Princess Luna of Equestria had a plan.
It was truly a shame that it was a plan destined to fail - proven time and time again over the span of ten centuries to be in vain - but she still remembered Starswirl's lessons all those years ago.
"It is more essential to have a plan, than to have a solution," she said softly as she set her crown upon her forehead and checked her appearance in the mirror.
"Pardon, your Majesty?" One of the royal guard asked, a thestral standing by her door with a halberd at the ready.
"Just reciting very old lessons, Orion," Luna said with a smile. "Did I not schedule a day off for you?"
Orion's cheeks darkened under his helm, as he stood a little straighter.
"I did! In fact, I did. It's the Winter Moon celebration, and you have a new marefriend to spend it with. Go on, shoo."
"Begging your pardon, your highness," he said, before clearing his throat. "I'm the only guard on duty. Not sure who did the scheduling, but everypony else is off."
Luna looked at him with a lazy smile as she opened the door and walked past him.
"Go home, Orion. That's an order."
She took note of his concern, but left him behind on her way to her preparations for the coming day.
With her student sent off to Ponyville, and preparations underway for the Winter Moon celebration, Princess Luna had only a few final things to do, the first of which brought her to the gardens, and to a very old statue.
Many ponies who did not investigate it would assume that it was a statue of Luna, but on closer inspection it had the faint outline of a sun on it's flanks, and looked a little bit older.
The plaque below it's frozen laughing expression read "Mirage, Spirit of Deception."
Luna sat down in front of the figure, as a maid delivered tea to her, before she cast a spell allowing her to communicate with the creature frozen within.
The shrill childish laugh that immediately appeared startled Luna, but she kept her composure.
"One of your guards is cheating on his husband with a dragon! Oh the rich complexities of court politics, really it proves me right, you know. All creatures prefer lies and tricks to the boring old truth. You're doomed to fail, yadda yadda, ooooh is that chamomile?"
Luna sipped her tea.
"It is, it is! It's been so long since I've had a good chamomile! Nine hundred some odd years? Those were the days. Long con in play, enough magical power to make everything strange and exciting. Ohhh what fun, 'sister' dearest."
She was clearly expecting a reaction, but Luna ate a cookie and looked around the garden, for all appearances ignoring the spirit of lies.
"Oh come on, I'm not even being rude! I could say oh, how doomed you are! I'll escape some day soon, blah blah, mechanations, enigmas, death, but no! I'm not even angry for leaving me to stew for thirty years! You've been busy, I understand! I'm a reasonable insane pseudo deity!"
Luna sipped her tea again, slowly meeting the gaze of the statue.
"What do you want from me?! I'm being friendly, I'm amicable, not even trying to manipulate you, how rude has the great Princess become?! Do you want me to help you with Him on the way? Fat lot of good I'd be, He poisoned me last time! Sneaky boy."
"I just want you to sleep," Luna said gently.
There was silence for a bit.
"For… how long?" Mirage asked.
"A year. One way or another, this will be sorted out by then."
They sat, both thinking, for several minutes. Luna finished her tea, and another cookie, before finally there was a sigh.
"Fine. It beats the boredom. But only if you come say hi after."
"If I'm able to," Luna added.
"Yes, I don't expect you to come back from the dead or anything," Mirage giggled. "We have a deal?"
"It is a deal," Luna nodded.
She lit her horn and a powerful spell wrapped around the statue, one which would be trivial to resist, but it settled in and then Luna could sense only the dreaming mind of a raving lunatic inside of the statue.
Princess Luna relaxed, and gathered her things, heading back into the castle.
“Well, one less concern,” she muttered while depositing her things in the kitchen. “Now for the worst case scenario.”
Her next mission took her deep into the castle, through the winding corridors of the residential section and then through the guard barracks, before finally reaching a large double door labeled “Maintenance tunnels.”
Before she opened the doors, she checked a pocketwatch. It said that currently it was just past ten in the morning, and she watched the second hand carefully as she opened the doors, and the second hand slowed just a little.
As she stepped through the doorway, it moved so slowly she had to wait a very long time to see it tick to the next second.
Nodding in approval, Princess Luna closed the doors behind her and walked down the long gradually sloping tunnel, wide enough for a full sized wagon to be brought down if needed, with space for soldiers on either side.
The bare hall eventually ended in a second pair of double doors, which opened as she approached, revealing the best kept secret in Canterlot.
A circular room two hundred pony lengths in diameter and just as tall, with multiple floors built around a circular column covered in scrying mirrors.
The ponies, griffins, and dragons inhabiting the chamber were already standing at attention, the normal hum of activity silent, as Princess Luna strode in and looked around, her smile melancholy.
“At ease,” she sighed, sitting just inside the door.
As everyone relaxed, some sitting at their stations to resume essential duties, Luna dashed a tear from the corner of her eye.
“Today… is supposed to be a celebration. We all know it won’t be. It will be a reunion, it may be a tragedy. It could even be the beginning of a new era. But it will not be a celebration.”
She cleared her throat, suddenly tight, and looked across the room.
“When the chronograph indicates that the banishment has been broken, you must all operate on the assumption that I am compromised, and that anyone who leaves the exclusion field will be compromised as well. You have three years of food, water, and air. Observe the outside. Look for opportunities. Your job is, if He returns and takes over, to preserve the truth of history and step in at the exact moment that you can stop him. That’s it. I am giving my trust, my hope, and my future to all of you. I know some of you have families outside of these walls. Loved ones or children. I swear to you now, I will do everything I can to keep them safe, and that is why I am going out there.”
She took a slow breath and turned away from them, towards the door.
“I’m the bait. Stay calm, and carry on.”
She left, closing the doors behind her, and ascended back into her castle, back into the sunlight, and back to the ticking pocketwatch counting down the minutes to her doom.
It was odd to know that she was walking to conflict, and not being able to do anything about it. All the pieces were in motion, every chance at a good ending already out of her control.
The flight to Ponyville, in the royal carriage, was quiet without her assistants. The guards pulling the carriage had been instructed to drop her off, then return immediately to Canterlot.
It was funny, the lengths she was going to, in order to reduce collateral damage. Like setting aside your favorite sticks before a forest fire, a futile act meant to give yourself a feeling of control when it was all about to be lost.
But when Luna finally got out and was left alone on the streets of the small town that she’d established solely for this purpose six hundred years ago, she had to put on an act to keep up appearances.
Princess Luna, savior and benevolent ruler, competent, powerful, and calm.
The mayor greeted her, eager and full of joy. The town guards stood at the ready to defend someone that they could never match in raw power or combat skill.
The small town ponies did bring a smile to Luna’s face, however. Their hope and connections woven together like a safety net waiting to catch those who fell.
Luna just hoped it was a strong enough net to catch a whole world.
After hours of preparation, she was left sitting on the grass behind a stage in Ponyville.
The sun was setting, ever so slowly, and as it did Luna again looked around her. No guards, no assistants. She felt so terribly alone but this was the only way to ensure noone else would be hurt.
But she would have given her crown for a hug in that moment.
The first sign of danger was the smell of burning hair, followed by a chill running down her spine.
She settled her wings and turned, terrified of what she would see.
The stone statue that belonged in her garden of an Alicorn frozen in the middle of a gleeful laugh, loomed over her larger than life.
At its base, a hoof on it, sat a grey stallion with a tangled white mane and thick beard, burning embers appearing around him and falling onto his coat where his skin twitched as though they were nothing but flies.
He turned and faced her, but where eyes should have been were blue voids, with burning golden pupils, arms of a clock shimmering into and out of existence around them.
Luna was a filly, her boots too large, her heart beating too fast.
"Is that any way to greet your teacher?!" He snapped.
Luna flinched and looked away, eyes filling with tears.
"G... Good evening, St..t..tarswirl."
"What have you done to your sister?" He asked, tone filled with fury. "She looks terrible. I entrusted her to YOU, Luna!"
"She... Wouldn't stop," Luna sobbed. "She wouldn't stop h... H.... Hurting people."
Horrible magic, aching of broken reality and wrongness, grabbed hold of Luna's chin and forced her to look into his eyes.
"One must sometimes do distasteful things, in the name of progress."