Canterlot Palace, 0000 hours, Tuesday the 6th
It was a peaceful night when it all went to hell. The always peaceful land of Equestria would soon be under siege in a matter of hours.
Princess Celestia was awakened when her breathing became obstructed. A shadowy figure had one of her many white and gold feather pillows pressed against her mouth and nose. She flailed her wings and hooves pointlessly; her last thought was 'why'?
Wondering the halls as a royal guard in the Canterlot palace was tiresome. Nothing ever changed it was the same shit just a different day.
The armed golden armored white pegasus was about to head to the barracks where the others were having a party. It was their commanding officer's bachelor party and he didn't want to miss a second of the "entertainment".
Thinking about the mare or mares that could possibly be there he heard a slight muffled screech that could as well have been the wind, but even if it was he'd probably get a scolding from one of the princesses for not closing the window.
He sighed and walked down the hall. As he walked the screeching became louder and he heard the sound of wings flapping. What was a walk turned into a full body sprint as he ran toward Princess Celestia's room and immediately opened the door to it to find a shadowy figure covered in a red extremely tight fitting outfit that only an assassin would wear.
As he reached for his weapon of choice he saw his efforts made useless as the figure had left through the open window leaving a very confused pegasus and one barely breathing alicorn.
The day was spent taking protocol, questioning, sealing the area off from the general public, and searching for clues.
Twilight Sparkle and her friends had come in a matter of hours after she had received a message dropped off by Ditzy in the middle of the night from the royal guard to keep her "in the loop".
Princess Celestia was being questioned by one of her investigators until she saw Twilight and her friends then headed off to greet them.
The investigator muttered something incoherently then left to see what the others had found out.
"Twilight Sparkle, My most faithful student".
"Princess! Are you okay"?
"I'm just fine".
"Did they find out who did this, Any ideas at all"?
"No not yet" she sighed.
"Well they're not trying hard enough!" Rainbow growled.
"Rainbow ah'm sure they're trying their hardest".
"Well anyway thank you all for coming; I have a very special assignment for all of you. Come with me".
The Princess led them through the hall on the shining marble floor that anypony could eat off of.
Rarity was admiring every detail as she glared at all the features of the palace that she would love to have in her boutique. The lights of all things looked so graceful and with the touch of a dial could be adjusted however you liked, the paintings and murals that revealed the history of Equestria were hung under the lights each adjusted to fit the suit of the mural, there were glass cases filled with many wonderful treasures gold, silver, even platinum was found in each of the cases.
Soon they got to a door with a golden plaque bolted to it engraved was 'C.T.U'. Twilight tried to comprehend what the abbreviation stood for but nothing crossed her mind.
As Celestia opened the door the six ponies walked in mouths agape in awe.
"This is… the Celestial Tactician Unit headquarters".
The room was filled with at least fifteen ponies working on either paperwork, walking about giving paperwork to another pony, or working on what seemed to be a glass screen with a bright light coming out of it and a board with letters numbers and symbols on it.
One of the ponies looking at a projection screen noticed that they had walked in and went off to greet the princess and her companions.
He was an earth pony about 5 feet tall, grey mane and tail, with a purple heart as his cutie mark, he was wearing a black beret with a stitched on badge that had two tigers on it.
Rainbow didn't like the look of this guy one bit and she saw that the others weren't feeling a very good vibe from him either.
"Greetings Princess" he saluted.
"Why hello General Sheatherd" she waved her arm and he put his down. "We're here for the briefing General".
"Of course right this way" he instructed.
The General led them through the room telling them all about the founding of C.T.U. and the screen things which are called 'computers'.
"After Discords return the princess decided Equestria needed an organization to monitor everything inside the land. A… er, Task Force if you will. We also needed a system to keep track of all the information we gathered and the information that was already stored in books and have a much easier time accessing it. So we got our top scientists on it on it and they came up with this".
"How come I wasn't informed"?
"Well Ms. Sparkle this loop was a little small to fit you in" He snickered.
Twilight pouted and was very aggravated by his remark.
They soon got to a door entitled 'conference room'. Inside was an oval table that could seat at least 24 ponies with chairs on both sided and at the far ends. There was a projector screen at the end near the door and a projector with a laptop at the opposite end. The seven ponies took a seat on the end nearest to the door to see the projection screen.
The general made his way to the back of the room and pulled up a map of Equestria on the screen that was much more modern than the old paper ones, and then he started his 'speech'.
"Equestria the land filled with peace. Today our ruler of our peaceful land was attacked almost the destroying the very thing that made this land. But not only that, Fillydelphia been experiencing trouble with its neighboring land which is if you've done your homework 'V-'"
"Veneighzuela" Twilight interrupted with a proud smile on her face as she began explaining the layout of the land. "An outlandish part of Equestria that sits between the sea and Fillydelphia, its vast jungles make it nearly impossible to travel through until roads were built three hundred years ago.
"Thank you, Ms. Sparkle" he grumbled.
"Oh but um what does this have to do with us" Fluttershy said almost nopony hearing her.
"You are the elements of harmony, the keepers of peace throughout this great land, only you can fix this and bring peace back to the land. Now your first and hopefully last stop is Fillydelphia to try and reason with these rebels and hopefully uncover some answers so head off to the armory and suit up you're leaving in two hours, Good luck" he saluted and the seven ponies left.
Twilight stayed behind telling the others that she'd catch up. She wanted to say her goodbye to the Princess hopefully it wouldn't be her last.
"Princess"?
The Princess turned around with a concerned look on her face, she was about to head out the the door "Yes, Twilight"?
"I-I just wanted to say goodbye a-and…" tears were cresting upon her eyes as if she'd never see her again.
Princess Celestia was in almost the same state and said "I'll miss you too" as if Twilight had finished her sentence. She walked over and gave a warm loving embrace to her student. It lasted about twenty seconds but it felt like a lifetime to Twilight, she didn't want to let go.
After it was over the Princess gave a smile to Twilight and she returned it tenfold. She then trotted off toward the stairs to head down to the armory and meet up with the others. The princess whispered to herself "Good luck my faithful student" then left to attend to her royalties.
The others were preparing for their hopeful one-shot to bring peace back to Equestria.
Applejack being the strongest took the most ammunition and medical supplies; Rarity was fussing over which boots would go with her supply belt and if she should wear a vest and goggles despite the protection they give.
Pinkie was happily hopping through the guns with Rainbow trailing behind when she stopped and Rainbow fell down after unexpectantly bumping into Pinkie's flank.
"What the hay Pinkie"?
But she was too in awe to answer. What stood before her was a gigantic gun that looked as if it had been recently polished. Her eyes were sparkling as the day she never wanted to stop smiling again. Below the gun on a silver plaque was titled 'MK46 LMG'. Pinkie immediately picked it up and went off to look for some attachments.
Rainbow sighed and picked up a simple covert MP5 with a camouflaged finish then dashed after Pinkie.
Twilight trotted down the stairs coming to the locker-room to see Fluttershy on a bench next to some lockers cowering in fear.
"Uh Fluttershy, are you okay"?
"Oh uh yeah just fine Twilight" her pupils were dilated and pacing around the room as if she were in her REM sleep cycle.
"Fluttershy I know what you're going through we're all scared, we all have something to live for and we don't want that taken away. Applejack has Sweet Apple Acres, Rarity has her Boutique and Sweetie Bell, Pinkie has the Cakes and her family, Rainbow is still trying for the Wonderbolts. Anyway I'm sure angel and all of your animal friends are fine. It'll be alright Fluttershy but you have to know we're all going through the same thing right now".
With that comforting eulogy Fluttershy got up and gave Twilight a hug and a Friendly nuzzle.
"Thanks Twilight".
"Come on, we have to get suited up, we have to meet the others in thirty minutes".
Twilight and Fluttershy were suited up and found the others back in the main room talking to General Sheatherd.
It looked like he had just told them some surprising news because the four pony's mouths were open almost as much as when they had just walked in.
"…You're leaving in ten minutes" he left to talk to one of the ponies on a computer.
"What happened guys"?
Rarity came up and said "It's Princess Luna, she's missing and they think she's behind this".
"Pfft, that's preposterous".
"But it may be true, above Fillydelphia just a day before the first attack was a mare with Princess Luna's description was seen flying into Veneighzuelan airspace".
"That still doesn't prove anything".
"But Twilight I-"
"No buts Rarity for all we know we're just jumping to conclusions, Princess Luna has changed we all saw it"
"Maybe you're right"
'I hope so'