This is a story that follows a young filly, Magnolia Valentina. A young unicorn who aspired to become a Royal guard. The little filly had her work cut out for her though. Mares were uncommon in the royal guard, and it was uncommon still for somepony to be so eager to train at such a young age.
Our story begins at a Royal Guard training camp. The camp was a nice little settlement in the woods built next to a large lake.
The camp is where young ponies, from young fillies and foals, to ponies in their adolescence, trained under the supervision of more experienced Royal Guards who... let's just say, they found their forte as teachers, rather than being on active duty.
Magnolia, shortened to 'Maggie', or sometimes 'Magby', or simply 'Mag', was a cut above the rest in her class. She had the spirit of a full grown stallion, and the determination to match. In fact she had asked multiple times for more advanced training, but she had to stay in her age group.
Following in the hoofsteps of her father, it was her dream to join Equestria's Royal Guard, and protect the land as they knew it. Having the opportunity to participate in training camp was her dream come true.
Anyway, today's events began when the camp saw a visitor. The site was briefly visited by fellow delivery pony Derpy. The mare dropped off a stack of newspapers with the latest issue of the Equestrian Chronicle to the porch of the largest building. With a friendly knock, she was already aloft onto her next destination.
One of the leaders retrieved the papers and brought the stack inside to the main room, with great anticipation. This one issue had every pony excited. Word on the street was that Princess Twilight Sparkle had recently celebrated a glorifying victory against some of Equestria's most formidable foes. Not just any victory though. Word had it that every creature in Equestria came together in what could only be described as a once in a generation unification of all of Equestria. But no one knew the finer details yet, which is why they were eager to read about it in today's newspaper.
When the stallion plopped the stack of papers in the middle of the cafeteria, every pony, young and old, rushed over and grabbed their own copy to read. Teachers and recruits all grabbed an issue, and were excited to read about the recent event.
It felt as if everypony in the room had their own copy. Some ponies sat at tables, others sat on the ground, but everypony was glued to that newspaper.
Magnolia sat at her own table with a friend. From the chatter, she got a general sense that it meant that it was good news.
Harmony restored, huh? Gosh. Maggie gave an affirmative smirk. That Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends always managed to protect Equestria from even the biggest of threats. Maggie looked up to Twilight as a role model, which was one reason she was so excited to be a royal guard. She was looking forward to protecting Equestria whenever the mane 6 were not present.
"Hello? Maggie? Aren't you gonna read the latest issue?" asked a foal sitting across from her.
Maggie sat with her coltfriend, who simply was referred to as Stud. (he's a friend, who's a colt). He was crazy into her, even if she only expressed mild interest in the foal. Regardless, he followed her around. Somehow Maggie ended up with friends like him a lot in the past. He would've been a nuisance if he wasn't so helpful.
"I know the newspaper is pretty old fashioned, but don't you wanna read about Princess Twilight Sparkle's latest victory?" he asked.
"I mean, what's there to read about? Princess Twilight Sparkle defeats some great evil creatures, and friendship prevails? Was there any doubt? Harmony always prevails. It's like, destiny or something. It's not bad, but it's kinda boring by now. This is hardly her first rodeo." Mag said.
"Well, it was her last rodeo before her coronation to full time ruler of Equestria. It may even be her last rodeo as a member of the mane 6." Stud said.
"Let's not get crazy. Surely they'll stay together." Maggie said. "I mean, why would they split?"
*PLOP* Stud dropped a copy of the newspaper in front of Maggie.
"While you were yapping, I got you a copy. Check it out, it's pretty amusing." Stud said. "Plus there are other stories in here too if Princess Twilight Sparkle's victory is too boring."
When Maggie looked down and saw the front cover, what she saw immediately surprised her, and caught her off guard.
The headline read "Harmony Restored: Equestria Unified Against A Great Disturbance". And seeing this great disturbance, rocked Maggie to her core.
When she saw the cover, she gasped.
*gasp* Cozy Glow! Maggie screamed internally.
Without reading any words beyond the headline, Magnolia immediately recognized the filly in stone on the front cover.
Depicted on the newspaper was a pony she'd not seen since they parted ways not too long ago. The pony Cozy Glow, a filly she knew personally growing up, now turned to stone, after attempting to take over Equestria.
This revelation came as a huge shock. She never heard from Cozy, nor heard anyone talk about her, until this moment. She wondered how that filly could've ended up in such a way. Or at least she would've, but she could hardly concentrate with the chatter of all the older ponies surrounding her. Nopony around her seemed to share her sentiment.
Based on the rattling and raving of the excited royal guards, and the fillies in training, every single pony was excited and filled with glee from this headline. Maggie was the polar opposite.
She tried to say something, but no words came from her mouth when she tried to speak. Her senses were completely overwhelmed, and she started to get dizzy. She felt an aching sinking in her stomach, and an intense ringing in between her ears. Something seemed off.
But across the table from her, her coltfriend Stud was able to read the paper with no issues.
"Serves them right for trying to divide Equestria, eh Maggie? Maggie?" Stud said.
He looked up, but his filly friend wasn't there. He caught a brief glimpse of her running outside the building.
The colt wandered outside to look for his friend. Stud found Maggie sitting down against one of the cabins with her hooves against her face. He couldn't tell if she was crying or not. He wanted to see what was troubling his friend.
"You alright?" Stud asked. "You rushed out of there without telling anyone."
Maggie's nose was stuffed up. She cleared her throat and spoke.
"Oh, I'm fine. I just... needed some fresh air, less noise, a softer ground..." she said.
Maggie didn't look fine however. She definitely looked stressed.
"What's got you all worked up?" he asked.
Maggie didn't want to answer truthfully.
"Oh, nothing. I just don't like crowded spaces." she replied.
"That wasn't nothing. Did something about the latest issue disturb you?" he asked.
He held up the paper to Maggie, but she pushed it aside.
"Get that away from me!" she exclaimed.
"Don't you wanna read about how Princess Twilight Sparkle and friends defeated Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and... who is this? Defeated Cozy Gl-"
Maggie abruptly spoke up, interrupting her friend.
"NO! I mean, no thanks. Like, I'm sure it's just like the FIRST time Twilight Sparkle defeated Lord Tirek. Or the first and second times she defeated Queen Chrysalis. Or the first and second times she defeated King Sombra. You save Equestria once, you save it 1,000 times. Yawn." Maggie ranted.
"Okay... Well, if you need any comfort or affection, then you know which colt to ask." Stud said, standing proudly.
The colt leaned in, but Maggie stood up and pushed Stud aside.
"Well, Stud. As per usual, I don't have anything productive to gain by talking to you at this time. I think I'll just uh... I need to talk to Platinum..." Maggie said.
"Platinum? She doesn't like guests on her day off." Stud said.
Regardless, the filly wandered off, leaving her friend alone. She headed for the office of the head of camp, retired guard, Platinum Star Cross. Her friend however continued to read the story.
"An all-star ensemble of villains? Pfft. Then where's The Storm King?" Stud said aloud.
Maggie skimmed through the newspaper. Although the image was sickening, she at least needed to know her facts before she spoke with her higher up. She sat right outside the office of Platinum Star Cross.
She was the leader of the training camp. She was the oldest, and most experienced retired guard at the campsite. And as such, her main job was... sitting in her office doing paper work. She was only seen on the field sparingly, but that didn't stop her from giving one heck of a scolding to teachers or trainees she felt were underperforming. Incidentally, she had hardly any issues with Maggie and her excellent performance.
Platinum happened to be the head of Maggie's division. They'd spent weeks training together, and she was the one she looked to for advice. But today Maggie was about to potentially ruin the trust she'd earned from the old mare.
The filly poked her head through the front door of the office.
"Um, Captain Platinum?" she asked.
There sat the teacher, at her desk, legs on the desk, leaning back on her chair, and holding the newspaper in her hooves. She heard the soft voice of the nervous filly, and put her paper down.
"Oh, it's you. Need somethin' kid?" she asked.
Maggie walked inside of Platinum's very colorful office. By colorful, I mean the walls were decked out with all kinds of dangerous looking items. From an old styled ball and chain, a couple of swords, some spears, even a flamethrower (which seemed out of place...). Platinum had it all. Platinum had served the Royal Guard a long time ago, and today, weapons like these were no longer typically needed, so they were basically just antiques now. Very sharp antiques...
And behind the old mare's chair was a picture of a younger Platinum with Princess Celestia.
Maggie was going to show Plat the newspaper, but she already had her own copy.
"I see you've got a copy of today's newspaper." Maggie said, casually.
"Ah, so you've seen it too. This thing's loaded with news. A wedding in Ponyville. Rara's most recent concert. Think I'm missing something though, oh right! An epic battle, and the restoration of Harmony!" she said, sounding as ecstatic as an old mare could sound.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Maggie said.
"Oh. Why didn't you say so?" she said, in a smooth tone. "Well, you see, two mares can have feelings for each other too, so-" Plat started, but Mag interrupted her.
"No, not that story!" Maggie exclaimed. "Not that they... you know, good for them *ahem* anyway, I wanted to talk about the whole "Harmony restoration" thing..."
"Oh right. I suppose that is the headline. I mean, can you believe it? Three super powered evildoers bent on ridding the world of Harmony by dividing the creatures, and raiding Canterlot! Three of them! All at once! The Changeling Queen and Lord of Centaurs at the same time! It's just proof that there isn't any problem friendship can't overcome!" Plat said. "A close call, but they did it! Twilight Sparkle and her friends did it!"
Why is everyone so excited that Twilight "miraculously" won? It's like celebrating that the grass is green. I don't think it's actually possible for Twilight to lose. Maggie was a believer in destiny, and in good triumphing over evil. And so far, Twilight's 100% success rate against evil was a good indicator of that belief.
"With one final rainbow blast, they showed 'em the lights that stopped 'em." Platinum said.
"And turned to stone..." Mag added.
"Mmmhmm. Crazy stuff. But that's what it took to stop them for good." Plat said.
Platinum rejoiced seeing Equestria's most bad bunch sealed away in stone forever. It wasn't often that Maggie and her superior disagreed on anything. But speaking her mind was important, so she tread carefully.
Think Maggie, you gotta be clever. You can't just tell her how you feel, you gotta use logic to make a point. she thought.
After a moment of thinking, she came up with an angle to argue with.
"We've seen this kinda thing before, right? That creature, what was his name? Discord! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna turned him to stone using the Elements of Harmony."
"Yeah. Glad you've paid attention to history class. But, what about that?" Plat asked.
"Uh... I guess his release wasn't necessarily a suspension of the practice, I mean, clearly not, hehe..." Maggie said, biting her lips.
The old mare just stared at her, and made her uncomfortable.
Maybe too much logic. Reel it back and add just a pinch of feel. she thought.
"I'm just surprised, you know, that Equestria could still harbor creatures as dangerous as Discord once was." she said, very clumsily tripping on her words.
"I'm sure the princesses have their reasons, and wouldn't have done such a thing without careful consideration." Plat said.
Plat was getting on Maggie's nerves. She seemed to deflect every angle Maggie went for. So she blurted out her honest thoughts.
"It's just not how I expected the princesses to deal with a mischievous filly!" Maggie said swiftly. She closed her eyes and turned her head slightly, expecting to be berated by her teacher. But rather, she was met with a period of silence.
Platinum leaned forward and sat at her desk normally. She put down the paper and looked at the filly.
"So that's what ya think?" she asked.
"Something to that effect... maybe..." Maggie replied, sweating.
"You don't have any issues with this cover, do you?" she asked.
"Eh... egh.. uh..." Maggie could only speak unintelligible mumblings when pressured by her teacher. The last thing she wanted to be labeled as was a coward.
"Look at them. The three of 'em are monsters." Platinum said.
Maggie looked closely at the terrifying cover once again. But in spite of what Platinum said, she didn't see three monsters.
"I mean how do you know? You ever had the pleasure of inviting them over for dinner??" Maggie said, awkwardly. She basically ran out of compelling argument points, and was just blurting out the first words that appeared in her withered brain.
"You didn't know these creatures personally, did you? did you? did you?" Platinum asked.
The answer was actually YES. Magnolia did actually know Cozy Glow personally. But more than that, their lives were so interwoven, that it could be said that each filly was responsible for where the other ended up in this present time.