It was a sunny day in Ponyville in the season of fall. Pegasai were out and about, moving clouds for a small shower in the night, Earth ponies were tending to their farms for the coming harvest, and unicorns were the main ones putting up decorations for the upcoming visit of Princesses Celestia and Luna.

Of course, if one knew Ponyville, than they knew at the center of all of this was Twilight Sparkle, princess of Friendship, making sure everything was done as efficiently as possible.

It has been three years since her ascension, and, as she was a princess, many ponies moved to Ponyville, hoping it would become a second Canterlot, and even a few Canterlot residents had moved there, hoping for a friendlier atmosphere than the city that had otherwise known their entire lives. Next to the lavender alicorn, who wore a pair of black shorts along with a blue shirt, stood her dragon companion, Spike. In the three years since, he had gone through a growth spurt, and was now as tall as an average pony. He still had no wings, but his scales had grown to be more lustrous and nearly as tough as diamonds.

"Twilight, you do realize that Celestia and Luna are coming just for a small vacation, right?" Spike asked. "You didn't need to get the entire town involved in welcoming them."

"Twilight sighed. "Yeah, I know, but. . .it's the Princesses. They've ruled over the entire country for over a htousand years. I think one town needs to show they appreciate that." Spike opened his mouth, but Twilight cut him off. "And don't say anything about other towns, just about everypony here, since I live here- have at least realized the princesses are just ponies and need friends on vacation, rather than subjects."

"Oh," Spike said. "Guess that makes sense."

For the next few hours, it was just the ponies getting everything ready for the princesses arrival in two days. After the sun had set, everypony went home to get rest and be ready for tomorrow. All but Twilight, who was going through last minute checks at Sugarcube corner with Pinkie Pie as to the confections. As usual with Pinkie's confections, they were perfect.

Twilight was leaving Sugarcube corner-Spike having returned to the castle to get dinner ready- and on her way home when she heard somepony crying in an alleyway. Curiosity getting the better of her, she entered it, albeit slowly, and with her horn lit so as to see. In the corner of her eyes, she saw shadows move on the rooftops, but paid them no attention. At the end of the alley, the alicorn saw a dark blue unicorn filly, her shirt and shorts town, her head in her knees.

"Hey" Twilight softly said to the filly as she reached her and knelt down, making her look up and allowing Twilight to see her reddened eyes from her tears. "What's the matter?"

Sniffling, the filly stammered out, "My-my mommy and daddy."

"What about them?" Twilight asked.

"Th-they need help. Bad ponies broke into our home, and knocked them out."

"Don't worry," Twilight said. "I'll take you to City hall, and get the police there. Is there anything I can do in the meantime?" she asked as she went to pick the filly up, only for her hands t pass through her as the filly responded.

"You can die, princess," she said before vanishing like the illusion she was as Twilight turned around in a panic upon hearing hooves behind her.

What she saw were four ponies garbed in cloaks that seemed to made of living shadow. Two had shields that gleamed in the moonlight and swords in their free hands, the scabbards on their waists, while the other two seemed to have katanas, if the curved blade was any indication, and a fifth seemed to materialize from the shadows on the walls, and put a magic nullification ring on Twilight's horn before she was even able to process a pony coming out of the shadows, and then delivering a punch to her jaw, making her spin before falling down and facing her attackers.

"Wh-who are you?" she asked in fear, but didn't get a reply. The one who materialized form the wall gave a simple nod to their compatriots, who fanned out. The two with the sword and shields facing the entrance of the alley, the other two seeming to jump up onto opposite rooftops.

When that was done, the apparent leader reached into their cloak, and drew a dagger that had runes on the side, runes Twilight recognized form her studies as forbidden runes that would let a killer take the magic of their victims, and use it for themselves, and flipped it into a reverse grip. "Even if we told you, Princess Sparkle, you would not live to tell of it to the others," the figure said, their voice having been hit with a voice modulation spell before hand, the pitch and tone changing mid-sentence. With that, they walked to her as Twilight felt her limbs grown heavy with dread, unable to move.

Just before they reached her, though, the sounds of swords clashing came from the alley entrance and the rooftops. "Brother, it is them!" one of the sword and shield ponies said.

The leader growled. "Then I will have to do what I can," they said before quickly stabbing Twilight with the dagger in the stomach, a glow coming from it as Twilight yelled in pain, and the five seemed to vanish.

Twilight fell to her back, her vision growing dim, as she saw four figures, none wearing cloaks and all being ponies she recognized- to a degree given her state- come into her view.

"Damn it," one of the ponies and one of the town's candy makers said, two swords across her back. "That's the third time we've had a lead, and the third time we got here too late."

"But the first time we got here before they died," the second voice said, belonging to one of the more recent residents of the town. "We need to tell the Captain and get reinforcements."

"I'll get that taken care of once we get Twilight to the castle," the third voice said, belonging to a long time resident. "Starlight, help me carry her to the castle and make sure nopony sees us."

"Right," the fourth voice said just as Twilight's vision gave out, and the last thing she felt was hands grabbing her legs and shoulders.

Author's Notes:

And so thus begins my 150 follower special, and boy did it start off with a bang, in my opinion. Anyway, updates will be when I can, given my other stories. But hey, if I couldn't handle all of them, I wouldn't have said I would do this. Anyways, my thanks to all of you, and I hope you enjoy this story I wrote for all of you. As such, if you have an OC you wish to be in here, PM me with their backstory, or a scenario for this story. If I like it, I'll try to work it in. Until next time, I'll see you all with whichever other stories of mine you all read.