The ruler of Equestria walked back into her room from the balcony she used to raise her sun lower her sister's moon. Her room was kept spotless by a small army of servants except her work desk.
The desk looked like a small library had exploded over it. Scrolls that covered a wide range of topics were cluttered of the top of her desk with a few sticking out from a half closed drawer.
While the topics were wide they all in the end related to one topic, the return of Nightmare Moon.
The end of the twisted image of her sister's banishment was rapidly nearing its end and recent events had torn her carefully laid plans asunder.
Using her magic Celestia pulled a scroll off the desk as she sat down in front of it. As she opened it she gave a sigh looking at the scroll that brought moments of past joy up and feelings of impending dread.
The scroll contained information of her former student, Sunset Shimmer. The foolish young mare was Celestia's best and last chance at redeeming her sister and helping to resolve Celestia's guilt at what so had to do.
Shimmer was the most promising applicant among hundreds to be her personal student and be the next bearer of the Element of Magic.
Actually she still was, Shimmer had simply refused to listen to Celestia concerning the knowledge that Shimmer had discovered in the restricted section of the Royal library. After their confrontation Shimmer had fled to parts unknown for her own reasons in anger leaving Celestia devastated at the loss of her plans and possible loss of her beloved sister forever.
Now Celestia was scrambling to find a replacement for Sunset Shimmer and then having to train the young unicorn to replace her now former student.
Giving another sigh Celestia put the scroll back on the desk as a servant brought her morning tea to the desk. After thanking the servant Celestia added her sugar to her cup as she eyed the scroll again.
Sunset had all the qualities Celestia was looking for in her plans to save her sister. Sunset was a quick study with a inventive mind and quick thinker. This had lead her to come up with solutions to problems that impressed Celestia and reinforcement her believe that Sunset Summer would be the answer to so many important plans.
Sunset's control over her impressive magical reserves was the best Celestia had seen in almost a century. If Sunset had stayed the course and listened she would not only have been a excellent bearer of Magic but maybe the next to ascend, helping to fill in the void of loneliness Celestia and her sister felt.
Celestia gave a sad smile at the thought of not being able to find and train another student and the wide reaching result of it, not just to Equestria but the world at large, not including the personal loss.
Celestia at the moment took a sip of her tea as set the scroll back down and gave a small relaxed sigh. For a few short minutes she simply enjoyed her tea and forgot all the problems she was facing. With her tea half finished she took it with her as she walked back onto the balcony.
Looking over the city then surrounding country she began to ponder if there was a pony that could help solve so many upcoming problems. If not she mused that the one of the last things she would see would be a twisted image of her sister banishing her in the best case, Celestia didn't want to ponder the results if Nightmare Moon did worse. She didn't want to think about which one would be the worse out of fear and regret.
The return of her sister was just the largest and must pressing issue for the moment, more were behind this one but if Celestia could take care of Nightmare Moon she believed the others would be easier to work on. After all Luna would be there at her side to face anything, the though brought a small blissful smile to Celestia, however the moment was all too brief.
Celestia took another sip of her tea as she shifted her wings against her body as they itched.
Looking at her school for gifted unicorns she saw young colts and fillies walking in all hopeful they would be the one selected to be her next and possibly last student.
By the end of the day Celestia knew the professors and state ponies would present her a short list of promising candidates for her to review and choose from.
If fate was with her on that list would be the answer to returning Luna to her and soothing her feelings of loneliness, loss, and pain.
After finishing her tea she returned to her room and poured herself a second cup with a small smile. She took some pleasure in doing small things like this for herself without other ponies falling over themselves to take care of her every whim.
Dropping a sugar cube into the tea Celestia sat back down and pulled out another scroll and looked over it as the sugar dissolved. Soon she divided her magic to hold the scroll and stir her tea.
Looking over the scroll she narrowed her eyes as she looked over the daunting and massive schedule her incoming student would be facing and more then likely sadly failing.
She would have to train them in just over half the time Celestia would normally have. She took out quill and ink and started to make notes and suggestions in the margin to try and make it easier.
Celestia worked on this for nearly half an hour as she drank her second cup of tea before a rap came from her chamber door. Celestia called Kibitz in as she put the scroll down to allow the ink to thoroughly dry.
Soon Kibitz was informing Celestia of the upcoming events of the day. As he did Celestia would asked a question or two here and there to help clarify a point. With that done both left the room and became the day.
Near noon Celestia was in a meeting with the nobles concerning the expanses coming out of the Royal treasury when she called a recess shortly before a near deafening boom rattled the castle itself.
Before Celestia could call an extended recess, she along with everypony in the room were paralyzed. The shear amount of magic that saturated the area was pure and raw without form, it simply was. Soon the ground shook and a large crashed snapped everypony out of their paralysis.
As Celestia turned her head to the source of the noise she was stunned and awed at what she saw. Not only had somepony hatched the dragon egg they had magically grown the hatchling to its full grown size.
Celestia quickly teleported to the room where the exam was being given and saw the chaos the purple filly had caused, one Twilight Sparkle sister one of her potential personal guard.
Celestia quickly but gently place a hoof on the young filly to calm her and restrain the magic flowing from the filly.
With that simply gesture she was able to undo the magical changes in the room.
After calming and reassuring the filly, Celestia asked the filly directly to be her personal protege and after being encourage by her parents the filly eagerly accepted. The filly wasn't the only one excited at the idea
As Twilight celebrated receiving her cutie mark and protege acceptance, Celestia began to realize that this young filly could have been the student she desperately needed to replace Sunset Shimmer.
Twilight Sparkle could be the answer to her sister's return and removing the darkness they had consumed Luna and bring her back.. A small but growing hope grew in Celestia's heart, she was going to see Luna again and so soon.
She didn't try to hide her smile, let the others think what they wanted about the simply smile. At the moment she just let the filly's joy and enthusiasm spread, she wasn't going to ruin the moment.
Unknown to Celestia she hadn't taken into account where that darkness had come from and where it might return and the horrors that might be wrought onto their beloved home.
Deep beneath an almost forgotten castle two minds briefly stirred into a brief moment of lucidity at the magically surge, one awaiting nothingness and the other awaiting its release.