It was late in the afternoon the sun was hanging low in the sky still hours from the coming of Luna's night. And still she was awake. Though the castle servants were on duty all through the night even before the night court restarted (though the night shift had been massively increased in size since then) it was still only the best that make the “Royal Dinner.” As much as Luna hated the capitol letters in that statement she could not fault the chefs for their skills.... though she could not say the same for their over inflated egos.

She was in her room preparing for the evening and recovering from an almost too good meal when it happened.

****

He arrived in the late afternoon. The Day Guard unicorns at the gate mostly saw him as he approached. The dark orange sun cast harsh shadows from the buildings as the ponies of Canterlot walked totally unaware of the figure that strode toward the open castle gates. His shape was mostly obscured and fractured, every step seemed to spread him like a monochromatic prism and even when his image was as solid as it would get it was still like looking at a mirage. The highly trained and shielded minds of the unicorns of the Day Guard tried to make their eyes focus on the creature, constantly finding their eyes and minds sliding off of the thing as it approached. They were shocked when it passed them and even more shocked to find that they had been watching it for almost 3 minutes.

As it entered the grounds of Canterlot Castle the creature finally seemed to stabilize, taking a form and true mass in the material plane. Clacks of the creatures steps could now be heard echoing the shockingly quiet courtyard.

****

“Captain Armor! Something's approaching the gates!”

Shining Armor spoke to his second in command as he vaulted the desk, “What's the situation Major Pax?”

“It started approaching down the High Street I couldn't make out what it is, just a general smoky form moving toward the gate.”

“Illusion magic?” Shining Armor asked as they moved quickly through the halls.

“Not like anything that I've seen before,” and that was a wide variety of spells as Pax trained Day Guard cadets in seeing through illusions. “The pegasi guard I was talking to couldn't even see it, and the unicorns were able to see it barely and couldn't seem to remember seeing it when they weren't looking at it.”

****

“Princess something is approaching the front gate.”

“Something?”

“Yes Ma’am” a dark blue eye brow rose while the Lunar Goddess regarded the bat winged and armoured pegasus for a second “.... Oh, sorry Princess the target is bipedal approximately six feet tall. At last contact it was walking toward the front gate and Day Guard doesn't seem to be responding to it. Aside from appearing to have the same body configuration as a minotaur except shorter and less built up in it's upper torso we really couldn't see what it is, it was like trying to look through water at the thing.”

Just as Wrath was finishing his report Vengeance entered the room “All Shadow Guard forces in the castle have been alerted.”

*****

“Inter-dimensional teleportation?”

Shining Armor gathered several guards who seemed to have no idea that anything was going on as they moved through the castle. “My sister was looking into more efficient teleportation spell design, seeing if going through dimensions with no sense of space would be easier. Not at all shockingly it didn't work but her experiments showed something that sounds like this.”

They came out on to the ramparts of above the front courtyard, “'As the item or creature comes though the veil between worlds only those who are magically inclined can view it and the amount of magic the creature controls determines how easily they can perceive the item.'” Captain Armor quoted the paper as he studied the creature that was still walking through the streets and it stepped under the gate arch into the castle itself. “Spread out on the inner wall, nopony takes any provocative action unless it attacks first. Understood?”

“Yes sir.” His guard were well drilled in diplomatic situations with new species and he trusted them to keep their cool. The creature stepped into the courtyard and resolved itself into a solid figure as Shining Armor cantered down the stairs to the grounds and began to approach the creature that slowed and stopped as it reached the centre of the yard.

*****

“Has anyone thought to inform my sister?”

“I would think that would be the purview of the Day Guard Ma'am.”

*****

It was one of her favourite part of the day or it had been since the last month when Celestia, no matter how much she wanted to strangle her sister, had been set up with her favoured student. She was laying on the pillows in her room, with a fire crackling soothingly beside her, sipping tea and writing a letter. Since she and the young mare had been set up, and had in fact woken up in the same bed, she had begun writing every evening to her new young lover. Even thinking of the young mare as her lover was causing her to giggle like a school filly and she was very careful of when she allowed herself to think the mare's name. It was amazing to her how foalish she seemed to herself. How she couldn't even think the name Twilight Sparkle, and oh wow feel that blush... It had been far too long since she had been in a relationship of any kind, but as a creature that had lived a very long time Celestia knew that it was better to enjoy and savour these feelings.

As she wrote her letter to her distant marefriend with a big goofy smile on her face she hoped that the weekend when the filly would visit would come quickly she was unaware of and unconcerned about what was happening outside. And hoped that all the world would let her keep these warm feelings as long as she could.

****

Shining Armor approached the creature with invisible shields up against anything that he could think of, just because the thing wasn't aggressive yet didn't mean that it wasn't hostile. He stopped several feet away from the creature before he spoke to it.

“I am Shining Armor Captain of the Canterlot Guard. In the name of the Most Regal and Divine Sisters I ask who you are and what are your intentions?” He spoke loud enough that the fillies and colts on the walls could hear his words, as a Officer Cadet in the Guard he had learned that it was best when you encountered unknown species and cultures to make sure there was a record and the best way to do that was to make sure others heard what you said. This was both so that other ponies could enter it into reports to corroborate your story, and also if the culture or species turned out to be hostile there would be more people who could hopefully survive and report back.

The creature was silent as it regarded him with eyes too small for it's head that gave it a certain intensity and looked around the courtyard. It seemed to make eye contact with each guard on the wall as it turned in a slow circle. The creature seemed to nod in an approving way with what seemed like a gentle smile, as it looked back at him. Then the creature spoke loudly without moving what should be it's mouth. The voice spoke directly into the minds of all the ponies present and all those in the castle.

“With the greatest of respect, I come seeking audience with the Sisters of the Sun and the Moon.”

*****

“I'm not sure I like this Princess.”

“Come now, how can you be worried about meeting with a creature that none of the guard can identify, with extreme psionic and magical powers? Ha! It's like you are concerned about my well being or some such.”

“Quite hilarious Princess but for something like that wouldn't I need to be your guard or something? That's just ludicrous.”

As the Lunar Princess and guard waited in the antechamber of the audience hall they watched the Day Guard running back and forth trying to be useful. But before Luna was able to further her jest she spotted her sister, and the Day Watch Captain.

“Approximately six feet tall bipedal creature less developed upper body than a minotaur seems to be clothed over the majority of it's body, flat muzzle with very small eyes Princess.” Shining Armor still looked upset that he was reduced to describing the thing physically. “I still have no idea how it got through all the wards we have up in the castle that you could hear it.”

“Well we shall have to ask it,” Celestia's voice soft and calming voice carried across the hall and implicitly welcomed Luna into the conversation, but still maintained a slight motherly chiding for the newest member of the Extended Royal family, “in the mean time it would likely be for the best if we knew what it was we were dealing with.”

“Well it appears to be a human Princess.” Two Unicorns showed up from the stairs that lead up to the Lunar balcony, one in Night Guard armour and the one who spoke in dark robes.

“I thought you two had already left for Fortress Tarturus?” Luna smirked as she cast a sidelong glance at her two soldiers and away from the rather flustered looking master of the Day Watch.

“We were going to Princess but Cite here couldn't leave before he packed up the whole Canterlot Library.” The armoured pony nodded his head toward the scholarly pony at his side.

“Please it was just my personal library, though I will admit that I let it get a bit out of control while on my stay here. And as though you have any room to speak after all the time I've had to waste while you polished your armour.”

“Please save us your lovers spat, you two. Kiss and make up.”

The older stallion rolled his eyes “Oh please Princess he is far to young for me, I'm no cradle robber.”

“Far Cite,” Celestia finally interjected getting the robed unicorns attention. “You were saying that our visitor is a human?”

“Oh no Princess it almost certainly is not, though it is human shaped.” The scholar became more serious as he turned to Luna and began his report. “The creature is extremely powerful, I may go so far as to say unmeasurable. Though it does not have a godhead like yourselves my Princesses the creature has some form of power like divinity behind it. In all my time studying I have never encountered this type of power. Though that may be from what little I could actually read off the creature, it seems to be throwing out some form of interference like it's trying to stop any type of magic scanning.”

“It's putting out so much power it's actually fatiguing being in the same room as that thing.” the armoured unicorn from the Earth Pony Night Guard spoke up cutting off his companion before the start of the magical frequency and sympathetic harmonics discussion Cite had inflicted on him while observing the creature.

“Barricade's right Princess,” Shining Armor added “I'm having to rotate out the guards in there, I'm starting to worry I'm going to run out of guards to keep watch on it.”

“Well then it sounds like we should see to our guest.” Celestia moved to join her sister.

“Yes before your Day Guard faints off their hooves.” Luna chided her new in-law relative.

“Luna no need to be snide.” Celestia turned to her Guard Captain, “If you would be so kind as to announce us Shining.”

Shining Armor had a lot to say about what was going on... so much in fact all that came out was a series of half syllables as he saw the counter argument to each statement reflected in the motherly smile of the solar princess. In the end all he could do was sigh out his agreement as he left the room.

“At some point we're going to have to ease off the teasing of that poor colt.”

“Oh come now it's not hurting him.” Luna smiled at her sister as they readied themselves to meet their inter-dimensional visitor, “ready 'Tia?”

“Of course Lulu.” Luna's eye twitched at the use of her least favourite nickname but her response was shockingly serious.

“I'm not sure we should be so impatient to get to this meeting....”

“Yes... those ripples among the other material planes.... Something was happening out there.” Luna looked over at her sister as the solar goddess contemplated the infinite breadth of realities outside of their own that the sisters had locked away oh so long ago.

“What's that dark spot on your fore-hoof?”

“What dark spot?” Celestia walked into the grand chamber which fortunately stalled any questions about the ink stain on her leg or the letter she was writing.... Specifically an 'i'...... and certainly not an 'i' with a hearted dot no matter what Luna liked to claim.

*****

As Luna followed her sister into the audience hall, she saw the human shaped creature, it was a he, with his back to the sisters door. Her eyes slid off of him as she took in the whole of the room instincts taking over. Always know what the perceived threat is doing but do not focus on it so closely you lose track of your surroundings. She first followed the direction he seemed to be looking, eye flashing over Day Guard ponies who were well trained but still clear to the lunar goddess. They were still and stone faced but the tension they carried in their bodies told her all she needed to know about the power the man was putting out. In her peripheral vision she caught the energy rippling over and enveloping her sister as she passed the threshold. Her eyes continued past the guards and saw the great stained glass windows, they seemed to dance with electricity as the man seemed to probe and test the magic that had forged them. She felt a sympathetic twinge through the aether currents as the magic seemed to read and analyse the wards that she had put in place in an instant and then move on.

As her eyes and magic took in the full room, she scanned whoever he was and saw that he was doing the same thing. As she passed the threshold she spread her magic over the whole chamber reading the currents of the aether she tested, probed, and pushed at the magical field he was putting out. She found it hard to grab a hold of. She focused and shifted her magical senses around the power and then relaxed to try another tack... and found her magic meshing with the man's.

Take advantage of any opening and gather all information you can. She worked her magic through his field now that it seemed welcome there. She watched as Celestia extended her own magic around the room to shield her guards from the “man's” scans and learned about the magic their guest was using. He slowly started changing the flow and frequency of his magic. I am being handed information by this creature. Celestia changed her own magic and then he changed his, over and over, faster and faster they travelled through the magic spectra, and Luna searched through the layers of magic with them. He is trying to teach me something, she wasn't sure what but it was certainly true. It walked her through the steps of the first change but each move was faster and performed with more shortcuts, but he never moved in a way her magic analysis couldn't keep up with. She finished the 10 foot walk from the doors to their platform at the front of the hall taking her place at her sisters right. And was instantly distracted.

“The Royal Sisters of Equestria, Celestia Princess of the Sun and Luna Princess of the Moon.” Unaware of the game of magical keep away being played by the creature and the solar princess Shining Armor announced the sisters.... making Luna's eye flicker to him for the briefest of instants which apparently was all the time the creature needed to move. Her eyes came back to the creature cursing herself that she didn't see him move. It had been a few thousand years since she had seen a human, and even more since she had been able to face a warrior she wanted to see the creature move and the speed he had just displayed showed that she was right to want to watch him.

“Stars damn it,” her mumbled curse attracted the eye of her sister who gave her a bit of a smile. They looked down on the man. His head low, one hand on the ground and one resting on one knee as he knelt before the sisters. His magic field no longer searching but instead giving off insistent power. Luna pushed back at the power as she sensed her sister holding her shield over her guards, it was their way. She was surprised though to find she actually discovered something from her pushing. He was powerful almost with no limit, almost, it was a fragile strength. She could tell that he was limited not in energy but in will. As she thought about that her sister arched an eyebrow at their visitor who seemed to notice without looking up at her.

“Celestia Glorious Sun, Luna Sublime Moon.” His real voice deep and strong, but Luna thought it had a slightly flat tone, “I thank you your kindness in seeing me with such little forewarning. Scholars, who remember your names beyond the veil between worlds, know not a fraction of your greatness oh Immortal Sisters.”

“We greet you traveller in the name of Equestria.” The solar deity spoke with a guarded tone as she regarded their guest, “Your praise is welcome but unnecessary, please be at ease. Rise and tell Us what brings you to Our realm.”

Author's Note

Long delayed and for no good reason here's my second chapter. There are some things hinted here that I will be expanding on in my next couple stories and if anyone complains about Pax being a major I both love you and must tell you to calm down it makes sense (I'll show you how later). Anyone reading I have to say I love you too,

See you space pony....