There are few sights in nature more wonderous than a meteor shower. A vibrant display of cosmic beauty played out in close enough proximity that one can watch without a telescope. The vicennial Pleneighdes shower, for instance, is practically an Equestrian holiday, beloved by all even in the years when there was no Princess to attribute it to.

Most meteor showers are predictable. Studied and monitored by royal astronomers, their arrivals calculated and foretold. So it was a great surprise when, on one particular night of no predicted importance, the whole of the Equestrian sky was filled with meteors by the thousands.

Ponies, naturally curious, came set aside their dinners and bedtime stories and evening radio programs to turn to their windows and porches, eyes fixed on the skies. Some scrambled to arrange rushed meteor shower parties, other simply walked outside to witness the rare stellar event on the lonesome.

Goldie Delicious was one of these. She stepped out onto the porch of her little ramshackle cottage in the woods, petting no less than two cats at once while a third slumbered on her head, as she appreciated the view.

"Ain't bad," she mused as the night sky lit up like day. "Maybe that new-fangled Princess Moon-whatever is good for something after all. Never used to get shows like this, nosiree."

Her eyes tracked a particular glowing light as it crossed the sky, brightest than the rest. She flicked her ear as it caught an annoying high, keening noise that only seemed to grow louder. When she glanced back up, her eyes widened and she flung herself back into the house, cursing up a blue streak that would have made her husband proud and her family faint.

She just managed to throw the door shut behind her when the meteor crashed into her front lawn, completely uprooting her entire squash patch.

When the light dimmed and the noise stopped, Goldie hesitantly let the door creak open. It swung out easily, then fell off its hinges entirely. With her cover gone, the elder mare steeled her courage and stepped out into the smoking remains of her garden.

The crater stood taller than she was, an eerie glow coming over the sides in a strange pulsing rhythm. With it came that same keening noise, now deeper and thrumming. Walking slowly--and never taking her eyes off the crater--she reached around the side of her gardening shed and grabbed a shovel. Goldie Delicious didn't know much about meteors--that had been Great Great Uncle Cosmic Apple's specialty--but she knew that they weren't supposed to hum or glow. The only good rock was one that knew to keep its business to itself.

Leaning in, she gave the side of the crater a hesitant poke. The wall crumbled easily beneath her shovel's blade, the scorched earth practically made sand from the heat, and fell away to reveal it's surprise center.

She nearly dropped her shovel in surprise.

"Well I'll be. Ain't you a cute lil' thing?"

The cats still clinging to her hissed. "Hush ya'll," she chided them. "Don't be rowdy now. Can't y'see it's just a-"

That was as far as she got before it leaped.





Similar scenes played out across Equestria, as the nation was assaulted by a rain of terror. Meteors crash-landed across the countryside, demolishing trees, rocks, and punching holes through any errant houses that happened to be in their way. In every city, in every town, ponies approached the glowing craters with like-minded curiosity, only to run fleeing moments later, pursuit hot on their heels from the ceaseless tide of...

"Bunnies!" the Official Canterlot Herald hollered from his perch as he bravely did his duty in the face of danger, "Bunnies Invade Equestria!"

"We know[i/]!" somepony yelled back as desperately tried to knock a trio of invaders back with the business end of a broom. "Maybe if you'd get down and [i]help!"

"Nonsense!" the herald replied. "It's my job to inform the populace of any incoming danger, as did my father before me, and his father before him. Ours is a proud an noble lineage of warning ponies about danger. We can't get involved in it. Don't be absurd." He took a a deep breath and continued. "Rabbits Run Rampant! Manehatten Is Mangled! Las Pegasus Lost Under the Pressure! Canterlot Crumbles!"

He ducked as one of the glowing rabbits leapt right at him, neatly clearing the roof of his platform. "Invaders Attack Innocent Bystanders! No Pony Is Safe! Run For The Hills!"

The population of Canterlot broadly ignored him, as they has his father and his father before him (his position had been largely ceremonial for many many years). Instead, they fought. Ponies, as a whole, are generally panicky creatures. Easy to frighten, difficult to rouse to action. When faced with a mob of invading monsters, standard procedure is to run, scream, or run while screaming. But instincts tend to get a little muddled when, rather than a flotilla of ice yetis or an army of mind-controlled soldiers or a horde of changelings, the enemy is a herd of bunnies.

Even if they glow with an otherworldly light.

And are twice as big as normal.

And can leap over buildings.

And have a clearly defined military structure, complete with mustached generals squeaking orders and miniature bunny-sized sets of armor.

But they're still bunnies at the end of it, so the instinctive Equestrian mindset of "run from threat" collides with the mindset of "gently remove this cute pest from my garden" leading to a thoroughly confused and mixed reaction as the invading bunnies continued to take ground in their conquest of the nation.





In the heart of Canterlot Castle, Celestia held back a sneeze as the last messenger kicked up a cloud of dust as he left to relay her orders. After several centuries of disuse, the War Room had fallen into a deep state of neglect. But cleanliness was the farthest thing from her mind. Her nation was under attack.

...by bunnies, yes, but under threat nonetheless. It was her duty and purpose as Princess to protect all under her aegis from whatever may dare to cause them harm.

Which was why she was more than a little irked than Luna had yet to arrive.

As if her thoughts had a magic of their own, the door opened to allow a yawning Luna through. Her baggy eyes and unkept mane were evidence enough that she'd only just been roused and had yet to receive her evening coffee. "Good evening, sister. What is all the commotion this time? Did Blueblood try and declare sovereignty again?"

Celestia snorted in grim mirth. "If only. I'd prefer a thousand of his little rebellions over this. Equestria is under attack."

Luna's eyes widened as she straightened immediately. She stepped forward, a spell banishing all traces of fatigue as she once more adopted the mantle of Military Tactician that she'd often worn before her banishment. "What do we know?"

"Too little." Celestia gestured to a map, already covered in improvised tokens. Scones represented most of their forces, with various parts of a tea set marking major conflict sites. "They landed everywhere at once. No reliable count of their numbers yet, but even rough estimates put it in the tens of thousands."

Luna cursed. "Do we know who our enemy is at least? Chrysalis? The griffons? Those rogues from Klugetown?"

"None of them. It's some strange creature the likes of which I've never encountered in all my years. Reports say they descended from the sky like meteors."

A flicker of something crossed Luna's face, but vanished almost instantly. "From the sky, you say?"

"Yes." Despite it's brief appearance, Celestia had not missed the pensive look. "Luna, what is it? If you remember something I don't--"

"It's not that." Luna hesitated, a war of emotions on her face. "It's, well... the invaders don't happen to look like rabbits do they?"

Celestia didn't even have to answer. Before she could, a small white figure, glowing like a firefly, smacked into the window beside them. The two princess turned as one, their eyes locking with the beady green ones pressed up against the glass like overly eager peeping tom.

"I found her!" it squeaked, "I found the Chosen One! I--"

It's final declaration was lost as the force keeping it stuck to the window failed and it dropped out of sight.

Silence pervaded the room. It settled and made itself comfortable amidst the maps and dust and princesses who would not make eye contact.

"Luna."

The silence attempted to reassert itself against the interruption.

"Luna."

"Yes, sister?"

"Do you have something you want to tell me?"

The lunar princess sighed. Leaning back, she collapsed into a chair with a groan. "No. No I absolutely did not want to tell you this, but it seems fate has forced my hoof."

She sat back up. "This may be... a little bit... by some definition... my fault."

Celestia merely raised an eyebrow. Something exploded in the distance, but the only thing in that direction was Blueblood's third manor, so it was ignored.

"Perhaps you should hurry up in your explanation then."

Luna nodded. "When I was still... her, I had several contingency plans in place in the event that my return and usurpation did not go as planned. One of them..." she took a deep breath before rushing out, "involved a follow-up invasion of a race of moon-dwelling rabbits that viewed me as a sort of prophesized goddess who'd lead them to a promised land."

Celestia paused as she processed that. "Alright. That answers one question. As for why they are here now..."

"When I was purged from the Nightmare," Luna continued, "I sent them the order to hold off their invasion." She looked away, not noticing the glow of Celestia's magic disappearing from one of the weapons on the wall. "And I've been sending them the same order every fortnight since."

Celestia sighed. "And I suppose you have a very good reason for not simply telling them the truth?"

"You make it sound so easy!" she countered, "But you have never tried to speak with them. When they're looking up at your with those soulful eyes filled with hope, and those cute little noses, and their long floppy earsy-wearsies--" Luna froze, coughed, and recomposed herself. "I've been meaning to tell them the truth, but every time I tried I imagined their heartbroken little faces and it just seemed... easier to tell them to delay again, to put it off for another week." She looked away. "Until, perhaps, having been overcome by a night of very important meeting and such, I may have forgotten to send them the delay command."

Celestia considered her sister for a moment, before sighing and taking a seat next to her. "At the very least, I can understand the feeling of not wanting to let down ones subjects after they've put you on a pedestal. But we still have to do something about this invasion."

"They're really not a threat!" Luna insisted, "For as much as I called them an army, they're not exactly combat capable. The Nightmare-- I taught them everything about warfare that I knew, but aside from being exceptionally good jumpers with an affinity for lunar magic, they're not really much more threatening than normal rabbits."

"Certainly a relief," Celestia agreed. "We'll get you in front of them, make a speech, then hopefully we can shift from warfare to diplomacy."

Luna winced. "Do I really have to? Maybe I could pretend to still be the Nightmare and somehow convince them that I've already won and that the invasion isn't needed?"

"More procrastinating the truth?"

"No. You are right. It must be done."

Their plan set, the two sisters set into action. A quick teleport brought them to the central plaza, atop the tower usually reserved for the Official Canterlot Herald, who was oddly missing from his post. But as they cast their eyes about the space, there wasn't hide nor hare to be found of the invaders.

"Where are they?" Luna asked. "I thought you said they were thousands of them."

"There were. The latest report said they were nearly at the Castle's doorstep."

And yet, they were alone. Even the civilians seemed to be missing, either taken away or sheltering in place.

Then, in the silence of the evening, there was a noise.

A steady Thump. Thump. Thump.

Like a giant's footsteps ponderously moving across the land.

They appeared at the end of High Street as a solid mass. Bunnies. More bunnies than could be counted. Armed and armored, glowing like a lake under the full moon, and hopping forward in perfect synchronicity.

Luna took a deep breath. This was it. The time for truth had come. It would hurt, she knew, to see their hearts break as they learned she wasn't some prophesized figure set to guide them to victory and instead was merely a sad mare who'd twisted their devotion while in the depth of her sorrow and madness. She only hoped they would one day find it in themselves to forgive her.

She opened her mouth to speak, one to stop as she felt Celestia's hoof on her shoulder.

"Wait. What are they chanting?"

Indeed, they were chanting something. The words times between each thunderous bounce. As they approached, the words finally became clear.

"TRUE CHOSEN ONE. TRUE CHOSEN ONE."

It was then the princesses noticed the palanquin. Draped in silver silks and lunar filigree, it was carried by the brawniest pair of lunar rabbit. Atop it, nestled amongst a bed of carrots large enough to swim in... was a single, ordinary Equestrian rabbit looking as smug as a rabbit could look.

Also Fluttershy was there, fanning him with a leaf and looking decidedly confused by everything.

"Well Luna," Celestia said with grim commiseration. "It seems your rule has been eclipsed."

The irony was not lost on her.