Chapter One

Friendship

The sun was just coming up in the east over Equestria, the princess reaching her magic out to the heavens. Wrapping her mind and magic around the massive, burning orb. She raised it over the horizon, letting it's brilliant light and warmth wash over all of Equestria. She looked out onto her peaceful, happy country. Everything in Equestria was going so well at the time. There had been peace in the nation since Nightmare Moon was vanquished and her sister, Luna, was returned to the throne. There was always the occasional small thing of course, a parasprite infestation here, a sleeping dragon there, but all together, life in Equestria was by every sense of the term perfect. The government was strong, there was no war, just love. Celestia couldn't help but smile, the thought alone of how happy and peaceful things had been in Equestria were nearly enough to make her cry form pure joy.

The sun princess wiped away the few tears from her eyes as her most trusted advisors walked into her throne room, led by her sister Luna. She had just begun to receive duties as one of the Royal Pony Sisters. Flanking the young princess was Eastern Spark, the head of magical education for unicorns throughout all of Equestria. The unicorn stood a little taller than most, he had a white-silver coat with a brilliant blue mane, with just a touch of purple by his horn and on his tail. His cutie mark was eight six point stars, four blue and four purple, encircling a golden eight point star. Spark had been a long-time advisor to Princess Celestia, and was her private pupil before that. Eastern had been one of the most magically gifted ponies Celestia had ever been a teacher to.

Spark stood next Sterling Moon, an earth pony tasked by the Royal Pony Sisters to ensure that all the counties of Equestria had their needs addressed - even if they couldn't appear in the royal court in Canterlot. She had a light blue coat and a well-groomed deep purple and pink mane. Her cutie mark showed a full-moon surrounded by five purple diamonds. She was the mayor of Manehattan for three years before becoming one of Celestia's advisors.

Finally, flying above the three of them was a pegasus with a white coat that had a hint of blue, his mane being orange around the outside and yellow on the inside. He was Gyro, the pony who formed the world-famous Wonderbolts years ago, before leaving to take care of all pegasus-related issues such as weather control, as well as handling many responsibilities in Cloudsdale. His cutie mark was a yellow lightning bolt with wings, the inspiration for the group’s logo.

The princess began to speak to her trusted advisors,"First and foremost I would like to apologize for calling all of you in here so early, but it is so rare that all of us are in Canterlot at the same time."

"It is no problem at all your highness; so why have you called all of us here?" Sterling responded.

"I merely wanted to make sure that everything was going well with your duties," Celestia said. "If you wouldn't mind giving us your report while everybody is here." Celestia and Luna listened intently as one by one, their trusted advisors gave their reports.

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"I still don't see why we even need the weapons, or the armor for that matter," Gates said half-jokingly, putting on his armor in the Royal Elite Guard barracks.

"Whaddaya , mean? We gotta protect the princess somehow, what are we gonna do? Politely ask the bad guys to stop?" Briggs japed. Briggs was a large pegasus pony, much larger than most of the other guards even. He had a deep chestnut-brown coat, with a black mane and tail. Briggs was the second newest member of the Elite Guard, next to Golden Gates.

"That's exactly it, we don't even need to protect them, who could possibly wanna hurt Celestia or Luna? We hardly need guards, hay, they could just have us do what all those hundreds of guards do, it'd be easier on everyone," Golden Gates commented. Gates was the newest and youngest member of the Elite Guard and the only earth pony in the Elites, having been admitted just a few months ago. Gates had a shining steel-colored coat, and an aqua mane. He wore very little teal armor. The ponies in the Elite Guard didn't wear the same gold armor that the normal guards did, they wore armor based their personal tastes. His cutie mark was a five-point kite shield with two crossed swords over it. Most of the ponies in the Elites had very similar cutie marks, with only a few small differences.

"You think it'd be that easy doin' what those normal guards do? They gotta stand at attention all day, instead of just hanging out in the background waiting for something to happen. I don't think you of all people could do it," Leo jumped in. Leo was second in command behind Dauphin. Leo was a light purple coated unicorn with dark purple mane.

"Just watch me," Gates said arrogantly as he suddenly stood attention, staring stoically at the wall.

"Not a chance, rookie," Firefly smirked. The only mare in the Elite guards, the pink and purple pegasus was one of the best fliers in Equestria.

"Hey you know-" Gates stopped himself, realizing he had failed after only a few seconds,"well haystack." Collective laughter broke out from all the ponies in the room, even Dauphin smirked a bit.

"Alright that's enough chatter, time to move out; Leo, Golden, you two are with Luna today. Briggs and Firefly, you're with me; the rest of you are on rotation," Dauphin ordered, the white unicorn left with Briggs and Firefly. As Gates left with Leo he thought about how this was the best sense of brotherhood he had in a long time. It was the best sort of friendship he'd had since... he perished the thought form his mind as walked to escort princess Luna.

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As the Royal Princess's advisors left, the two princesses began talking happily.

"Things seem to be going very well sister," Luna said quietly," I'm quite happy things are going so smoothly, now of all times."

"Indeed, Sister, but why now of all times?" Celestia asked.

"Well, to be honest, I'm quite nervous about starting to rule again. I haven't done it in over a thousand years," the pony shied away a bit.

"There is nothing to worry about, Luna, life in Equestria is as good as it has ever been, and nopony could be happier that you are returning to the throne," Celestia soothed.

"You promise?" Luna asked timidly.

"Of course, everything will be perfect, I promise," Celestia smiled," and I think we both know who we can thank for that promise."

Luna smiled back as the Elite Guard arrived to escort her to Manehattan.

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"Thanks again for helping me move all these new books into the library, Applejack. I couldn't have done it without you," Twilight Sparkle said happily.

"Don't you worry 'bout it sugar cube, I'm just happy to help, plus it was kinda nice not having to chase Applebloom and her little friends around for a while," Applejack responded.

Twilight laughed,"I can understand why, those little ponies can be quite a handful, how'd you convince Big Mac to watch them though?"

"Oh well that was the easy-" Applejack was cut off by Big Mac galloping up.

"AJ," Big Macintosh huffed as it was clear he had running for a while.

"Let me guess, Cutie Mark Crusader trouble?" Applejack asked.

"Eeyup," Big Mac responded.

Applejack dropped off her saddle bags filled with books by the library door."I'm sorry but I gotta go sugar cube."

"Don't worry about it, let me know if you need help, I owe you one," Twilight said.

"Will do, let's go Mac," the orange earth pony galloped away as Twilight and Spike, who had been lounging quietly on her back, dragged the books inside. Twilight smiled as she and Spike started putting the books onto the shelves in the library. She couldn't believe she had spent so long without her friends. She had never been happier, and she never wanted it to end.

Next Chapter: Chapter Two - Conspirators Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 29 Minutes