The Return of the Night

>Be Anon

> The day has finally come.  The day that you will overthrow the mighty Princess Celestia.
> Your master, Princess Luna, soon to be her majesty Nightmare Moon had spent many months in preparing for this day.
> The plan was simple enough, but required precise timing and action from you, and your master’s other subordinates.
> Phase #1: Infiltration

> It was another perfect day in Canterlot. A fitting way for all these easy going ponies to have their peaceful world come crashing down around them.
> To be honest you had grown tired of all the sunshine and happiness.
> It was a nice change from the miserable and self-destructive world that you were originally born into, but you had come to realize that harmony of that magnitude was just not natural.
> There had to be a certain amount of chaos to counter-balance that harmony, and since Celestia saw to it that Discord, the very embodiment of chaos, would no longer have any aspirations of ruling Equestria (at least not by himself anyway) the natural flow of the universe had been altered, and that was going to hurt ponies rather than help them.
> That was your reason for fighting anyway, simply bringing balance back to this world, but your master had her own reasons for this rebellion. You never asked what they were, but you had a pretty good idea what they were.
> Ever since you got here you had observed the political deliberations of the royal family, and how everyone fell into the spectrum of political power.
> Saying that Princess Celestia had more influence than any other pony would be the understatement of the millennium. She was easily the equivalent of a dictator, but her good hearted nature blinded most ponies to this fact; except obviously those who also held a position of power.
> Every single event of importance was delegated by Celestia while every pony else was given menial supervising tasks.
> Even during the times of great strife; such as, the return of Discord, the Changeling invasion, the rise and fall of King Sombra, and Tirek’s revenge. Celestia always made the final decision on their course of action.
> Princess Luna had voiced her objections to all of her plans pointing out their flaws, and offering better solutions, but her arrogant older sister would hear none of it.
> Well, the day has come where the time for words is over, and you were going to do everything in your power to insure you master’s success.

> Be Shining Armor

> Princess Celestia had just risen the sun and you had already been up an hour.  It was going to be another beautiful day in Canterlot, but you as captain of the Royal Guard were not going to be able to enjoy it.  You were currently stationed in Canterlot; even though your wife was a princess herself you had to be cycled between the two kingdoms since Celestia had not bothered to assign a new commander to her army.
> You couldn’t really blame her though.  Not many ponies put in the amount of training and hard work that you did to obtain this position.
> You had also hoped that now that your little sister had both become a princess, and obtained her own castle that you would get to see her more often, but so far that had not happened.
> You were currently putting together supplies to be shipped across Equestria from the recent Tirek conflict.  Counting the number of crates and making sure they had their appropriate labels.
> This was easily your least favorite part of the job.  When you finally achieved the rank of captain you had thought the amount of paperwork that you would have to deal with would dwindle; unfortunately that was not the case.  You had made a request to princess Celestia about hiring a secretary or at least some more servants so that the work load would not be so mind numbing.
> Unsurprisingly she merely stated that she would look into the royal budget for the faculty and have an answer for you as soon as possible.  This actually meant that you were to look into the royalties financial records and determine if any extra funding could be spared to hire new workers, and with the latest Tirek incident there was no way that was happening.
> As you place your clipboard against your head and sigh in a mixture of anger and defeat you here the doors to the supply room open and a lone guard pony walks over to you.
“Captain a mailmare claims she has a package for you,” he says.
> You would have asked if he was trying to be funny, but the seriousness of his tone made you disregard that thought.  “Then tell her to put it in my mailbox I am very busy right now.“
“She claims she must give it to you personally sir.”
> Okay now you had to ask.  “Are you trying to be funny soldier; because, if I don’t find a mare out there with a package you will be on latrine duty.“
“No sir, I’m being completely serious.”
> You sigh, “Very well, you may return to your post.”  Both of you part ways and you begin to wonder who would send you such an important package that you would need to receive it in person.
> It was very rare for you to receive anything in the mail.  You only had a few friends outside the service, and usually family members just gave you gifts in person.
> Your birthday was coming up next week, but it was too early to be receiving gifts.  Then, a saddening thought crossed your mind.  Maybe it was a present from your sister, and she was sending you your present early because she would be unable to make it.
> As these thoughts rambled in your head you almost didn’t realize that princess Luna is walking down the hallway directly towards you.  With half grace and half haste you make yourself presentable and stand at attention.
> “Good morning your majesty.”
“Ah, captain we hath been seeking thee for some time now.  Does thou hath a moment to spare so that we may speak to thee.”
> “Yes your majesty, what is it that you require of me?”
“We simply wanted to inform thee that we shall not be present when thou must perform thy monthly exercise of gathering thine troops in attention in the courtyard.”
> Oh crap you had completely forgot that that was today, but keeping your composure you reply.  “I understand your majesty, but may I ask what it is that you will be doing during our monthly drill.”
“We hath been assigned an important mission by our sister that must be attended to with great haste.  However, we must not speakith of such things in the open, lest other ponies were to hear us.
> “I understand your majesty, will that be all?”
“Yes, you may resume as you once were soldier.”
> A mission?  Since when did the princesses personal oversee anything that wasn’t for political purposes?  It must be something REALLY important if Princess Luna had to be present during the on-goings.
> As these new developments rummage through your brain you eventually arrive at the Mane hall.
> As you make your way down the stairs you see a familiar gray pegasus floating in the air talking to one of the guards in the entrance way.  Next to her is a large wooden crate big enough to fit 6 ponies inside of it easily.  As you make your approach she notices you and waves her hoof enthusiastically while giving you an adorable
“Good morning captain.”
> that no pony could hate.
> “ Good morning Derpy a package from Ponyville I presume?”
Yep, a big one from the Princess of Friendship.
> You were both glad and fearful that she would say that, but did your best to keep a smile and a positive tone, so not to worry her of what you were thinking.
> Boy this sure is a big package what’s inside it anyway?
Captain you should know a mailmare never looks through her customer’s mail, but maybe this letter that came with it says something about it.
> You take the letter and open it with your magic to find a single piece of paper with a fairly short entry.

Dear BBBFF,

     In this package contains samples, documents, and other assorted materials on my findings of me and my friends recently acquired Rainbow Power.  I would like you to present them to Princess Celestia so she may conduct her own studies on this new magic as it may still yield unlocked potential.

With love, your Twily

P.S  I can’t wait to come home and celebrate your birthday next week.  See you soon.

> That took a huge load off your mind knowing that your little sis was going to be able to make it to your birthday party.   You now felt like you could easily power through this week with the knowledge that you were going to spend some quality time with your little sister again.
> “Boy I can hardly believe that Twily could put this much material together in such a short amount of time.
Oh you know Twilight  better than any pony Shining Armor she always makes sure to be exceedingly thorough.
> You smile at the thought of remembering all the times Twily lectured you about every little thing she would learn in the books she read.  It was annoying at times, but you still loved her for it.
> “Thank you so much Derpy this is exactly the kind of news I needed to cheer me up.
Oh there’s no need to thank me I’m just doing my job.
> Well, thank you all the same.  Have a safe trip back to Ponyville.
Thank you sir I will.
> She flies out the Mane entrance and into the sky.  You turn to the massive crate and lift it with your magic.  No doubt the princess will want to see this right away.