Night in Equestria is a beautiful thing. The Moon covers everything with its soft glow and the night sky is filled with more stars than anyone can count. The Night is a peaceful thing. Most ponies, with few exceptions, are asleep, and silence rules the land.

But the silence of the night was broken, as a single pony slowly trotted through the town of Manehattan. The pony was wearing a cloak and seemed to check his surroundings every so often. It wasn't long before the pony arrived at the border of a forest. The pony checked one last time if anypony was following him, then entered the forest. Only the trotting of the pony and the occasional sound of an animal could be heard. The pony walked for half an hour until it reached a clearing. It trotted to the middle and sat down, waiting for something to happen.

"Good evening, Azazel."

A voice could be heard from in front of the pony named Azazel.

Azazel focused his view in the direction of the voice and soon after another cloaked pony stepped out of the shadows. The new arrival approached Azazel and stopped two feet in front of him.

Azazel got up and instantly bowed to the other pony. He stayed for a whole minute in this position, until the other pony allowed him to rise.

"You may stand comfortably Azazel. I hope no one followed you."

"No, Master. I made sure of that."

Azazel didn't say any more than necessary, he had to learn the hard way that he shouldn't disobey his master. And talking without permission was even worse.

"Good. Very Good. How is the plan coming along? Is there any good news to report?"

"Yes Master. I have just about finished the last preparations, I think we will be able to conduct a first test run in a month."

Azazel was pleased that he could report good news to his master. All that counted for him was the Master's approval, anything else didn't matter. He waited patiently for a response, hoping to get some praise. The Master seemed to be thinking about something while looking at the ground. After a short while he lifted his head and spoke again.

"That's excellent news indeed. You will have to conduct the experiment by yourself, I will only be present at the actual event. Keep working, I will let you know the usual way when we will meet again."

With those words the Master turned around and vanished into the darkness of the shadows. Azazel bowed again until he was sure that his master had left. He immediately turned around and started to trot back to Manehattan. The Master thought his work was excellent! This made Azazel a very happy pony. He wanted to get back to work as soon as possible, so that the master may praise him again at their next meeting.

Canterlot

Ray approached the castle gates once again. This time he had two suitcases with him, that he had to drag behind him, since he couldn't cast any magic at all. The two Guards at the Gates saw him approaching and stood to attention. As he arrived in front of them, the one closer to him asked:

"State your name and business."

"I am Ray Light, and I am here to start my new duties as a royal guard."

The Guard looked at him and seemed to check if what Ray said was true.

"Very well. The barracks are on the left side of the castle, just hug the wall and you should get there. You are to report to Captain Blazing Sword."

While the Guard was talking the other opened the gates. Ray nodded at the guards and trotted past them. He hugged the left wall as he was told to, and after 5 minuted of walking he arrived at the Guard barracks. The Captain's office was fairly easy to spot, as on the door was written in big golden letters: 'Captain's Office'. Ray knocked three times on the door and waited for a response. Shortly after the door was covered in a blue aura of magic and opened.

Ray stepped inside and scanned the office. it was a rather small office, and every spot was covered with bookshelves and pictures. Directly in front of him was a desk, where the Captain of the royal guard sat.

Blazing Sword was a big stallion, he had a white coat and a perfectly trimmed, flaming-red mane. His cutie mark was of a Sword in front of a flame.

"Ah, you must be Ray Light, Terra told me about you, I'm really glad that you decided to join us here at the castle. You should feel lucky, normally recruits have to go through rigorous testing before being accepted into the royal guards. However, when Terra calls, I answer. And he happened to call your name. Please take a seat."

He gestured towards a wooden stool in front of his desk and waited for Ray to sit down.

"So here is how it will go. You are to report to barrack number 7 after this talk is over. You will stay with the other newly assigned guards. For the rest of the day you will have free time so you can settle in, your training starts tomorrow. Breakfast is at 0600, if you've not eaten by 0630 you'll have to skip. After that you will get back to your barracks and line up in front of it. You will get further instructions from the drill sergeant at this time. Any questions?"

"Yes. How do I get to number 7?"

Blazing Sword shot ray a slightly annoyed look.

"It's the one with the big '7' painted on the front." he said. "You are excused."

Ray felt a little bit stupid, but got, up wished the captain a nice day and left the office with his two suitcases. He started looking for number 7. He spotted it almost immediately, the number 7 was after all, pretty big.

He trotted over and entered. The barrack was lined with beds on both sides, in front of every bed was a chest. Most of the beds seemed already taken by someone. Ray was able to tell by the personal belongings on the nightstands next to the beds. Currently nopony was inside, so he couldn't ask. So he started trotting along the beds until he found a free bed at the back. He started unpacking his personal belongings, putting them into the chest and on the nightstand.

After he finished, he wondered what he should do next, since it was only 3 in the afternoon, and he had free time for the rest of the day. He decided to go to the training grounds and watch the guards to try and get an idea of what was to come.

He walked out of the barracks and trotted in the direction of the training grounds. On his way, he saw some guardscolts walking in different directions. He greeted them and continued on. Shortly after he reached the training grounds. On his left side there was a hill, which he climbed on top so he had a better view.

The training grounds looked exactly how an average pony would think they'd look. Several Instructors were shouting at guards. Some were running laps around the grounds, some doing combat training with a sparring partner or a training dummy. An obstacle course was built around the grounds but it was currently not in use by anypony.

Ray just stood there, watching the guards train while trying to memorize as many things as he could so he would be prepared for tomorrow.

As the sun began to set, the guards received permission to return to their barracks and eat something. Ray followed suit so he could maybe talk with somepony that stayed in the same barracks as him. When he reached barrack seven, everypony else was already inside. When he entered two or three ponies looked at him briefly, but as they realized that it was not a high ranking officer they ignored him.

Ray trotted over to his bed at the far back and sat down on it. He started observing the others. Some were playing cards or reading books, others just talked with each other. It was a lot less disciplined than Ray thought it would be.

"Hi there, you new?"

A voice from his right side pulled him out of his focused observing. He looked to his right, where a white Pegasus with a yellow mane was looking back at him. Ray figured that this pony was the one that spoke to him.

"Yeah, I just arrived today and will join your training tomorrow. The Name's Ray Light, who might you be?"

"I'm Lightning Speed, pleased to meet you. You know, it's pretty unusual that somepony joins mid-training. Usually there's a new batch of recruits every 2 years, but I'm sure you know that already. So I'm figuring you must be somepony special! How'd you manage to join midterm?"

Ray was surprised by this question. He contemplated telling him a lie, as he maybe wouldn't believe his story of meeting almost the whole royal family. But he decided that there was nothing to loose, so he chose to tell the truth.

"About two weeks ago, when I came to Canterlot to receive a Shieldmedal, I was surprised Celestia, Luna, and Terra were all present. At first I believed it was some sort of practical joke, but it turned out that Terra had an offer for me. He asked me if i wanted to join the royal guards. You must know that Terra was interested in me because I can't cast any magic. He offered to help me with that too. I believe I'm sort of a science project for him, but I don't really care. So that's how I got here."

Lightning Speed looked like he didn't really believe Ray's story, but he figured that a personal invitation from royalty would be the only way to join mid-training. So he believed it. But there was one more question that interested him greatly.

"Wait, what? You're a unicorn, but can't cast magic? I've never heard of something like that! Can you tell me more about..."

"LIGHTS OUT IN FIVE!"

An instructor was standing in the entrance to the barracks. He waited for the recruits to get a move on so he could switch off the lights.

"Oh horseapples! We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" Lightning Speed said and got ready to go to bed.

Ray, too, tucked himself in and closed his eyes. The instructor turned off the lights and closed the door. Ray lay there for a while, thinking about his first day tomorrow and about his new friend. He was excited to begin his training as a real royal guard, and while thinking about all of this, he was softly carried to sleep.