standing despite such rampant technophobia.”

“Actually, there is one town who seems to be embracing change,” Sophia corrected. “A town was founded nearly a century ago by progressive-minded ponies who wanted to get away from the rest of the country. They named it Ponyville.”

“You really can talk…” Luna shook her head and returned to the important topic. “You do not jest? Tell us, what has Ponyville done to set itself apart from the rest of this stagnant nation?”

“I can tell you that Rarity here devised a way to convert gemstones into starship metal, and a highly durable type at that.”

“Starship metal?” the unicorns asked, including Rarity.

Sophia nodded, “Yes, it’s a type of metal that can be used to create powerful armor that can survive the intense heat of atmospheric reentry or withstand high intensity energy attacks. The armor of the Royal Guards is nothing but stage costumes compared to the armor that could be made from that metal.”

“Truly?” Luna asked in awe. “Perhaps there may yet be hope for our ponies after all.”

“We can discuss my long-term plan of turning your medieval ponies to spacefaring ponies in detail later. For now, you must be exhausted and you will want to become acquainted with your new advisor and bodyguard in the meantime.” Sophia pointed a paw at Umbra.

Luna looked at the ‘harpy’ in confusion while Umbra deadpanned at Sophia. “So this is the role you want me to play while I’m here?”

“It shouldn’t be hard to do, you will be my liaison to the Princesses while I am observing events in Ponyville,” Sophia telepathically informed. “Your crows make for an efficient messaging system that beats having to use Twilight’s baby dragon every time I want to send a message to them. Plus you can teach the Princesses a spell or two if you’re interested.”

If there was one thing Sophia knew about Umbra it was her magical prowess. The raven girl had been taught by their great uncle who knew a vast multitude of spells. The way Umbra used her magic was often through either directly casting or by imbuing spells into her quills. Whenever she wanted to make a magic circle she imbued parts of the spell into a number of quills and stuck them into a circular pattern on a surface where the quills dumped their contents into the surface in a preprogrammed pattern. The feathers grew back quickly.

Luna looked at the harpy with suspicion, wondering how she would be of any use to her. Though Sophia headed her off with a little more advertising. “She is a powerful spellcaster who knows more than enough warding spells to ensure that you can always sleep peacefully without assailants bothering you. Plus, she will help you to see what goes on in Ponyville which may give you ideas. Not to mention that she is quite skilled at information gathering.”

Luna looked at Celestia who had been silent the whole time as she watched the conversation unfold. “What do you think, sister?”

“I believe that it might be a good idea for you to have some protection from now on, at least until we can help our little ponies to find the courage to move forward. Sophia says that she has a plan for this but she is also expecting enemies to arrive from beyond the stars at some point, though after ten years I am starting to wonder about that.”

“Frankly, I was expecting them to be here sooner as well,” Sophia agreed. “Unless my people have been hounding them for all this time. I’m relying on our enemies’ tenacity to find a way here. I haven’t received any reports of their capture so they are still out there.”

Luna was perplexed by Sophia’s plan. It seemed like madness to invite her enemies to attack them as part of some crazy plan to make her ponies embrace technology. Though Twilight was the one who voiced Luna’s concerns. “That’s crazy! How can you consider having enemies attack Equestria as part of a plan to help us?”

“Necessity is the mother of invention, Twilight,” Sophia replied. “This long period of peace is becoming a problem for this country and has left the ponies complacent. If an actual war breaks out this nation will be defeated if the enemy has a means to counter your magic. Ponies have grown too reliant on their magic that it has become their only weapon in an age where the sword falls to the cannon.

“In my travels, I discovered a nation that uses weaponized airships to conquer other nations and the soldiers may even be using magic-proof armor. If such a nation came knocking, Equestria may find themselves a conquered nation in days. The thing is, this nation isn’t anywhere near as advanced as the enemy from beyond the stars so you can imagine why Equestria needs to shape up, fast. Your world has resources that will be highly coveted by intergalactic powers in the future and you ponies need to be ready to protect yourselves.”

“But…but there has to be another way than this! Lives could be lost with this plan!” Twilight protested.

“If you have a better way of motivating a culture of technophobic ponies into acting against their fears, I’m all ears. The facts are that ponies acted against Luna and subverted the Elements you now wear to do it because of that fear. Ponies are likely to do so again once they remember who Luna is, except they will use a more surefire way of getting rid of her, permanently. Celestia tried to get the ponies to not act on that fear for a thousand years and failed. The gentle diplomatic method isn’t working so the extreme method, it is.”

“Do we at least know when they’re going to attack?”

“Nope. I do know that his forces are beginning to gather in high orbit around this world but it will take him some time before his forces will be ready to try anything. I would suggest not worrying about this until it happens or you will just end up a nervous wreck. When he takes action that will warrant your attention I will let you know. If it’s any reassurance I am keeping tabs on him so I will know when he tries something. Until then, have some fun with your new friends and spend some time with your old ones as well to take your mind off this.”

While Sophia and Twilight were discussing the morality of the former’s plan, Celestia walked up to her sister with a worried look in her eyes. “Are you alright, sister? I heard what happened from Sophia.”

“I honestly don’t know what happened, Tia,” Luna replied. “After I was banished into the moon, I tried coming up with a number of ways to try and escape from my captivity. The last one I remember trying was opening a portal to Equestria but it opened to a strange place that made me shudder just looking at it. The last thing I remember was a red fog and the bitter memories of our little ponies acting me at every turn. The memory of that treacherous attack in my bedroom was the strongest. I was filled with anger which turned to hatred toward those ponies and then…nothing. Next thing I remember is being here with you and these ponies and creatures.”

“You must have been corrupted by void energies for a long time, Princess,” Sophia explained. “It latched onto your malice toward your betrayers and disabled the reasoning part of your mind until you were akin to a savage beast ready to murder anything in sight. Thankfully you didn’t hurt anypony. Void energy is usually harmless unless you have a lot of pent up malice.”

“That is true. Tia, what happened to my assailants?”

“I had them executed for treason, theft of a national treasure and illegal use of said national treasure. I also rooted out those who conspired with them and exiled them from Equestria, sending them as far east as possible.”

“Personally I would have had them all executed but I also understand that it would present a bad image for ourselves if we were too quick to resort to hanging. At any rate. that just leaves the matter of what happens now.”

Celestia smiled and sat next to her sister. It felt awkward that her sister was now half her size instead of being nearly as tall as she was but that would change over time once Luna recovered. “For now we need to let Equestria know of your return while you work with Ponyville in secret. We can’t have the country catching on to our true intentions until Sophia’s plan is ready to be executed. I will be reintroducing you to the nobles during the Grand Galloping Gala next spring.”

Luna groaned, “I hate such formal arrangements. I doubt they have changed much from a thousand years ago.”

“We will get through it together, Lulu.”

Once everyone was ready to leave, Umbra offered to show off some of her magical prowess by having Sophia and the ponies gather near for before she teleported everyone to Ponyville. From there the townsponies were gathered again where Celestia raised the sun as per the tradition of the Summer Sun Celebration. She then made her announcement about the return of her sister and co-ruler before she called on a few guards to arrange a chariot for the two of them to return to Canterlot.

Twilight had grown to enjoy the company of her new friends and decided to stay with them while Celestia wanted her to write weekly reports on what she learned about friendship. Starlight decided to stay with Twilight in order to make sure she didn’t forget her other friends while also wanting to learn more about the potential of the town Celestia had her eye on.

The girls returned to their homes to rest after the eventful night they had. However, as Starlight followed her friend back to their new home, she was stopped when Sophia appeared in front of her looking like she wanted to tell her something. “I’d like this conversation to be private.”

Starlight nodded, lighting her horn before a teal bubble formed around the two of them. The mare’s concentration lasted a few more seconds before she turned her attention to the bunny. “So, what did you want to say?”

“I want your opinion on the state of the Royal Guards and whatever else passes as military in this country. Keep in mind that I knew you were there during that conversation I had with Celestia ten years ago.”

Starlight fell on her rump as she stared wide-eyed at the rabbit in shock. “Y-you knew?!”

“I could sense your mind from far away. I was curious as to how you would react to that information so I let you listen in. I want to know what you think.”

Starlight took a few moments to regain herself while using some breathing exercises Twilight’s foalsitter taught them. “It’s pretty bad. I looked over a guard training manual that one of them let me borrow, which could be dangerous in itself if they had given it to one of their enemies. I looked into older manuals and each one was worded slightly differently but still the same. How can it be possible that the Guard hasn’t learned any new procedures for centuries?”

“A peace that lasts too long gives one the impression that there is no more need to change. It eventually leaves them weak so that they fall easily to a future enemy.”

Starlight snorted. “I could probably kick their flanks with a little combat training.”

A smirk grew on Sophia’s face, “Oh really, how about you put your bits where your mouth is? I can schedule some training sessions with me and my bodyguards and arrange a date with Celestia to show her and Luna how effective our training methods are. What do you say?”

Starlight narrowed her eyes at Sophia, “This is part of your plan, isn’t it?”

“Not at first, but I can see the defiant spark in your eyes and I can sense your determination. A demonstration could help, but I leave it up to you to decide if you want to be a part of the plan.”

It took a few moments for Starlight to think it over. While some part of her was a little annoyed at the thought of being used as a pawn, there were benefits as well. Plus, some small part of her relished the thought of exerting her dominance over the pitiful Royal Guard. She locked that part away under a heavy security door in her mind.

“Alright, I think we can arrange something in a few days once everypony’s rested and Twilight and I are acclimated to Ponyville.”

Sophia smiled, “Excellent! With you helping it betters the chances of reforming the Guard into an actual fighting force.”

Starlight dismissed the bubble and headed for the library while Sophia headed back to her house.

Author's Note

This concludes the first 2 episodes of Season 1. The rest of this season will involve either small to moderate fixes or completely altering episodes while making some changes to some of the characters.

Marine: "Lookin' forward to it."