The return of the Yellow Eye

(Rainy Cloud’s POV)

We received the orders from the Speaker two days ago and I'm personally very curious to know what she’s planning on doing, she's not exactly the kind of pony who goes into the details of her plans, in general she usually just gave us a basic instruction on what needed to be done and left the details of the execution to us, but anyway, yesterday morning my two colleagues left for Canterlot with the aim of getting the information we need, they left with only a little bits and some utensils that I thought they would need, such as a complete map of the city.

I would have liked to go along to make sure there were no problems with the planning, but I still don't want to show up in towns as big as Canterlot or Cloudsdale, that would be... problematic to say the least. But I entrusted the task to them anyway, it's not like they're that incompetent or anything, I've already roughly discussed the plan with them, now I just need them to take care of the details.

As I ended up with nothing to do, I initially decided to spend my time reading the books off the bookshelf in my tent and doing maintenance on our equipment, but this got boring very quickly, the equipment was already in good condition and I'm not a big fan of reading.

I tried to take a nap but I wasn't tired enough for that, so I decided to start a set of exercises I'd learned at the flight academy, but I couldn't draw unwanted attention to the camp for now, so turning the clouds into obstacles was a no go, but i wasn't going to let that stop me.

I started flying over the forest in search of a place where I could use the terrain itself as an obstacle. Of course, I could do this anywhere in the forest, but I have a lot of free time, so why not look for more "fun" areas?

I took a feather, a bottle of ink and a piece of paper and set off, flying for a few minutes and drawing an extremely simple map that marked any places I found interesting. I was much faster than the average pegasus and so the mapping task was over quickly. Out of curiosity I decided to go back to the place where we’d seen the villains get petrified two days ago, and what I saw wasn't exactly surprising.

The statue was nowhere to be seen, and there was no traces of it being dragged away, so it had probably been carried somewhere else using magic, the place was also a bit crowded, some ponies were hanging around, I approached silently and leaned on to a cloud, getting a closer look, I realized that they weren't regular visitors, but a small squad of guards escorting a cleaning group that was taking care of the remains of the giant cupcake.

With no reason to stay there, I went back to the first spot marked on my map and started practicing. After a few stretches, I made my first attempt at flying through the trees. I've always been an above-average flier, so I didn't have too much trouble along the way; sometimes I was surprised by the terrain and the wilderness, but nothing I couldn't handle.

The first place was a ravine partially hidden by the local vegetation, it had some extremely narrow parts, it also had some entrances to caves and ravines scattered throughout it, which made the place quite beautiful.

I entered one of the caves that had holes in the ceiling, which made it well-lit. I would have liked to have looked at one of the caves, but unfortunately I didn't have any light sources with me and without light I'm sure the chance of getting lost there was quite high, which was a shame, unexplored caves tend to be a great source of gems.

The cave was relatively large, so I could use the holes in the ceiling as obstacles, just being careful not to end up hurting myself with the stalactites near them. It also had a flow of running water, the water seemed to be quite clean, but that was to be expected considering how far away from any inhabited place this place was.

The second place marked was strangely convenient, a part of the forest with a large number of damaged trees and some even partially destroyed.

There were fallen trees and others that only didn't fall because they were leaning on others, but the whole thing resulted in a really useful obstacle course. It was probably the result of a confrontation between local creatures, like a big bear or something, and there's also the possibility that it was the fault of some pegasus who wanted to practice his climate control and ended up generating a bigger storm than he expected.

And those were just the first two places.
I did a few laps of each location I'd marked, and I really thought I'd only selected the places that could be as challenging as possible, but in the end they all turned out to be easy. I was looking for a challenge, so I had an idea. I just needed to go through them all in one go, and I got excited and started scribbling a route on the map that went through all the locations.

...

I ended up scratching my left wing on a branch on one of the final parts of the route, but nothing that would hinder me or prevent me from flying to the end. Once I arrived, the first thing I did was clean the wound and make a simple bandage. After I'd finished dressing up, I used the campfire to heat up the leftovers from the last time's soup. Dust had made a lot and there was enough left over for me to eat during my idle time at the camp.

The soup was genuinely very good, but I was starting to get sick of the taste. While I was having dinner, I heard the sound of a teleportation, and I didn't even have to turn around to see who it was.

"Enjoying your soup, Captain Rainy?" Dust said as he approached the fire and sat down on one of the stumps.

"Any news? What is the current status of the mission?"

"Well, first of all, the coronation. As we already know the castle of Canterlot was partially destroyed a few days ago, so they decided to hold the coronation as soon as the castle is rebuilt." That was to be expected, it would be quite strange if the coronation were held in a ruined castle.

"Any forecast for the end of the renovation?" I asked as I finished my bowl of soup.

"I'd say a week, but considering the amount of unicorn workers assigned to the job it might take less." This was also something to be expected, the unicorns' magic allowed them to erect complex structures very quickly, and I'm sure that at least a hundred pegasus and earth ponies were also helping with the reconstruction.

"And the statue? Where is it?"

"Thanks to the attack on the castle, those strange air defenses were deactivated, so Blaze took the opportunity to do an aerial reconnaissance, and luckily he found it, it's in the statue garden of the castle next to the other statues that weren't destroyed by rubble on the day of the attack." I found that strange, why was a statue that imprisoned the three greatest villains of Equestria on display in the garden? Had they forgotten about Discord's escape?

Dust started telling me about how Canterlot was doing, it had been a long time since I had last been there and I wanted him to update me on everything, nothing to do with the mission, just a personal curiosity. I also asked where Blaze was, who turned out to have stayed in town so that he could let us know the date of the coronation when it was confirmed.

I congratulated Dust on his work and left for the hut, it was late at night and I was tired from my training, all I wanted to do now was sleep, but there was something I needed to do first, the yellow crystal was already in my hoof because I used it to open the door to the hut, I approached the pulpit and placed the crystal in the slot.

After a few moments, the yellow sphere formed above the pulpit. "Rainy, I hope you have some news," the spokeswoman said bluntly.

'Wow, not even a "hello" or a "good evening", she's always so direct' I thought a little irritated, but answered without showing it. "Oh I do, and I think you'll like it, Master"

///

It was early in the morning, Celestia had barely raised the sun and everything was perfectly silent, *BAM!* The door to the barracks dormitory burst open with a bang, the hinges creaking under the pressure as the sound echoed off the walls like muffled thunder.

Almost immediately, all the soldiers were startled awake by the sudden noise, with one exception who was the heaviest sleeper. "What are you still doing in bed, have you forgotten what day it is? Come on, we can't fail the royals today so get up and report to the courtyard in 15 minutes! And if any of you are late, the whole battalion will be punished at tomorrow's training session". None of them hesitated to obey the order, after all it was given by none other than Flash Magnus, and in a matter of seconds all the soldiers began to move, all but one.

Ever since he was freed from the void and the shadow pony was defeated, Flash Magnus has been serving in Canterlot as a sergeant instructor for the royal guard, and on his first day as an instructor he realized how inefficient, disorganized and inexperienced the royal guard was. Of course, Equestria was experiencing times of peace and tranquility, but that was no excuse, he had witnessed how useless the guard was fighting the villains who invaded the castle a few days ago, and he was no exception either, as he could do nothing to stop Tirek.

Because of these events, he swore to himself that he would work harder on his personal training and even harder on his soldiers' training, but today was no training, today was an important day, Princess Twilight's coronation.

Flash Magnus turned and walked down the corridor, heading for the next door to wake up more members of the guard. Today was definitely going to be one of the busiest days Canterlot Castle had ever seen, and the excitement had already started amongst the soldiers who were getting ready as quickly as possible.

Auric Sentinel, an earth pony with yellow hair and a gray mane, had almost finished putting on his armor when he turned to his bunk in search of one of his boots; he could have sworn that he had put all four on the bed, but now there were only three of them. He searches desperately for the last boot; he removes his blanket, looks under his bunk and even checks that it isn't in any of the bunks adjacent to his, but no piece of armor, he gives a nervous sigh and sits on his bed, frustrated that he could be the reason his battalion is punished the next day, until he feels something cold graze his neck and turns around at the same moment to see his boot floating in a light blue aura.

And it was at that moment that Auric knew for sure that his squadron would be punished, but it wouldn't be his fault, it would be the fault of the unicorn that slept on top of his bunk. His name was Deep Dreamer, a unicorn with dark blue hair and mane who was known for being an incredibly heavy sleeper, he had a habit of levitating random objects while he slept, and it was because of this that Auric realized that he was still in bed.

"Oh no! Damn! Shit! Damn it!" Auric started to get desperate, how could he not have noticed this before? Deep did this every day and he always woke him up but the excitement today was so great that he simply forgot about his colleague. "Wake up Deep, for Celestia's sake!" Even though he was frantically shaking the unicorn, he didn't answer, they had less than five minutes now and that made Auric more and more anxious.

Some of those present in the room began to notice the situation, which led to all sorts of reactions; "I can't believe this" "Wake him up quickly" "Go Deep, get up!" "If I'm punished because of you two, I swear I’ll..." These were some of the reactions of his colleagues, Auric seeing that this was probably going to take a while, got off his bunk and turned to the rest of the battalion. "Look, you two go into the courtyard, I'll... I'll talk to Flash later, Deep and I will carry out the punishment for the whole squadron if we need to." After saying this, all the other guards started walking towards the door, most of them in silence, but there were those who left mocking him or angrily muttering things that he was glad not to have understood completely.

Now there was only him and his colleague left in the room, so once again he climbed up to Deep's bunk. "Dude, I'm sorry, but we don't have time today" Auric pushed Deep off the bed and made him fall to the floor, luckily the fall had been partially cushioned by Deep's blanket, but fortunately it was enough to wake him up. "Huh? Who? How? Who hid Celestia's wings?"

Auric quickly got out of bed and ran to pick up the pieces of his friend's armor while he was recovering from his inertia. Deep shook his head and got up from the floor, still half-drowsy, seeing only an empty room as his colleague threw the pieces of his armor onto the bed. "Good morning Auric, how are you?" Deep asked calmly, clearly not realizing the urgency of the situation.

"No time to talk now, we're late and if we don't get to the courtyard before Instructor Magnus we'll be in serious trouble, so don't say anything and get your armor on right away." When Deep had finished getting ready he started to walk towards the bathroom, but Auric pulled him by the hoof before he could get in, leading him towards the exit of the room instead. "Hey, I need to brush my teeth," said Deep with his characteristic calmness. "No, not today, I told you we don't have time," and without saying another word the pair closed the bedroom door and set off towards the courtyard.

"Can you at least explain to me what's going on?" "In short, today is the day of Princess Twilight's coronation, an event I'm sure you have forgotten, and Instructor Flash has asked all the soldiers to report to the courtyard in fifteen minutes," Auric explained as he ran.

"Hmm, but how long ago did he order that?" Deep was a little more out of breath than Auric, he wasn't exactly the picture of an athletic pony.

"Twenty minutes"

"Ah" Auric laughed internally at his friend's reaction, but he was still focused on the race, and they were almost there.

Arriving in the courtyard, he could see that all the battalions had gathered and that Flash Magnus was giving a speech to them. Auric cursed Deep internally, glancing at his colleague and seeing that he was looking the same as always, which made Auric curse him even more. The pair approached slowly, with Auric's head slightly lowered and Deep's in his standard posture.

Flash Magnus noticed the pair approaching and abruptly interrupted his speech. "I thought I made myself clear about the time you had to arrive." The pair remained silent and Flash continued. "Join the ranks, I don't have time to deal with this now, I'll deal with you after I'm done here."

Flash continued his speech, motivating the guards as much as he could and stressing how important the day was. After finishing his speech, he divided the squadron into smaller groups and assigned them to various tasks, some would do the standard patrol around the castle, others would help out at the event, but most of the soldiers would be divided around the city, the coronation would make the city extremely busy, and they needed the soldiers to ensure everyone's safety.

Auric's nervousness was becoming more and more apparent as the squads left the courtyard for their missions, but in contrast, Deep seemed as calm and apathetic as ever. Finally all the guards left, leaving only Flash Magnus, Auric Sentinel and Deep Dreamer. Flash stared at the pair in silence, waiting for an explanation as to why they were late.

"We're sorry Sergeant Instructor, we had a setback" Auric could barely look his superior in the eye as he spoke, but then he took a deep breath and continued. "I take full responsibility for the delay, sir, so please don't punish my squadron."

Deep, who was staring at the ground in shame, lifted his head and began to stare wordlessly at Auric, he was feeling bad for his friend. "w-wait, it's my fault sir, I missed the timetable and overslept, Auric stayed behind to wake me up, he was only late because of that."

The trio remained silent for a few moments, until Flash softened his angry gaze and started laughing, causing the pair to stare at each other in confusion, but neither of them had the courage to ask why. "Do you really think I didn't know? I know the soldiers I train, don't worry." The pair calmed down a little with Flash's statement, but they were still embarrassed and didn't have the courage to say anything.

"Now about your punishment, I'd have no problem letting it slide this time, but you'll have to guard the castle's statue garden during the coronation, it turns out that all the guards had already been allocated and there's no one left to do this job, the garden will be closed to everyone attending the event, you simply have to make sure that no one gets in there"

"Is this because of the new statue? If it's because of her, I really think you should assign more people to this task, sir," Auric asked, now much calmer than before.

Flash nods. "I understand your concern, but don't worry, all the other areas around the garden will be under heavy surveillance, but it's always good to have an extra guarantee" he then looks at Deep "Do you know the signaling spell?" Deep nods. "Good, then use it to alert the other guards if anything happens, you never know what's in store, but now if you'll excuse me I have other duties to attend to, good luck to both of you" The pair saluted and then Flash took off towards the city.

The pair watched their sergeant in silence as he left. "Should we go to the garden now? The coronation isn't until the end of the day," Deep said with his standard apathy, showing that he had gotten over the shame he had been feeling for a few moments.

"I think that’ll be better, it would be bad if the other guards saw us standing around before the coronation," and without saying another word the pair walked towards the garden.

///

Later that day, Celestia walked restlessly through the corridors of the castle, she had been feeling what could only be described as "strange" ever since she woke up, perhaps it was her nerves, after all, her pupil would be succeeding her as princess in a few hours, but she couldn't say if that was truly the reason. To try to cope with this anxiety, she made a point of checking the organization of the event herself, and this distracted her mind for most of the day, but now everything was ready, but that bad feeling still hadn't gone away.

She then decided to check one last place before going to the coronation, the castle garden, simply to check if everything was all right with the statue, after all, three of the most dangerous villains Equestria had ever faced were trapped there, with the exception of Cozy Glow, she wasn't really a threat, not on her own anyway, she was just a problem child and maybe at some point in the future they could even free Cozy Glow and send her to rehab, being petrified for eternity would be a very harsh sentence for a child, a child who was surrounded by strange mysteries: Who were her parents? Why didn't anyone come after her? Where did she come from? How did she know about that ritual to banish magic? And these were just some of the mysteries surrounding the little pegasus.

But everything has its time.

When she arrived at the garden, she found the pair responsible for the security of the place, an earth pony and a unicorn. Celestia knew the pair well, Deep Dreamer was constantly the target of jokes comparing him to Princess Luna because of his coloring and nocturnal habits, although they had different personalities. The other guard was sitting on one of the benches in the garden. She knew him mainly because he was always around Deep, but she knew nothing about him apart from his name.

Auric had been taken by surprise by Celestia's unexpected visit, he immediately stood up and bowed, Deep, who was a little distracted, didn't notice the princess's presence immediately, only doing so when he saw his colleague get up from the bench, and now they were both bowing to the princess.

Celestia signaled with her hoof for them to stand up and then walked over to the statue and looked at it thoughtfully. The pair of guards did nothing but wait for orders while the princess was there, but she didn't order them to do anything and just left after a while.

Everything was ready, the guests were already arriving and sitting at their tables, creatures from all over Equestria would be present today, ponies, yaks, dragons, griffins, changelings and so on; the city of Canterlot had been celebrating all day, a great festival had been organized so that everyone who was in the city on the day of the coronation could enjoy themselves.

“I hope everything works out today,” thought Celestia as she headed back to the castle to meet Luna.

///

The festival was in full swing, it was dusk and the sun was starting to set. Several game stalls and food stands were dotted around the town, so the streets were crowded, mainly with ponies, but it was also possible to see other creatures.

At one of the food stalls, a red pegasus was placing his order. "Hmm, let me see..." he was unsure about what to order, the coronation would start soon and he knew he couldn't be late, but at the same time it wasn't every day that he found a stall with so many varieties of food made with chili peppers. "See me one... no no, I don't think so... not that one either" Blaze couldn't make up his mind at all and as time went by the saleswoman could hide her irritation less and less.

She was about to suggest an order to him, so he would finally order something and leave, but he finally made up his mind. "I'll have a slice of draconic pepper pie," he said enthusiastically and the saleswoman sighed in relief, handing the pegasus his order.

Blaze began walking through the festival while happily savoring his pie, it was very spicy and that was great, he had never tasted draconic pepper before and had been curious to try it since Equestria officially became allies with the dragons. It turned out that some acres of land on the border with the dragons' land that had been unoccupied had been given over to pony farmers to grow the spices that only grew in the region.

After finishing his pie, Blaze finally decided to go to the place where he had agreed to meet Dust. He knew that there was still a bit of time and that he wouldn't be late, but going early guaranteed that Dust wouldn't give him a long, boring lecture about commitment and punctuality.

He then took off and headed towards the opposite side of the city. After a few minutes he arrived in a small square near the east wall, the traffic in the area was noticeably less than in the rest of Canterlot, as it was far from both the castle and the entrance to the city. He then walked down an alley and stops in front of an old house, the paint on the walls was visibly old and extremely faded, some of the windows were broken and some of the plant pots next to the door were broken, in short the house was very old, and this was a recognizable pattern among the houses in the area.

Not that the area was poor, there just weren't that many ponies interested in living there because of the distance from the most fundamental parts of the city, and the fact that the houses were old and in need of renovation sure didn't help.

Blaze opens the door of the house and enters unceremoniously, it was relatively difficult to open because of the rust on the hinges. He goes to the basement door and down the stairs, the place that used to be a large cellar was now being used as a meeting place for the duo, they had reused the empty barrels covered with a huge table cloth to set up a makeshift table that had a complete and detailed map of the city on top of it.

After waiting for a few minutes, Dust finally arrives with his teleportation spell, this time accompanied by Rainy Cloud.

///

At last the coronation was about to begin, Deep and Auric could hear the festivities coming from the castle courtyard where the guests were, but unfortunately for the pair, they wouldn't be able to see the coronation, which was to be expected although it wasn't very exciting. The statue garden itself was in an area relatively far from the courtyard, but the part that housed the trio of petrified villains was in an even more discreet area.

After Auric grumbled a bit, they heard the sound of the royal trumpets accompanied by the sounds of the crowd, which signaled the start of the coronation. "Damn, I really wanted to see it," Auric grumbled again. "Oh I don't know, I enjoyed doing nothing all day, but think on the bright side, maybe we'll get a good view of the fireworks" Deep replied trying to make the best of the situation but Auric didn't respond.

Deep looked up at the castle just waiting for the fireworks, until he heard the sound of the first shot. "And speaking of fireworks, here they come!" Deep, who normally speaks in a calm and apathetic manner, was strangely excited. He counted down internally to see the explosions 'Let's go! 3. 2. 1'.

And so, the fireworks began, and Deep was amazed by the beauty of the show. "Hey Auric, can you see that?" he shouted as loudly as he could so that his voice could be heard by his colleague during the explosions.

But Auric didn't answer.

"Auric?" Deep turns back, paralyzed at the sight of his colleague lying on the ground.

///

In the sky, two pegasi and a unicorn were lying on a cloud watching everything that was happening in the castle from afar, but it wasn't just the cloud that was hiding them, Dust cast a partial invisibility spell on them before they headed towards the castle, causing the others' perception of them to be compromised.

The trio were now wearing their uniforms, which helped their camouflage even better because of the dark tones, and as an extra precaution, the three of them covered their cutie marks with the uniform and put on cloth masks that covered everything from the eyes down, thus preventing them from being identified if something went wrong and they were seen.

"Here it comes, get ready, we've only got one chance," Rainy said seriously and Blaze nodded. The two of them stretched out their wings and took off as high as they could, and with the sound of the first shot, they both closed their wings and adopted a straight vertical posture, descending in free fall extremely quickly towards the garden.

Dust, who watched the maneuver in silence, began to prepare his teleportation spell. When the fliers were close to the ground, they spread their wings to slow down. Rainy, being much faster than Blaze, arrived first, but in sync with the first explosion, landing just behind one of the two guards who were guarding the statue.

Luckily one of them was too distracted by the fireworks to see what was happening right behind him, but the other noticed and immediately turned around as soon as he felt the impact on the ground. He was momentarily unresponsive but then pulled out his royal guard spear and ran at Rainy, only to be incapacitated by Dust with a sleep spell.

Blaze landed while this was happening, and soon afterwards the other guard turned around to call for his partner, then paled at the sight of him knocked unconscious and three invaders who came out of nowhere. He lights his horn to try and do something, but Rainy presses one of his hooves against the unconscious guard's neck. "Put that horn out and your colleague won't get hurt, and don't try to teleport," Rainy said calmly without breaking eye contact with the unicorn guard.

Without any choice he obeys, receiving the same sleep spell as his colleague, now that the area was clear they could begin, Rainy takes the yellow crystal from his pocket; the same one that was used to open his tent in the camp, he places the crystal on the ground and smashes it with his hoof.

The crystal fragments began to lose their color and a wave of visible magic began to appear, the wave took the form of a spiral, the trio lined up next to the spiral and bowed, soon the portal finished forming and from within it a form began to emerge, a unicorn of standard height leaning on a staff; she was wearing a tattered cloak that covered her entire body with feathers around her neck, her legs were covered in bandages and the little bit of her hair that was showing revealed a black hue, her head was completely covered by a worn iron helmet; similar to a prisoner's helmet, which hid her entire face with the exception of one of her eyes, which was only visible because of its vibrant yellow glow.

She had finally arrived, the Speaker had finally arrived, the trio next to the portal were extremely tense at her presence, especially Dust and Blaze who had never seen her in person. "You three did a great job, congratulations," the Speaker stopped to congratulate the trio, her voice weak but authoritative at the same time, none of the three responded.

She walked slowly and rhythmically towards the statue, using her wooden staff for support, and as soon as she reached the statue she pointed her staff and leaned it lightly against the stone base that supported the three villains, moments later a yellow and black aura surrounded the small monument briefly before disappearing.

"Good, very good... You may take it" The three ponies stood still; still bowing, they were confused, she wanted them to take that enormous statue by themselves? That was just crazy! But it didn't take long and right behind her, four more forms appeared through the portal, four soldiers wearing uniforms similar to the trio's, all four were seemingly ordinary unicorns, but one detail stood out, all four possessed completely black eyes with yellow pupils as vibrant as that of the Speaker. Without a word, she pointed her staff at the statue and the four unicorns began to levitate it towards the portal.

Quickly the quartet disappeared into the portal next to the statue, the Speaker looked towards the castle, apparently the coronation was over and Twilight Sparkle was now officially the ruler of Equestria. "You three, to the portal, let's go" the trio obeyed and promptly got up and went through.

She tried to do the same, but was soon interrupted when something grabbed her on one of her hind legs, Auric had partially woken up from the sleeping spell and was trying to stop her from running away. "How lovely," she said before easily freeing herself. "Just go back to sleep and it'll all be just a bad dream," and it wasn't long before he lost consciousness again.

Now looking at the castle again. "Princess of friendship Twilight Sparkle" she paused briefly. "Hmm, I'll soon have the chance to congratulate you personally on your coronation, but until then I humbly ask you to bear with me," she thought aloud so that absolutely no one could hear her.

She then resumed her walk and disappeared through the portal, with it disappearing after a few moments. Everything was now completely silent, two guards laid unconscious on the ground while the statue that should have been there was gone without a trace.