(CSGU Dorm towers, Shining [Age 24] POV)

To say my sister was currently pissed would be a MAJOR understatement...but first, let’s back up a few minutes so you can properly contextualize the situation. Now, I am aware that all of you may know what she would/could be pissed at/about, but hear me out.

Me, my Wife (Cadance), and Spike were heading to Twilight’s Dorm Tower when she rushed past us, nearly knocking Spike off of the tower. I caught him, made sure he was alright, and rushed off after her. When I arrived in Twilight’s room (which was, in truth, the tower’s private library), I saw her frantically looking through every book she could get her magic on.

“Okay, what is it this time?” I asked her, nearly getting a book to the face from scaring her.

“Shining!” She whined and berated. “How many times have I told you to not sneak up on me when I’m studying!”

“That looked less like studying and more like a panic attack.” Spike said, as he entered the library with Cadance behind him.

“So I’ll ask again: What is it this time?” I reiterated.

She hesitated for a brief moment before telling. “It’s the story about the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon.” She explained. “From what I can theorize and remember, there is an obscure prophecy that states that she will be freed from her banishment on the moon on the longest day of the year. And her intentions will not be good.”

“And I’m guessing that that day is the Summer Sun Celebration and you hope to warn Princess Celestia about the potential danger...even if she more than likely knows about it and has a plan or maybe plans in place for the danger?” I asked, getting her slack-jawed in shock.

“How did you know?” Twilight asked.

“He’s your big brother, and Auntie Tia is over a thousand years old.” Cadance answered for me. “And if anything, she can sometimes be fairly predictable when it comes to handling threats...and three, two, one.” She finished counting and Spike ended up burping up a scroll. “That’s five bits, Shiny.” She said, getting me to groan in annoyance as I handed over the bits.

“Let’s see.” Spike said, while opening the scroll. He quickly read through it and then handed it over to Twilight. “Summary as far as I can tell: Princess Celestia wants you to head to Ponyville to oversee the preparations for the Celebration there. Alongside doing that, she has also asked you to make friends.”

Twilight took the scroll with her magic and read the scroll before sighing in defeat. “Well, I might as well. And the whole friends thing will be difficult, since outside of the family and your squad, I’ve never really had any real social interactions.” She said.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure my squad and Cadance will be willing to help, just as much as I am willing to help.” I said, patting her withers.

“Thank you, BBBBFF.” She said, hugging me as best as she could.

“You’re welcome, LSBFF.” I responded, hugging her back.

(Ponyville Outskirts, Shining POV)

“Dang it, Greg!” I shouted as I worked to pull myself and Gregory, one of my best friends and squadmates, out of the crash wreckage of my personal chariot. “That’s the fifth one this month alone!”

“Well if you would just lose some weight off of that fat arse of yours-” He began to complain, but was cut off from the other two chariots that contained the rest of my squad and my sister and wife.

“You guys okay?!” Twilight and Cadance called out from their position in the air.

“We’re alive at least!” I called back. I then looked over myself and Gregory. “Aside from a few bruises and scrapes, I’m okay. Gregory, however, will need at least some minor hospitalization for his wing at the least.” I explained as he splinted his broken wing with some chariot scrap and rope.

“Just go on ahead without us and inform the hospital that we’ll be coming shortly!” Gregory shouted to them. They then left and the griffin gave me a death stare. “And despite you being my senior officer, you owe me for the office chair incident, so haul your fat arse over here and carry me the rest of the way to Ponyville!” I picked him up and carefully placed him on my shoulders and began walking.

“I don’t mean to insult you, but this could have been avoided if you had Flash either help you pull me, or just let him do all the pulling while you handled one of the other chariots.” I said bluntly.

“Hey, hauling Titan is much easier than hauling you. I need a challenge to get stronger and impress Mid-” He quickly stopped himself and clamped his talons over his mouth. This gave me an opportunity to tease him, but I chose to help him instead.

“You know, you don’t need to impress Midnight to be with her.” I said calmly. “The next and best chance you get, you should just ask her on a date or something like that.”

Gregory blushed when I finished talking. “I should have kept my crush to myself.” He said.

“I won’t bother you about your crush; I’ll just help you when you make goofy mistakes.” I added with a slight chuckle. Gregory was quiet for the rest of the walk.

(Ponyville Hospital, Shining POV)

When we arrived at the hospital, the staff immediately took me and Gregory deeper in to take care of our respective injuries. Since my injuries were just bruises and scrapes, other than disinfecting the scrapes and healing up my body in general, nothing much was needed for me. Gregory, fortunately, wasn’t as injured as I had thought he was, the wing having been dislocated rather than broken, but with some small hairline fractures along all the bones in it. However, those hairline fractures were severe enough that he had to not fly for a good three weeks so that the bones can heal and he can get checked by the Canterlot Hospital.

“Well, I guess this can serve as a lesson for both of us.” Gregory said as we both walked out of the hospital.

“Yeah. You need to hitch yourself up to a chariot that doesn’t contain me, and I need to get into a chariot that you aren’t hitched to.” I joked, causing Greg to roll his eyes in slight annoyance while I laughed.

“Shut up. Where’s your sister and the remainder of our squad?” The annoyed griffin said, looking around and seeing no one in the area. Our attention was then grabbed by some loud music playing from a literal treehouse.

“My money’s there, and that it’s being hosted by one of those Bipolar Government Party Ponies.” I said, pointing to the treehouse. We walked closer and saw a sign, identifying the building as Golden Oaks Library. “Ten extra bits on top of our usual to compensate for Twily’s annoyance at a library being the center of a loud party.” I added.

“Deal.” He said, shaking my hand before opening the door. As soon as the door opened, a sugar rush in the form of a Bubblegum pink pony with pinkish red mane and tail grabbed both of us and pulled us into the building, defying physics in so many ways that I couldn’t tell you what she did, other than pulling a nearly 3-400 pound anthro unicorn into a building with no effort.

“SURPRIZE!!!” The living diabetic nightmare exclaimed after she pulled us in. “Are you the new guys in town, like these other ponies and minotaur!?” She asked, defying reality this time, pulling my wife and the other members of my squad into view from literally from nowhere.

“Yes.” I answered with a scared tone.

“Can you stop breaking reality and physics, please?” Gregory asked with the same scared tone.

The pink pony nodded. “Okie Dokie Lokie!” She said before pronking away. We watched her as she just hopped around and talked excitedly to everyone she saw.

“Well, she doesn’t seem to be bipolar and there is no confirmation of her being one of those Government Party Ponies. By the way, how annoyed was Twily about a library being used for something loud?” I said, pulling out a bag of bits without anyone but Gregory noticing.

“I think she was less concerned about that and more concerned about the cup of hot sauce she accidentally drank.” Cadance answered. I huffed and handed Gregory the bag of bits without her noticing.

I then noticed that the pinkie party pony pouring some hot sauce onto a cupcake and eating it. She noticed me staring and she gave me a bit of a glare. “What? It’s good.” She said. I backed up, holding up my hands in surrender as I stuck with my wife and squad.

(Ponyville Town Hall, Shining POV)

After the party, was the Celebration, which actually didn’t go all that well. Especially since the idiot of a Golden Standard (Royal Guard) Captain had his men charge at Nightmare Moon with no regard for proper strategy. And since Nightmare Moon is an Alicorn and all of his men and himself are pegasi, they never stood a chance and most of his unit was incapacitated and now hospitalized. And now I’m stuck in a meeting with Captain Butthead (that’s literally his name) and Ponyville’s Mayor...Mare...Mayor Mare is her name.

“-And that is why we need to find this Nightmare Moon, have her bring back our Princess, and then make sure she is executed for her crimes against Equestria and it’s Crown!” Butthead said with an air of superiority mixed the overconfidence.

“Okay, we know our goals and the reasons behind them, but what about the actual plan?” I stated, leaning against and somewhat bending a nearby pillar in the building.

“We find this Nightmare-” He began to parrot, but I cut him off.

“I mean the how!” I groaned, leaning back and hearing a creaking of wood. “Goddess! Can’t you understand what I’m trying to talk about! How do we go about finding Nightmare Moon?!”

“We follow her trail!” Butthead exclaimed as if I was the stupid one.

“Okay, we’ve got something of a plan starting up.” I said, genuinely pleased at his deduction. Now to test his forethought processes. “Did you post any of the Golden Standards outside with the clear objective of tracking any intruders that were leaving in a hurry?” Butthead then went pale. “And this is why many in the other branches of the Equestrian Military make fun of you guys. You are just tasked with standing around and looking pretty with the ‘official’ task of guarding the Princess...and you can’t even do that when things go downhill!” I shouted, moving to the desk we were using as a command desk.

“Then what do you and your band of misfits plan on doing about our missing Princess if, according to you, we, the Royal Guard, can do nothing? Eh? Captain ‘Tub-he’ Armor?!” Butthead taunted.

“Okay, first off, it’s pronounced ‘Tubby’; second off, my band of misfits just so happen to be lifelong friends of mine; third off, we can’t do anything either, since you guys don’t know proper military tactics. If anything, whatever remains of your unit, and my squad will have do combine resources just to keep the town from rioting!” I belted back at him, my voice nearly taking him off of his hooves.

Butthead quickly recovered and gave a sigh. “Then I’ll see about getting what’s left of my men to do patrols and to report anything suspicious or out of place.” He said.

“Better.” I muttered to myself, as he left the building. “Now, anything else that needs to be covered, Mayor Mare?”

“You and the Royal Guard covered the important points.” She said, giving me a bit of a fearful look. “I’ll take care of the rest...also, you have a strong set of lungs.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” I said as I exited the building and started to walk around town. Now, I should point out that even though me and my squad weren’t in uniform, most anyone could tell we were of the “Oddball Auxiliary Squad”. We never denied it, and if anything we openly embraced it.

I was nearing the Library and I spotted my wife, Twily, and five other mares leaving the library. Oddly, with the exception of the pink one, none of them seem to notice me, as if they were on a mission of some kind. I followed them as stealthily as I could (an amazing feat for me), until they reached the edge of the Everfree Forest. I’ve spoken with Dad a lot about the Everfree, and he said that what is considered natural outside of the forest, doesn’t entirely apply when inside the forest.

Twily, Caddy, and the other mares had a bit of a somewhat heated conversation before entering the forest. I was about to follow when I suddenly noticed a flash of what looked like daylight from the Everfree, but in a different area than where my sister, wife, and their friends went. I turned around and saw Midnight also observing the phenomenon. “Go back to town and keep working with the rest of the squad. I’ll investigate the mystery light.” I told her. She nodded, and quietly took flight back to town.

With a sigh I creeped towards the mystery light...and as I approached...I couldn’t help but think that I was in for a weird night.

Author's Note

This Chapter is about to come upon a crossover. Stay tuned for the next chapter.