To Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia, it is a simple surprise visit to Canterlot. To the ponies of the Equestrian Civil Service, it is twenty-four hours of chaos, politics, weaponized dessert, politics, underhooved manipulation of media, politics, and things batrachian and tentacular. Who said bureaucracy isn't exciting?

Princess Celestia always knew that Twilight Sparkle was destined for great things, but she never revealed the source of that knowledge, not even to those closest to her. When the day of Twilight's true destiny finally arrives, can Celestia fulfill an ancient promise to save Equestia's past, present, and future, even it means saying goodbye to Twilight forever? How can Celestia refuse her mother's last wish?

Art by the inimitable Harwick