Cloud Drop knocked on the door to a very large, extravagant home, moments later a tan mare (the home owner's assistant) wearing a black jacket opened the door. The one thing he noticed about her was her glowing, cat-like eyes, similar to Nightmare Moons, her slit pupils dilating to adjust for the change in brightness.

"Well, hello Admiral! Here to see Star Yield?"
The mare said in a genial manner.

"Yes, I am. I've got good news."

"Wonderful! Before you come in, though, dust all of that snow off. I don't want it to melt all over the floor."

Cloud Drop complied, brushing the snow from his head, back and wings as he entered the house. The entryway was almost as extravagant as Canterlot Castle. There was a large crystal chandelier hanging high above the polished hardwood floor, a tapestry depicting a scene of a grassy field hanging on the wall above one of the two staircases, the second staircase had three paintings hanging on its wall, one a portrait of a light brown Unicorn, his caramel mane finely combed as it could be. Next to the set of stairs that led to the second floor was two entrances to other rooms of the home, a third hall lay between the two staircases. One of the doors was open and Cloud Drop was able to get a glimpse of a fireplace and couch in the room as he walked up the stairs. Once getting to the top of the stairs, he turned down the left hallway, passing several doors as he got to the end of the hall. He knocked on the last door of the hall, seconds later it opened on its own, revealing a large Office. At the end of the office was a half-hexagon window along with a large desk and 3 chairs, one behind the desk, and two smaller chairs in front of it. To Cloud's left was a fireplace, a large fire roaring in it's gaping brick mouth, keeping the office a toasty temperature. On his right was a small coffee table; atop it sat two coffee mugs, a kettle and an assortment of supplies for preparing either coffee or tea.

"So, what brings you by on this cold afternoon, Admiral?"
A male voice asked, making Cloud Drop look over to the chair behind the desk as it turned around, revealing the same light brown Unicorn depicted in the painting downstairs.

The Unicorn of mention was the main spell-worker for the Royal Equestrian Guard and was a retired Professor of Magical Science at the Celestia University Of Gifted Unicorns. He was also the orchestrator behind the New Order, an organization (though it was more of a cult) that had been created mere weeks after Princess Luna's unbanishment from the moon. The organization aimed to assist Princess Luna in raising to power over Celestia and re-incarnate Nightmare Moon, or as she had been locally named, The Mother of the Night. The odd thing about this organization was that Princess Luna had no involvement in its creation, nor did she have knowledge of its existence. True, the spell used to enter one into the organization had been created a full thousand years ago by Luna, but the opportunity for its use had never struck. Instead, the spell, along with a sort of manifestation of Nightmare Moon herself, had been bestowed upon Star from a shard of Nightmare Moon's armor. At the current time, three thousand ponies across Equestria in various positions of power had the Aura, as it had been named by Star, bestowed upon them, making the New Order quite the large organization, yet no one knew of its existence.

"It's time."
Cloud Drop said imprecisely.

Star Yield gave a quizzical look.

"You don't have to be so indirect, we're in my office, you know."

"It's time for us to make our move, Celestia has been called to a meeting in Stalliongrad and leaves tomorrow."
Cloud Drop responded, his words causing an evil smile to dawn on the stallion's face.

"Good... but I need to know more, flight paths, departure times, and pilot roster. If we're going to shoot her helicopter down we need to make it look like an accident."
Star spoke, rotating himself in his chair.

The simple act of saying the word "Helicopter" was awkward. The helicopter has been a recent invention, around 20 years ago the first ones powered by hoof or with a small steam engine had their first flights as mere demonstration pieces. Upon realizing the potential, ponies began making them bigger to allow applications in areas other than fun. Newer versions, including ones used by the Royal Guard and other Military organizations across Equestria, had radial piston engines. These engines were bulky, heavy, and guzzled fuel. The main fault in the H-34s operated by the Royal Guard was its underpowered engine.

This H-34, designed by the Stalliongradian based Glass Wing Design Bureau, was the most popular aircraft in current days, but it wasn't the best. The reason this aircraft was so popular was the simplicity of its design and its ease of maintenance. Second to the H-34 was the SN-32, a machine slightly smaller and vastly more complex than its contemporary; which in some ways contributed to its less popular status. Instead of choosing the typical (for the time) main rotor and tail rotor design, the Stas Design Bureau had adorned their SN-32 with two main rotors stacked upon each other. The two rotors spun in opposite directions; this removed the need for a tail rotor as the torque was canceled by default. Along with the 2 rotors, it had 2 engines; however, they were not piston-driven. The SN-32 had an intriguing power plant of a very new propulsion system; the gas-turbine engine. These new engines had greater thrust-to-weight ratios, were smaller, and had much greater efficiency. The fact that the SN-32 wasn't more popular drove the Stas Bureau's lead designers to near madness.

Upon mention of these two remarkable machines, it should be said that they are not the only ones in existence, and these two competing Design Bureau's are not the only in existence, either. Over the 20 years of rapid development, many Design Bureau's and their machines have come and gone, but only a few made it through the tests of the world and into mass production, like the SN-32 and the H-34.

"I'm aware, I was informed only an hour ago, I still need to go over the details with Celestia. As for the accident part, that's well in hand. This blizzard will act as a sort of scapegoat for the one that will be, quote unquote, taking down Celestia. Our Brothers and Sisters in Cloudsdale made this blizzard too big, causing it to be unstable, which would make it look as if the blizzard stuck around long enough to cause problems for a certain flight."
Cloud Drop explained, visibly proud of his work.

"Perfect. I know that Celestia's little pet-project; Twilight Sparkle, will think more of this incident. Once we have Celestia in our control I want you to make sure she and her friends don't get too nosy."

"Understood."

Star Yield walked to the fireplace and levitated a small shard of blue metal from the mantle, the bit of metal being the shard from Nightmare Moon's armor that had started everything.

"I've been waiting for this ever since Celestia ordered me to study this shard. The Lunar eclipse will be a month from now... which is sort of a problem."
Star Yield said as he investigated the shard of metal in his magic.

The Solar Eclipse is not only the Moon passing in front of the Sun but was also single point in time where Celestia's magical ties with her celestial body and the earth around her became weaker, conversely; Luna's (and therefore Nightmare Moon's) magical ties gained strength. The method of transforming Celestia into Nightmare Moon simply using shards of her remains is a task Star Yield had perfected over the course of 4 years. When Celestia had first assigned him the task of examining the magic contained in the shards, it seemed like the powerful, almost evil, magic had spoken to him. The voice of Nightmare Moon had told him the error of his ways, told him to rally against the sun, to form the base of a new era beneath the Moon's glory.

"What's the problem with the eclipse being far off?"
Cloud Drop asked.

"It's a little TOO far away. I know first hoof that Celestia is very powerful, physically and magically. The longer we keep her, the longer we have to worry about her escaping, which is why we'll be... Incapacitating her, until the eclipse."

"If we hurt her too much, wouldn't it harm Nightmare Moon when we finish the transformation?"
Cloud Drop asked.

"Our Mother of the Night's magic is powerful enough to reverse any harm we do to Celestia's body, I've tested it."

Cloud Drop refrained from asking HOW he tested that her magic would repair wounds.

"Besides, it's necessary that we weaken her, mentally and physically. By the time the Lunar eclipse takes place she will wish she was dead."
Star Yield snarled as he set the shard back down on the fireplace.

"Alright, well, I'll return when I get more information on where she'll be flying."
Cloud Drop said as he walked towards the door.

"Make sure you keep Twilight Sparkle away from this. We don't need to worry about her once Nightmare Moon has been returned."
Star Yield called as Cloud Drop exited from his office.

After a nearly twenty minute flight, Cloud Drop landed at the front gates of the Castle, the two half-frozen Guards opening the ice-covered gates, allowing him inside the walls. Then, he continued to the second pair of doors, the doors to the Throne room. Once he entered, Cloud's eye immediately met with Princess Celestia's, who was sitting upon her throne.

"Where did you run off to?"
She asked, standing up to greet him.

"Some business with Star Yield... he's been working on a new spell and needed some help."
Cloud Drop lied.

"Oh, how has Starry been? I haven't talked to him in more than a month now."
Celestia said, using a nickname Star Yield hated almost as much as her.

The two began walking out of the throne room and down the hall.

"He's well. We need to talk about the details of your trip. I was going to after... Andrei showed up, but you left with Princess Luna."
Cloud began, forgetting the name of the messenger that had been at the castle only several hours ago.

"Apologies for keeping you waiting. I've been busy lately."
Celestia said as she continued walking down the tall hallway of the Castle.

"I've noticed."
Cloud commented.

Celestia opened the doors to her personal room with a spell, the large double doors creaking from age as they opened. The inside of her room was as beautiful as Princess Luna's and of a similar theme. The main room had three doors going out from it, One leading to her office, the second leading to her bedroom, and the third leading to the Kitchen and Living room. Though the room was rather basic, it had all of the same beauty of the castle. There was a portrait of Celestia and Luna sitting together next to the bedroom door. Adjacent from that was a tapestry, the background solid white with bright yellow trim, and at the Center was Celestia's Cutie Mark, the sun. Princess Celestia opened the door to her office, stepping inside, Cloud Drop following. Celestia sat down in her large office chair, Cloud taking a seat in a chair of similar size.

"Alright, let's work out the details."
Celestia said as she cleared some space on her desk, taking out a notebook, quill, and ink.

After nearly thirty minutes of talking (five of which were devoted to discussing the details of her flight to Stalliongrad), Cloud Drop said his goodbyes and left the Princess's room, a folded piece of notebook paper tucked under his wing. Once Cloud had made his way to the Guard Wing of the castle, he handed the paper off to the Air Guard Captain, giving him all the details of when, where, and how the Princess would be getting to Stalliongrad. After having a flight path drawn out on a small map, Cloud Drop took a copy of the notebook paper he handed the Captain, along with the map, and made the long flight back to Canterlot, giving the papers to Star Yield. By the time he had finished running halfway across Equestria the Sun had started to go down, the low orange glow of the evening warming the castle and giving it's residents a break from the blizzard that had finally blown over. Feeling tired, hungry, and thirsty, Cloud left the Guard Wing and walked to the North Wing Dining hall. The North Wing was where most of the Guest rooms were located, along with the Guest Dining hall. He had picked up the idea of eating with the ponies who stayed in the castle for fun from Princess Luna, who did it often. As she had said, 'It is funny to act like you are normal.', and it was.

As he entered through the enormous doors of the hall, only a few ponies looked up, mainly noticing the sound of his unique armor clanking as he entered. The ponies who did look up did not immediately divert their attention back to their meals, but continued to study the strange Military Officer that had entered. He found a seat near the end of the table, sitting next to a well-dressed mare, her dark red mane blocking most of her face from him. Once she looked over, her face held a surprised and fearful expression, her eyes darting around on his face as she noticed his scar and eye patch. Cloud simply smiled to her as he continued eating his dinner, the mare giving a nervous and confused smile in response. After finishing his meal, Cloud exited the Dining hall and headed for the main gates of the Castle. Once he had left it was already dark, the moon starting to peek over the snow-covered mountains to the west.

Upon entering his small, one-story home near the edge of Ponyville, Cloud set his armor near the door, brushing any remaining snow off himself and built a fire in a small iron furnace, keeping the glass door open to heat up the room. After getting the fire to a nice roar, Cloud went into the kitchen and got a glass from the cabinet with his mouth, carefully setting it on the counter. He opened the fridge, pulling out a half-empty bottle of Whiskey, the same kind he had been drinking early that morning. After pouring a glass, he turned on the radio, sat down in a single arm-chair in front of the furnace and fell asleep.

Author's Notes:

I've spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to fix any grammar and spelling errors in this long story... but I know there still are some. If you spot one, please notify me