The day after – Canterlot, Shining Armor’s House; 8:30am

Even though Shining Armor and his fiancee, Cadance didn’t went to gala – one was because it was extremely boring – but the main reason was because Cadance had plans the day after the gala and needed her rest to go… that and Shining was also being invited to go to.

It was this morning when Shining received an invitation for Cadance, the invitation in question he wasn’t sure who sent it or for what reason, but once Cadance had read it, she immediately smiled brightly and wanted to bring Shining as his plus one. Though I can’t imagine her wanting to invite anyone else other than me.

“Shiny, what’s with that jealous look… don’t tell me you thought I’d try bringing somepony else than you,” said Cadance.

“Wha- No no no no, its just… Who exactly is inviting us, for… what exactly are we being invited to again?” asked Shining.

Cadance pulled out the invitation, hoofing to Shining to read; as he read the invitation letter, his brow rose a little at the details of the invitation. Apparently this was the forty-fifth reunion that dates back four hundred and five years ago… but reunion for what exactly was a real mystery.

“Cady, do you know what this reunion is all about?”

“Yep, I been to the one ten years ago when I was eighteen and the one two decades ago when I was eight. Only family and close friends are invited to this event, but those invited can bring in a plus one with them if they like.”

“Family and friends? Wait, are the princesses coming to this reunion too!?”

“Yep, Auntie Celestia and Luna are coming too, as well as Uncle Zen.”

At the mention of Zen, Shining Armor shivered from previous memories that involved him and the terrifying armored being; most encounters Shining had with him didn’t end well – he could still remember the training exercises he had with him back when he was a simple guard. I nearly died of exhaustion and fear, he does not give up that easily, that’s for sure.

“Well come on, we should get ready and go, I don’t want to be the last one to be late there! Its been so long since I seen the others,” said Cadance, hopping off to change.

Shining watched his marefriend leave, but a thought came to him. I wonder who else were invited, probably some very famous ponies and nobles.

Canterlot Castle, Royal Gardens; 10:00am

Even though Celestia was a tad emotional the previous night, she managed to calm down – and with the help of her sister – she was able to send the invitations Zen gave to her. Two of the invitations were for her and Luna, but the other invites were sent to the others who would be coming… but not everyone was able to come.

“The invitation to the Dragon Lands was sent but apparently he won’t be coming this time again, I suppose that’s understandable. Only quarter of the invited aren’t coming, but some of them are either busy or haven’t been to the previous ones so they still don’t know about the reunion,” said Celestia.

“Sister, who exactly is coming to this event?” asked Luna.

“Well, I can list off the ones I know will certainly come to this event – Cadance and her plus one, Donut Joe, the descendants of Suzy, the descendants of Rose Garden, the descendant of Deluxe Jacket and Elegant Dress, the descendant of Flash Shot, and descendants of the original members of the Lunar Guard; all five of them. The only ones that aren’t coming are; Dragon Lord Torch and his daughter, the descendants of the Royal Griffin family, the descendant of Emerald and Blaze Sentinel, and the descendant of Sky Watch and Talent Brush’s daughter – while some of them have their own kingdoms to watch over, others… have their own duties to look over.”

“Then I suppose that is everypony...” said Luna. However when she looked at her sister she was still staring at the invitation list. “Is… there someone else coming?”

“Oh I think you know who else is coming,” said Celestia, with a knowing look.

Luna thought about it but gave a look of horror. “Noooo, now why would thou bring him to this event!?”

“Well, ever since Zen became, well our brother, once ‘he’ was born he had to come to the reunion.”

“If he could come, how come Twilight Sparkle – your pupil – couldn’t? Doesn’t she know her brother, Captain of Canterlot’s Royal Guard is in a relationship with… our niece, Princess Cadance?”

“Sadly she does not, and because they aren’t officially… ‘a thing’ is the proper annunciation the current generation use, Twilight can’t come to this event unless one of the invited were to bring her as a plus one. Let us also not forget what the real purpose of this event was for.”

Luna sighed and understood; after returning from exile and being freed from the Nightmare influence, she was told of the reunion that takes place every decade in honor of the sacrifices of the friends Zen made when he was the Royal Assassin many centuries ago. Nowadays the reunion was for a way for family and friends to be together and enjoy one another.

“Auntie Celestia!” Though recently the reunion for the last few decades have been feel a little… stale.

The two sisters turned to see who was calling for Celestia but they both knew who it was; trotting from the castle was Prince Blueblood – descendant of Princess Platinum, and Celestia and Luna’s nephew; regretfully – who trotted into the Royal Gardens with his snout up snootily. “Yes Blueblood, what’s wrong?” asked Celestia.

“Auntie, why must I be part of this asinine party, the last time I was here, the only ones present were commoners and creatures from other nations! At least Cadance was there to but still, isn’t this something my parents should be going to?!”

“Blueblood, because you are part of my family you are obligated to coming this reunion, same went with your parents and their ancestors, but due to your parents busy with work, you will have to represent them… and I don’t remember you being busy with anything so you shouldn’t have any problems attending. Also do not worry, there will be a few new faces coming to our reunion; and some faces you may recognize.” Blueblood grunted in frustration but gave in, trotting to the snack table to get a cup of punch.

Both princesses sighed when they saw the rest of the invitees arriving through the back entrance to the Royal Gardens; among them was Donut Joe, the Diamond Dog brothers, Rover, Fido, Spot, the descendants of Rose Garden; the Flower Pony sisters, Roseluck, Lily Valley, and Flower “Daisy” Wishes, Canterlot’s famous noble, Fancy Pants and his plus one, Fleur de Lis, and finally another famous pony, Photo Finish. That just leaves the descendants of the original members of the Lunar Guard, Cadance and her plus one, and Zen… if he’ll come after the events of yesterday.

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, it is wonderful to be invited to this reunion of ours,” said Fancy Pants. “I remember when I came her a decade ago with my parents when I was just a young stallion, still growing my mustache.”

“Please Fancy Pants, this reunion, everyone here are family and friends; there’s no need for position or title here,” said Celestia.

Fancy Pants sighed, having hold a breath for a long time. “Well then I suppose thre is no need for formalities, is that right Aunt Celestia – oh that just gives me the shivers saying that, me a nephew to royalty.”

“All ponies are my children, whether by blood or not,” said Celestia. “Speaking of which, how is everyone else doing?”

“E’ve had vee most vonderful time, ever!” shouted Photo Finish.

“Photo, you can stop with the accent, we know you just like tricking ponies with it,” said Daisy, frowning. “I still remember how you treated poor Fluttershy when you came to Ponyville.”

Photo Finish was posing before snorting, as she snickered loudly before smiling back at everyone, removing her glasses which showed her natural eyes. “Sorry sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” said Photo, her accent sounding from Trottingham. “But she was so adooorable how she acted; her shy-persona was just… WONDERFUL!”

Daisy sighed at Photo’s ecstatic attitude, as usual when it came to her; the other flower sisters were in a conversation with the diamond dog brothers, with Lily and Fido talking with one another. “Hey Fido, how you been doing… Well I mean I know you kinda kidnapped Rarity, and that you got in trouble with Zen because of it but… How you been doing?” asked Lily, smiling sweetly.

“I’ve… been doing fine. Zen been treating us well, making sure pack is tidy and better efficient when digging… Fido has pretty gem for Lily; Fido want to give gem to Lily as gift.” Pulling out of Fido’s vest pocket, was a beautiful amethyst which was strung around a piece of string, tying it around Lily’s neck as it glimmered under the sun.

Lily looked at beautiful gem before hugging Fido in thanks. “Oh this is a wonderful gift Fido; wish I could of gotten you a gift too!”

“Lily happy is enough for Fido,” said Fido smiling.

Rose, Rover, and Spot watched the two hugging one another, until Rose looked at the two dogs and grinned. “So? Any you wanna-”

“Nope,” said Rover, immediately.

“I had enough ponies – especially mares – for a lifetime!” said Spot, walking away with his paws covering his ears. “La la la la, can’t hear you!”

“Hrmp, jerks,” said Rose, pouting.

As everyone conversed with one another – except for Blueblood who kept to himself – Celestia and Luna smiled happily that the reunion was going swimmingly. As the sisters watched the festivities, the next invitees to arrive were Cadance and Shining Armor; Cadance kept turning around and urging Shining to hurry up, which Shining grunt with the suit that tugged at his coat tightly.

“Shining, come on, we’re late, I hope we aren’t the last to arrive!”

“Cady… slow… down… You’re quick when your determined about something, you know that.”

Once the duo arrived, everyone greeted with smiles and hugs; Cadance spoke with the other mares, each one discussing with each others’ lives… which left Shining Armor alone with all the guys, which consisted of Fancy Pants, a noble, three diamond dogs, an odd being to invite to something like this… and the last pony he wanted to see – Prince Blueblood; Cadance’s cousin.

“Blueblood,” said Shining, with disdain.

“Shining Armor,” said Blueblood, with barely contained disgust. “And that’s ‘Prince’ Blueblood to you.”

“When you start calling me Captain, is when I start calling you Prince.”

“You’d never put the effort to even bow down to me, we know that for certain.”

“At least we got something we can agree on.” Both stallions glared at one another, until Fancy Pants stop the tension, by stepping between the two with a grin.

“Now now gentlecolts, there’s no need for fighting; Captain Shining Armor, I see you are in a relationship with Princess Cadenza, How is that going for you?”

Shining rubbed his foreleg with a light blush, before shaking his embarrassment and looking back at the famous noble. “My relationship with Princess Cadance is completely professional, as I am her personal bodyguard,” said Shining, going full guard.

“Now now Sir Armor, here we are all equals.” This made Blueblood snort with an air superiority around him. “Well… some of us see it that way; this reunion has been going for centuries back when our ancestors were close companions and friends to Princess Celestia and Luna’s elder brother, Lord Zen. Speaking of the lord, where is he?”

“Lord Zen should be arriving with the final guests,” said Celestia. Hopefully.

The reunion continued up smoothly without any problems, other than Blueblood and Shining doing some passive-aggressive comments wit one another, but things went well. As the minutes went by, it was only around close to noon did the last invited arrived.

Coming from the castle then the back entrance, was Zen who was followed by four thestrals with only one of them wearing armor, two them wore clothing that an archivist may wear while the other two thestrals wore nothing. These thestrals, starting with the one with armor was the descendant of Crawler and Scare; Brigadier General Terror Skulk of the Lunar Guard, the one beside him was one of the council members of the Equine Council – which was made up of the elder nobles and military experts of Equestria, that handled all operations that aren’t sanctioned by the princesses are supported by the Council themselves – descendant of General Nosferatu; Council Member Alucard. Finally were a pair of thestrals twins who were the descendants of Glory Night who after reaching his time in the Lunar Guard, retired and married his sweetheart and had a large family who traveled across Equestria doing various deeds. The twins were Sweet Night and Soft Night, both thestrals looking near identical except that Sweet wore an earring while Soft Night wore a violet bow.

Walking with them was Zex who still had his armor on but kept his katana elsewhere but also wore a different cape than his usual one, this one instead of made of something that looked than his ethereal cape, was made of an actual cloth with a symbol on it – the symbol was of Zen’s eye symbol, but had the half of the sun on the right and half of the moon on the left.

“So this is that decade reunion, huh? Heard big sister Quiet Night, come to the last one and told us we should come for one of them,” said Sweet. Soft nodded in agreement, before spotting the snack table and nudging her twin. “Oh a snack table, come on Soft, let’s go and eat, I haven’t eat since… well for awhile!”

As the twins ran to the snack table to raid it, Zex walked up to Celestia and Luna; everyone watched the three siblings and the awkward silence that befell all of them. Ohhhh, this isn’t going to end well.

Canterlot Castle, Royal Gardens, Hedge Maze; 10:30am

After everyone arrived for the reunion – Donut Joe bringing some of his family’s signature donuts, the Flower Sisters bringing some flower tea, Fancy Pants bringing delicious treats from his days at Prance – they enjoyed simple conversation and food about their lives and what they’re doing nowadays. Celestia was asked by Zen to speak to her at the hedge maze, she wanted to hide somewhere and not speak to him alone and even suggested Luna comes, but Eclipse says he needs to speak to her in private.

What could he want to talk about… Is it about what happened yesterday, or something else?

Celestia traversed the hedge maze until she came to the center and saw Eclipse sitting in a meditative position, facing away from her. Trotting behind him, Celestia kept her ears splayed against her head as the worried thoughts about why Zen wanted her here, began to flood in.

Zen though sat like a statue, the surroundings not minding the armored entity that was amiss the hedge maze; he stayed like this for a long time, before standing up and turning to face Celestia. The two stayed gazing at one another before Zen gazed at his armored hand, flexing them as the joints in the hand clanked.

“There are a lot of things I’d like to tell you, so many thoughts I wish to share with you… but to do that would risk everything, I’ve planned for. I know you have your own plans, but there things you can’t stop from happening… so I will lessen the burden and see to it that every problem that comes is handled appropriately. I know there are things I can’t tell you, but problems will come and go, and I’m prepared for every scenario that’ll come forth.”

“I know… we both have our secrets to keep, and our reasons are our own… I’m sorry to what I’ve said to you the previous night; emotions were everywhere, and I forget that you hold responsibility beyond my understanding. We both know the feeling of loss; I had to send my own sister to the moon for a thousand years, and you seen friends, family disappear before your very eyes… but to you, you can never feel or express that loss. With your emotions non-existent, you’re empty to everything… To be unable to even cry or feel a single happy feeling… is truly a terrifying fate that I wouldn’t given to anypony.” Celestia gazed at the clouds, as they filled the blue sky like the stars of the night sky. “But please… whenever you are at the deepest and darkest of moments, and everything is crushing upon you… I… We will be here for you.”

Smiling at Zen, the two shared the silence, until a commotion was coming from the party; pausing their heart-to-heart, they went to investigate… and found things at the party were going… interesting.

Blueblood was being chased by an enraged Luna and Cadance, Shining Armor was knocked out cold with the punch bowl dumped on his head, Fancy Pants enjoyed the festivities while Fleur sighed at the commotion being made. The others watched from the sidelines, with only Terror and Alucard trying to stop the two raging alicorns from tearing the prince apart, while Fido and Lily were too busy sitting under the shade of a tree to notice anything around them.

Celestia cringed at the tables, chairs, and snack table all flipped over, smashed, or just a pile of dust, but looking at Zen… he seemed to be pleased at these events. “Was wondering how long it’ll take before Blueblood would end up causing a scene. Sweet! Soft!” The two twins ran up to Zen, Sweet doing a playful salute while Soft bowed before him. “Mind telling me what occurred?”

“Oh well, it all started minutes when you two left,” said Sweet.

A couple of minutes earlier – Royal Gardens; 10:25am

The party was going well, but there were two specific stallions who were at the edge of causing something, but it was all about who would start it. These two stallions are Shining Armor and Prince Blueblood; the two glared at one another while giving the most creepiest fake smile ever, their eyes would twitch whenever thy heard a comment the other would make about them.

Luna and Cadance watched from the sidelines, both sighing at the events happening before them. “I understand Blueblood acting like this, but Shining too,” said Cadance.

“Do not worry dear niece, hopefully he won’t be too bad during your marriage,” said Luna, winking.

Cadance blushed; she knew she and Shining had been together since after graduating from high school, but the idea of marriage… it was still… well, a fairytale. “Auntie, please… Shining is to much of a dork to remember to even propose to me,” said Cadance.

What’s a dork?While the two alicorns talked to one another, the tension between Blueblood and Shining reached its critical point as Blueblood went to get more punch, but had a devious plan in his head.

How about I cool off that peasant’s head with some punch. Blueblood slowly levitated the bowl of punch up in the air, but because he was also levitating his cup of punch at the same time, his focus wasn’t good as instead of dumping the cargo onto Shining Armor, it fell on to Luna and Cadance. He didn’t notice and as he dropped the now empty punch bowl, instead of dousing Shining Armor in punch, the now weightless bowl bonked on his cranium, knocking him out. Well… this isn’t what I had planned originally.

Smirking to himself, he felt a powerful – well two powerful – presences behind him; turning around he stared at two enraged alicorns who were covered in sticky punch as both their eyes glared daggers at them. Blueblood was going to piss himself as both mares spoke simultaneously, making it both terrifying and scarier from his perspective.

“BLLLLUUEBLOOOOD!” shouted both alicorns.

“...Mommie,” said Blueblood, whimpering.

Present time – Royal Gardens; 10:35am

After calming both Luna and Cadance – and getting some towels for Blueblood… ew – Zen gathered everyone for an announcement. As everyone gathered around Zen with a drink in hand, he gazed at the family and descendants of friends from days old, the memories of the times he been with them forever cherished.

“The announcement I’d like to make relates to the events of our reunion that takes place every decade… the original purpose of these reunions, was so I was able to see family and friend, unimpeded by the paparazzi or the lives we each lived. Sadly the reunions had to be taken every decade… I’m deciding to change that rule – from now on, the reunions will be taken yearly, but this time, anyone may be invited and the invitations won’t be limited to select few, and anyone can come as long as myself, Celestia, or Luna will see who is being invited. That’s all I have to say, and I’m thankful that you could all come to this reunion,” said Zen. Raising his drink, everyone else followed as well. “Toast, to family, friends, and future generations to come; cheers!”

“Cheers!” shouted everyone. Soon everyone continued to enjoy the reunion, Zen approached, Celestia and Luna – who was busy wiping herself of all the punch from her fur and mane.

“Who wasn’t able to come to this reunion?” asked Zen.

“Well, the descendant of Emerald and Blaze Sentinel didn’t come, but I think it relates to him not knowing of his ancestral origins; Dragon Lord Torch and his daughter couldn’t come, including the descendants from the Griffin royal family, and the descendant of Sky Watch and Talent Brush’s daughter weren’t able to attend… A lot of our close friends aren’t able to come to the reunions as they once did before the past century… things have changed Zen, a lot of things.”

Zen nodded in agreement, before another question came to Zen’s mind, facing her sister. “Celestia, you and Luna have faced many evils before Luna’s banishment and my arrival… Is it possible said evils may return just like Luna; I assume neither of you two thought of checking or updating the seals that keep said evils away,” said Zen.

“Well… villains like Discord we would have been able to update the seals on him, but ever since… my fall, Celestia has lost the aide of the elements, so it would have been impossible for her to update said seals. Other villains in the past either cursed themselves and the kingdoms they conquered, or are currently under watch at Tartarus… but the possibility can happen,” said Luna. “Why do you ask brother?”

Zen looked away, staring at the sun reaching noon soon, the warmth of the sun seen across all of Equestria. “Just a thought...” Just a thought...

Author's Notes:

The reunion has finally come - some familiar faces, some not so familiar faces, and Blueblood being Blueblood - with the reunion over and being changed from decade to annually, and with anyone can be invited things are going smoothly... but trouble will begin to brew. Next chapter: The Spirit of Chaos shall rise once more... and cause some havoc in the process, what will Zen do?

Thoughts: Shining Armor
Celestia
Luna
Blueblood (no color)
Zen