Day & Night

by Reminisce

Perfect Planning

ONE WEEK LATER

For the second time in a single month Canterlot was once again amidst a frenzy. The entire city was preparing/bracing for the first official exchange of Equestria and the Children of the Night; a group of ponies that only recently were acknowledged to exist. Some were treating it as a celebration or a welcoming, lining their stores with visually appealing aesthetics for the media. Still others took it as a queue to skip town for a while, as fear of the Everfree was still very prevalent among most common ponies. The mix of reactions, even after the Princesses consistent appearances and reassurance was disconcerting to say the least. They were mere moments away from one of Equestria's most historic moments in recent years. Shining Armor knew it all too well, he had to admit to a fair share of nervousness as well.

From his post on top of the main gates Shining could easily survey the land and roads leading to Canterlot; in which he was either expecting a diplomatic envoy or an army. Shining sat with his armor strapped on tight, sword sheathed on his side, the stallion hoped he’d have no need to draw it anytime soon. Still he sat vigilant, awaiting the return of his forward scout, that alone has made for the longest wait of his life. That was if it wasn't for his little sister prattling on about all the potential for knowledge and what not behind him. He knew Twilight was aware of what hung on the line, the rogue magic they faced grew more aggressive by the day and was getting closer to towns. But Twilight saw all the good to come out of those ponies coming to Canterlot. It surprised him to see her so loose, nine times out of ten she’d be fretting over the scheduling of everything right about now. Actually she did have several lists poking out of her overfilled saddlebags.

“Why didn't you just shrink them?” Shining asked, cutting off her endless rant about agriculture something else or another.

“That's why corn wou- Huh? Oh, I didn't shrink them because the ink gets distorted by the magical pressure of the spell.” Twilight stated as if a child should have known it.

“Right.”

“You're still worried aren't you…" Twilight bit on the side of her lip before continuing. "To tell you the truth, Shining, I'm absolutely terrified. But I visited mom and she said for everything that could possibly go wrong, there are two more things you can do to make it Right. And that really helped way more than it should have you know.”

“How many contingency plans have you come up with Twily.” Shining dead-panned while fiddling with one of his chest plate straps, but before he could get frustrated with it, Twilight tightened up with her magic.

“Only seventy six at the moment, I mean I would have come up with more if there weren't so many extraneous variables involved.” Twilight put it plainly.

Shining smirked at his little sister, only so many things could change. It was still hard for him to believe all the progress she's been making as an Element. To be honest, he didn't exactly know what the Princess was really teaching them. But whatever it was had more effects on Twilight than he could count.

“Forward scout at seven O'clock!” A guard called out from the wall, pointing a hoof in the approaching Pegasus's direction.

From Shining's distance from the scout he could tell that something was very wrong. Fearing the worst, the Unicorn stallion was about to flag the troops. But the frantic scout made it to the two siblings before something could have developed. Twilight instantly recognized the Pegasus as the same one that was going to accompany her into the forest a month ago. If she remembered correctly his name was Flash Sentry.

“Scout, Report!”

“It's bad, really bad sir!” Flash sputtered, trying his best to catch his breath.

“Well spit it out, what are we dealing with? Hundreds of thousands, are they traveling with siege equipment!” Shining shouted, horn prepared to give the signal.

“Huh… no no, there are only three of them. The pink mare known as Pinkie Pie, a large unidentified Orange stallion with some type of cowboy hat on and a young filly on his back. But they are surrounded by paparazzi and the media!” Flash responded.

“Paparazzi are willing to ruin one of Equestria's most delicate negotiations over a few pictures for the paper! Quick get back there and invoke Celestia’s thirty first stature to get them to disperse. I'll get the Wonderbolts to provide escort.” Saluting to Flash Sentry, Shining turned and gave his sister a tight hug before rushing towards the Wonderbolts Canterlot Headquarters.

Flash saluted to Shining's back and somewhat ignored Twilight's presence before jetting back off into the sky. Twilight had not calculated the media, which in her mind was a fatal oversight that may have just jolted all of her previous plans and predictions. Knowing not what to do, Twilight rushed forward to catch up with her older brother who was currently cursing under his breath.

“Out of all the idiotic… I bet it's Esquire’s ponies as well, that guy never knows when to restrain his lap dogs” Shining groaned to Twilight.

Twilight looked up at her brother with concern “Umm, I can go ahead and Teleport to the Wonderbolts headquarters. I'd be quicker and you can continue to supervise the main gate.”

“I- well I guess there is no sense in stopping you. Since Flash didn't say otherwise we are to assume they are traveling down the main access road from Ponyville. You know the descriptions as well, so speak to either Captain Spitfire or Lieutenant Soarin.” Shining put simply, pacing back and forth the same way his little sister would.

Saluting the same way Flash did before her, Twilight lit her horn and disappeared with a loud pop. Shining Armor only looked at the place Twilight once was for a little while longer before another scout came to him to submit a report.

Wonderbolts Canterlot Headquarters

“Are you sure about this Soarin?” Fluttershy quietly asked her coltfriend as he was going about the Wonderbolts headquarters collecting seemingly random objects.

“Hey Shy why do you sound so worried, Spitfire isn't here to nag about it… don't tell me she told you to watch me?” Soarin responded, putting on a hurt face.

Fluttershy only blushed a bit in her neutral corner of the room where everything was still untouched by Soarin's hooves. Fluttershy thought it was a nice gesture to clean up the headquarters, but she seriously doubted the Children of the Night would enjoy a surprise party or whatever Soarin called it in the middle of a tour. Heck, she was pretty sure Twilight would have an aneurysm at the sight of Soarin’s misspelled banner.

POP!

Both Fluttershy and Soarin shrieked at the top of their lungs at the sudden magical intruder. All though Fluttershy's shriek was completely overshadowed by Soarin’s by a long shot. The magical intruder however flinched back as soon as she appeared, due to the ridiculous reaction the two had. The newcomer glanced around the room a bit to see a pile of junk on one end of the room and party supplies crowding the other. She however gave none of it a second thought after she spotted one of the Wonderbolts she was after… and Fluttershy?

Twilight looked skeptically in Fluttershy's direction to only see the mare in question literally shy away as if she could blend in with the tile floor. Shaking her head, Twilight's attention was brought back to the now coolly collected Soarin who was trying his best to look completely calm.

“Sooooo-”

Twilight quickly cut out the small talk from the light blue stallion and opened up. “Paparazzi! Captain Shining Armor has invoked Stature thirty one and has ordered Wonderbolt escort of the Everfree ambassadors!”

“Woah woah, you're trying to tell me they didn't already have an escort?” Soarin asked in disbelief.

Twilight only responded to Soarin with the universal hurry up motions with her hooves.

“Alright I got it, there are only three of us here right now. But that should be enough to provide escort, give me a location I can work with.”

“They should be traveling down Ponyville's main access to Canterlot. Descriptions provided include a pink mare known as Pinkie Pie, a large orange stallion, and a younger filly.” Twilight repeated clearly from what she had heard earlier before.

Soarin gave a nod to Twilight before dashing off to Fluttershy and planting a quick kiss on her cheek, causing the timid mare to light up red. Twilight shot the stallion a stern glare, effectively lighting a fire under his flanks causing him to finally run off to do what he was supposed to be doing. After he left, Twilight sat down in her haunches in a worried manner.

“Ugh!”

“I… well… Umm, I'm sorry!” Fluttershy squeaked from her corner.

“Don't be, I'm not mad at you or… your Coltfriend. If I'm to be honest, I'm really happy for you even if it doesn't look like it. I just wish everything would go according to plan for once, I spent sleepless nights going over this. Studying the rogue magic and the Children of the Night simultaneously with limited knowledge and resources. This has to work, we gotta make it work or I don't know what we're going to do.” Twilight spilled.

Fluttershy hesitantly got up and slowly made her way across the room to where Soarin had left off. Twilight quizzically watched the butterscotch Pegasus start moving a folded up banner. It was large and blue with large bold letters painted on it. Twilight tried her best to read it, but the hoof writing was cringe worthy at best. Fluttershy almost began to hang the banner, but Twilight's magical aura surrounded the banner before it could touch the wall.

“That is not going up, I mean ‘Everyfree' who's responsible for that…" Twilight mulled. "And why are you putting up a banner, it's like you're… trying to… no!”

“Ok, sorry…” Fluttershy immediately dropped down from where she was flying once before to look sadly away from Twilight as if she was a scalded dog.

The purple Unicorn's heart broke into a thousand pieces from the sad look in Fluttershy's deep blue eyes. There was no resisting what was to come next, even despite all the logical reasons to not do what her friend was either planning or helping with. But when it came to hurting Fluttershy's feelings, all the logic in the world would be meaningless.

“Fine… just let's not hang a misspelled banner; here let me help actually.” Twilight begrudgingly said, totally knowing that her plans were nothing more than ashes in the wind at that point.