Early in the morning on the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration, two guards patrolled the halls of Canterlot Castle, spears in hand. Just going about their daily routine, passing by dozens of nearly identical mares and stallions on their own patrols, as well as servants and the occasional noble mare or stallion, occasionally exchanging hellos and good morning as they passed. All that was on their minds was what they were going to do with their families once their shift was done, as they and most of Equestria were preparing for the joyous celebration soon to befall them.

Suddenly, rapidly approaching footsteps grabbed their attention and before they knew it a purple blur whizzed by them, followed by gusts of wind, almost knocking them down as rapid footsteps passed as quickly as they came.

"Why did all this have to happen today? Why did she have to come back in my lifetime? Why won't the princess believe me!?" It was a purple unicorn mare dressed in a dark blue sorceress robe that dipped down to just above her ankles with golden etchings of star formations on the ends of her sleeves and over the center of her chest, that was whizzing through the halls and stairs of Canterlot Castle, passing by countless guards, servants, and other castle staff either doing their regular routine only to be momentarily thrown off by purple blur speeding through the castle or trying to get the preparations done for the upcoming celebration, in which case they were too busy to even notice her. "Why doesn't anyone believe me?! Don't they all see that even if I'm wrong, the stakes are too high to take any chances?!" She whipped around a corner, almost crashing into a maid carrying a case of silverware and causing the poor mare to drop the case's contents around her feet, while the robed unicorn kept on going, paying her no mind as she continued to zip around hallway after hallway, meeting with several very similar incidents along the way. "But no, miss terror and darkness has to make her grand return on today, one of the busiest days of the year!" This mare was Twilight Sparkle, apprentice of Princess Celestia, sister of one of the Captains of the guard, top graduate of one of the most prestigious schools in all of Equestria, and professional bookworm. "I just hope Spike has those scrolls and books I asked for ready or I don't know what I'll do!" She said to herself as she made it to the base of a huge spiraling marble stairway six ponies wide with bronze guard rails that created the illusion of a golden trail spiraling four stories high.

Twilight quickly grabbed the guard rail and hurriedly but carefully scaled the stairway, keeping her body as close to the rail as possible as to not run into any of the many servants and guards coming up and down the stairs. As she was about to reach the summit, she threw caution to the wind and started galloping forward.

But unfortunately for her, there was a row of guards as wide as the stairway just about to step down while Twilight was half a second away clearing the last couple steps. As soon as they spotted each other, the guards immediately jumped back while the mare tried to stop her accent, causing her to undershoot the last step and land chin first on the top of the stairway.

"Ughh..." Twilight groaned, lifting up her head only high enough to put her hand under her aching chin in an attempt to sooth it. She heard the clanking sound coming from the row of guards trying to move in the tight entrance-way, while a stallion to the back pushed his way in front and offered his hand to the pained unicorn. Twilight looked up to see a tall blue-haired white stallion in purple "captain's" armor with the shape of a shield carved into his breastplate and a sword and revolver strapped to his hip. "Hi big brother," Twilight said, still in a bit of a daze after her fall.

"Hello Twilight," Shining Armor responded as he picked his little sister up, before walking through the row of guards, her in-tow, gesturing to them to move on before sitting Twilight down on a chair a little further down the hall.

“Thanks Shining," Twilight said while rubbing away the lingering pain and panting. Now that she was sitting still, she realized that she had pretty much been going completely on adrenaline and was now left gasping for air and her legs felt like they would give out the second she dared stand up.

"You know it's barley past breakfast and we've already gotten nearly two dozen reports of a certain unicorn sprinting through the hallways, nearly crashing into ponies all over the place," Shining gave her a knowing glare, while his sister let out a nervous chuckle. "Speaking of which, have you actually had breakfast yet."

"Of course I have!"

"A few cups of coffee doesn't count Twily."

"You're one to talk!" Twilight tried to get up, but Shining placed his hand on her shoulder.

"In any case, you really need to slow down Twilight. You've been staying in that library and working your flank off more than usual (and that's saying something). You've been rushing through your duties and rushing back just to cram in more of studying, and Spike says you've been surviving on almost nothing but coffee for nearly a week!" That last part came out louder than Shining expected it to, causing Twilight to flinch and some nearby servants to back away. Nonetheless, he continued. "What's been going on Twily?" He said, trying to put on the most calming look he could muster.

"You know what's wrong, I've been trying to tell everypony all week."

"Huh, this again? Twilight, I've told you a thousand times, if Nightmare Moon was coming back, the princess would be ready."

Twilight looked blankly down towards the ground, not sure how to convince him at this point. She had been trying to convince everypony with no luck. “Shining, I know Princess Celestia says she can’t come back, but I can’t get the feeling that she is going to my head!” She threw her hands into the air, before they sank back down to her sides. “No matter how many anti-nightmare spells I cast, no matter what I tell myself, I keep having these dreams, ah nightmares! Visions! I don’t know!!!” She shouted, now having to fight back drops of liquid threatening to burst through her eyes while pacing back and forth erratically, only stopping after she felt two muscular arms constricting around her waist. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw Shining Armor giving her a look of abject worry with water droplets starting to form around his eyes, as if just seeing those forming in her eyes caused his to mirror hers.

“Twilight. I know you’re worried about this. I’m worried about you worrying about this.” He said while looking at Twilight eye-to-eye, as she wordlessly did the same. “But Princess Celestia says everything will be okay, and you of all ponies should know how wise she is. If she says everything will be ok, I’ll trust her. Will you?”

Twilight looked at him silently for a moment, unsure of herself, before she finally responded with a smile. “Of course.”

Her brother smiled back. “Good.” Shining let go of his sister, who was about to take off when she felt a hand being placed on her shoulder. “Wait just one more moment, I have something to show you.” Shining reached into a hidden pocket obscured by his belt and pulled out a tiny crystal pink box, sitting closed in the palm of his hand.

“Ah huh, nice box Shining, but I really do need to go get some work done, Twilight spun around on her heel and tried to walk away again, only to once again feel the stallion’s hand on her, this time tugging lightly at the mare’s arm, causing her to turn her head back to see a mild glare, like a filly might get from their parent when the latter was frustrated with the former, but still calm enough not to scold.

“Actually look at it Twilight.” Shining calmly ordered, as he flipped open the little box to reveal a golden ring with a light pinkish diamond on it that seemed to glow, catching Twilight’s intrigue. Upon closer examination, Twilight realized that the diamond was somewhat transparent and if one were to look closely enough they could see a smaller heart shaped, white diamond that was emitting a weaker golden aura that overtook the pink aura, only when someone looked deeply at the inner diamond. Suddenly, Twilight’s mind was struck by a revelation that knocked her jaw down to the floor and pulled away her eyelids as far as they would stretch, before a wide smile overtook her face and she looked up to a smug grin that had broken out over her brother’s face.

“You’re going to ask her to marry you,” Twilight said plainly, before jumping up and throwing her arms over her brother’s head and around his neck as tightly as she could, temporarily shutting off his airways, too overtaken by excitement to notice that he was subtly trying to nudge her arms away from his throat. “My brother’s getting married!!!!”

"Twily! please calm down!"

Minutes later, after Shining Armor was finally able to get Twilight to calm down, they went their separate ways. Twilight at first walking calmly to her destination, until she was sure her brother was too far away to notice her presence anymore, before flinging herself back into her sprint as she raced down the rest of the way through the main castle, exiting out to one of several elegant little parks Celestia had built around the castle walls and towers that Twilight was too busy with her sprint to even notice. There, three unicorn mares stood on the middle of the cobbled trail leading through the park with their hands raised to greet Twilight, only for the latter to run right by them without the slightest consideration, almost knocking two of them down as she finally reached the steps winding up a tower to her final destination: her personal library and the living quarters she and her little dragon assistant/brother resided in, or the “Twilight Zone” as Shining had dubbed it.

Upon reaching the entrance, she ran in so fast, she barely had enough time to throw open to door which hit the poor nearby wall with so much force and seemed to shake the room, causing a certain little drake who was busy on ladder at the moment to lose his balance and fall onto the floor, followed by a stack of books he had been trying to return to their proper place.

Without even noticing Spike or his misfortune, Twilight pulled half a dozen books from six different directions towards her, as well as a small desk before the desk fell to the floor in front of her, followed by the books which land on the desk perfectly on their backside and flipped open, as Twilight called even more to her.

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike said, while rubbing his head, trying to shake off the daze he was currently in.

“Spike! I need you to run down to the lower levels of the archives and grab those pre-Equestria scrolls I told you about!” Twilight ordered without even bothering to turn her head from the dozens of books and scrolls that already orbited around her. “And after that, go grab the personal memoirs of Snowdrop regarding the times during and following Princess Luna’s fall! Then grab Star Swirls…” Twilight continued to list off what seemed like dozens of different historical accounts, arcane texts, and other such things scattered around The Canterlot Archives to the young dragon currently staring at her with a raised eye, not even bothering to listen after the first dozen works or so.

After Twilight was done rambling off things for him to grab, Spike casually walked into the kitchen of their home and came back a moment later with a bucket of cold water. “Hay Twi, remember when Princess Celestia told me to throw a bucket of ice water on you if you let your studying get out of hand, again?”

“ Aha, Great Spike. Did you grab all the… ahhh!” Twilight yelled as she was hit by the sudden chill of the ice cold water that was rapidly soaking into her robe, as several dozen texts that had been hovering in the air fell to the floor. Twilight glared at the little dragon, the first acknowledgment to his presence he had received that wasn’t an order, since Twilight arrived. “Did you have to put ice in it?” Twilight said through chattering teeth, while shivering as she wrapped her arms around her chest in a desperate bid to retain body heat.

This caused Spike to chuckle a little, as he walked over to her with a scroll in hand. “Princess’s orders.” The little dragon stood only about to Twilight’s stomach and wore a dark navy blue shirt with a black vest and matching pants.

Twilight removed her soaking wet robe to reveal a simple white button up shirt and purple skirt combo that had previously been hidden under her robe, before picking up her robe in her pinkish-purple aura and levitating it over to the guard rail of the staircase leading to the upper level of her home/library. She then turned to Spike, who offered her a scroll. “What’s this?”

“It’s a letter from Celestia. I think…” Before Spike could utter another syllable, Twilight snatched the scroll in her magic and pulled it towards herself, pulling Spike with it, until he let go and flopped belly first on the ground.

Twilight quickly ripped off the seal holding the scroll together and opened it up, praying to Celestia that Princess Celestia had finally realized that she was right and not doing anything about the potential return of Nightmare Moon was too much of a risk and they needed to take immediate action. But this spark of hope was quickly dashed when her eyes finally made contact with text.

Dear Twilight Sparkle, my faithful young apprentice.

I know that you were probably hoping that this letter was sent to announce that I had changed my mind about not allowing you to devote all of your time towards more research about how to prevent the return of Nightmare Moon, as Spike has informed me that this has been your hopes for every message I have sent you this past week, but that is not the case.

I know you are just worried Twilight and I do not blame you. After the rather vivid nightmares you have described having to me, I would not blame anyone for being afraid. But alas, I believe these nightmares you have been having are just that, nightmares. And I cannot allow you to continue to work yourself into nothing over simple nightmares, especially with all the extra duties you and the rest of the staff have had to undertake in preparation for the upcoming celebration.

I assure you, my most faithful student, that I have taken every precaution to prepare for the night these nightmares may come to pass and even if that time does come sooner than later, I can assure you that I have a plan.

In other words Twilight, take a chill pill! You already have more than enough things to worry about with Summer Sun Celebration without having to worry about nothing.

Speaking of which, as you are undoubtedly already aware, this year my personal appearance at the Summer Sun Celebration is scheduled to be in the relatively small town of Ponyville. I know, I know, a rather odd choice to have the appearance of your nations ruler at one of the most beloved festivals in all of Equestria in what some among the Canterlot Elite have derogatorily labeled a “backwater mudpony village" when they think I can’t hear them. But I can assure you, there is more to Ponyville than meets the eye.

P.S If you see Prince Blueblood around, ask him how the cleanup of his penthouse is going. He’ll know what it means.

But in any case, I have been informed that the pre-preoperational work went well and the early preparations are going according to plan, but I want you to go there and personally inspect a few things for me, before the festival begins. I’ll have more details for you after you inevitably run across the entire castle again to find me. See you then.

Love your personal mentor, ruling princess, and secret fillyhood crush, Princess Celestia.

Twilight’s face briefly turned red at the last part, before she shook it off and prepared to leave. “Spike! I’m going to see the princess, dry off my robe while I’m gone, ok!? Meanwhile Spike had returned from the kitchen without Twilight even noticing he had left her side with a bagel in one claw and a glass of ice water in the other.

“You need to eat first,” Spike said plainly, as he lifted up the bagel.

“Spike, I don’t have time to (splash)” She was interrupted by a bit of water hitting her shoe, as she turned to see Spike was now holding up the glass of ice water. Without another word, Twilight grabbed the bagel from her assistant and threw it in her mouth, as she took off.

“Nice seeing you too, Twi.” The dragon said before getting back to work

Contrary to what Celestia had predicted, Twilight decided to simply teleport to her next location, knowing that unlike the rest of the castle where the vast majority of the place was swarming with ponies moving all around making it difficult to find a safe place to teleport, the princess would likely be surrounded by only a few ponies that would almost certainly be moving less erratically. In a flash of purple-pink light she was in a waiting area, just outside the princess’s personnel chambers. Before her stood four burly pegasi guards with Halberds in hand and a unicorn guard standing behind them standing in front of a double door ten ponies high and 12 ponies wide with Princess Celestia’s cutie mark adorning both doors. This was the door to the princess’s private quarters. Only a very select few royal officials, guards, and royals were allowed to enter here. The mere thought of herself being one of them brought a look of satisfaction and pride to the unicorn mare’s face.

They all barley gave each other a glance of acknowledgement, before the guards parted enough to let the unicorn mare through and the sole unicorn cast a quick spell followed by the sound of multiple locks clicking at once as the doors opened, revealing the personnel living quarters of her teacher and ruler, that seemed to have a golden shine beaming from everything from the six pearly white columns covered by a yellow spiral snaking around that stood at the center of the room, to the golden outline of the princess's personnel bath/spa/pool on the left side of the room, to the golden outline of her bed, large enough for half dozen of her to comfortably sleep. To the very back of the room stood another double door with the Princess's cutie mark on it, though only about half as big as the door before it. The door to Princess Celestia's private study.

After giving the guards a quick thank you, Twilight walked across the large room as fast she could, while still technically walking towards the door. The larger door closed behind her, its locks clicking as it did. Reaching her destination, Twilight took in a quick breath, before slowly exhaling it as she lifted arm and gave the door three light knocks that seemed to echo through the large chamber.

"Come in." Twilight heard a gentle voice, followed by a faint but audible unlocking sound, as the doors parted way, revealing a large library, similar to her own, only not quite as large and covered with the same bright gold and pearly white aesthetic that filled the princess's living quarters. This was Princess Celestia's personal study.

Across the room stood the image of her ruler and teacher behind them, slumped over a giant desk looking through dozens of paper, while flanked by two unicorn mares in business suits scribbling down notes a thousand words a minute. She was wearing her golden tiara, necklace, and her gold outlined white, high-heeled boots, as well as an elegant but simple white flowing dress that seemed to be in the midst of the same nonexistent wind that lightly blew against Celestia’s multicolored mane and tail, very lightly ruffling the bottom of the garment.

“Greetings Twilight,” the princess said without even turning to see Twilight before looking to one of the unicorn mares. “Would you two kindly give me and my apprentice a moment to ourselves?” Without a word, they took their bows to leave, passing by Twilight as they left and the latter entered, while Celestia turned to face her student.

Even after all these years, Twilight was still amazed every time she stood face-to-face with her teacher. Princess Celestia towered above all other ponies, standing about seven and a-half feet tall with long and thin, but muscular arms and legs. But instead of being intimidating, her very demeanor and smile had a natural calming effect.

“Some might say it’s rude to stare at ponies Twilight.”

Twilight jumped back a bit as her face was splashed with a red glow, electing a chuckle from her teacher. “My apologies your highness, I… I... uh...” Before she could continue to fumble her words, she felt the Princess’ gentle hand press lightly against the top of her head.

“Twilight don’t worry about it. You already do that enough as is,” Celestia said while bending down to look her student in the eye with a bright smile, as Twilight regained her composure under Celestia’s almost maternal gaze.

“Uh, yes princess. I believe there was something you wished to speak with me about, involving the Summer Sun festival?” Twilight said, instinctively pulling out her pencil and notebook.

“Yes Twilight I was wanting you to personally check up on a few ponies that have been put in charge of the various parts that go into the festival in Ponyville,” the princess levitated a piece paper from her desk, rolled it up and tied it together while keeping her eyes on her purple student, who was curiously eyeing the piece of paper. “The ponies I would like you to check on include: Pinky Pie who’s in charge of the party games for the foals and less uptight mares and stallions, Applejack who’s in charge of pastries, Captain Rainbow Dash who’s in charge of the pegasi team clearing the skies, Rarity who’s in charge of decorations, and Fluttershy who will be leading the bird chorus,” Celestia finished listing and handed her student the piece of paper, who hungrily snatched it out the air. “This is a note of a few details about the area you’ll need to know to complete this task Twilight. Now I have already sent a message to inform Spike of the situation, so he should be ready to go and there should be a pegasus chariot already prepared and ready to go when you're ready.”

“Okay your majesty, I won’t let you down!” Twilight saluted her excitedly and turned away to leave, for a brief moment, reminding Celestia of the innocent and wide-eyed filly she had first met fourteen years ago. But before Twilight could leave, she felt the grasp of her teacher’s hand on her shoulder, to which she cautiously looked back to find that Celestia now looked… almost sad.

“Twilight, I know there was something else you wanted to ask me about. I know that you were still not convinced the last time I told you that my sister wasn’t coming back.” Suddenly the room went silent. So silent that the sound a pin could practically pass for an explosion, as Twilight stared silently at her mentor, her brief boost of excitement over being given a new task to occupy her time vanishing the moment Celestia had said those words.

A very long moment of silence and lack of movement passed, before Twilight finally mustered the courage to respond. “I’m sorry your majesty, but… I just can’t get those dreams out of my head. I.... I… I want to believe you! But… But…” Twilight’s hands clasped around her forehead, as tears started to form around her eyes which were soon slammed shut and her legs began to feel like jelly. “But it just felt so real! The dream! Every time I go to sleep I see her standing over me! Looking at me with that evil smile filled shark like teeth! While you… you… and my family... You…” Twilight’s feet slipped under her legs as her body fell head first to the floor, only to be caught by soft and gentle, but strong arms wrapping around her body, followed by a pair of angelic wings doing the same. Twilight’s eyes slowly opened and looked up to see the eyes of Princess Celestia and her finger reaching down to wipe the tears from them.

“There, there Twilight, I’m here for you,” Celestia said while stroking the top of Twilight’s head. Twilight looked up at her, once again speechless, before working up to courage to continue.

“You were standing beside her with… with your horn snapped off near the base and your wings were...they were torn off. I... I could see, uh, nerves sticking out from the base of your horn, and, and you were bleeding everywhere… your eyes... They, they looked empty! Past the two you, I could see Canterlot Castle… it was on fire! Then when I tried to look away, I saw... I saw my parents, and my brother, and uh, Princess Cadence, and Spike, on the ground! They weren't moving...” Princess Celestia hugged her student tighter, while more tears formed and fell on both their bodies. “Then everything started to go dark, and got darker and darker, and darker until all I could see was… was her smiling at me and slowly walking closer! I tried to run! I tried to look away! I tried to close my eyes! But nothing would work. No matter what I did, all I saw was her! Then… everything went black. I… I screamed for help and tried to look around, but all there was blackness, until out of nowhere, I saw them. The silhouettes of six ponies surrounded by a bright white aura. Then I woke up and... (sniff)” Twilight sniffled and cried away the last of her tears, as Celestia continued to hold her and rub her head, until she was ready to stand on her own again.

Twilight looked up at her mentor. Her eyes still wet, but her lips turned upward, as her teacher bent down to look at her at eye level with what Twilight could’ve sworn for a brief moment, was… remorse. “Twilight, do you trust me.” The words ranged through Twilight’s head, before she managed a faint nod.

“Of course Cele.. Your highness, I’ll always trust you.” This brought a smile to the princess’s face, before she stood back up and allowed Twilight to move freely.

“Then trust me when I say, everything will be okay.”

Twilight nodded happily and turned to be on her way, only to turn around again after only making it a few steps. “Uh, thank you princess. I needed to get that off my chest.” Twilight said nervously to which Celestia happily nodded, before shooing her apprentice away to get back to her task.

“Oh and remember to try making some friends! Friendship is Magic after all!” Celestia hollered at the mare whose only response was a quick “Aha, sure thing princess”, as she headed back to fulfill her task.

Author's Note

This is I story that I had published on my previous account a couple years back, that I ended up regrettably abandoning due to complicated stuff that was happening in my life. But now that I'm getting back into reading and writing fanfiction and watching My Little Pony, I figured I may as well get back to working on this story, instead of just letting it go to waste.

I know it probably isn't the most original idea, but I think it's going to be a fun ride and I hope some of you would join me.