The doors swung opened as Princess Cadence walked in, she saw Twilight and smiled. “Twilight, Princess Celestia told me you would be here too, how are you?” Twilight always enjoyed seeing Cadence, she was her foal sitter in the past and they became great friends; Cadence ended up marrying Shining Armor, Twilight’s big brother.
Cadence wasn’t always an alicorn, she was actually a Pegasus that was found and raised by earth ponies when she was younger, one day Celestia chose her to become an alicorn. Now Cadence and her husband Shining Armor, who was also the captain of Celestia’s royal guards, ruled the Crystal Empire together.
Cadence had a pink coat with a purple shade at the tip of her wings; she had a heart shaped crystal for a cutie mark, her manes had three different colors; pink, purple and light cream.
Twilight ran to Cadence and they both greeted each other with their sister-esq hoof shake, they both began to gallop in place while reciting an old nursery rhyme.
“Sunshine sunshine….” While singing they ducked downed and covered their eyes, “ladybugs awake…” They both sat up and begun clapping each other’s hooves, “…clap your hooves and do a little shake.” Both Twilight and Cadence turned to shake their tail, with that they enjoyed a pleasant giggle along with a hug. “I’m so happy to see you Cadence, I’m doing great, how’s the empire?”
Celestia cleared her throat and stared at the three princesses, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we should get to why I called all of you here.”
Luna turned towards her sister, “I’m sure it’s nothing good if you need all of us here at once.”
“No, Luna, I’m afraid you’re right. I have asked you all to join me here today so I could reveal that a new threat has risen in Equestria.”
Twilight walked towards Luna and stopped by her side. “A new threat, how bad is it princess?”
“I don’t fully know yet my young pupil, right now all I do know is that it’s a possibility that this new enemy is causing trouble and I want you, Twilight, to go out and find the root of this problem.”
“No problem princess, with my friends beside me this problem will be solved in no time.”
"I’m glad you are confident in your friends, but don’t forget faithful student, you must also have confidence in yourself.”
“Yes princess, I know, where do I start and what exactly do we know about the enemy?”
“I was told that the issues were being created by a powerful unicorn, one that could control dragons.” The three princesses suddenly had a disbelieved look on their faces, Celestia continued. “I know it sounds farfetched, and that is why I want you to look into it Twilight, if what I’ve heard is true then we will need to plan accordingly.”
Luna stared at her sister, why send Twilight if there is a unicorn with the ability to control dragons, why not send her instead? “Sister, I know you have great faith in your student, but do you really believe that sending her after a unicorn that powerful is a good idea?”
Celestia pondered for a moment and smiled at Twilight. “Yes Luna I do, Twilight is a smart mare, I know if things get too bad she will be able to protect herself. Besides, she will have her friends, thus she will also have the elements.”
Luna nodded and looked at Cadence, they didn’t really spend a lot of time together, with Luna being on the moon for so long and now Cadence has an empire to rule. “I’m sure you will be fine Cadenza, my sister wouldn’t entrust you with a whole empire if you were not capable of protecting the citizens.”
Twilight felt a little hurt by Luna’s words, she was right; Cadence was able to hold up a force field over the entire Crystal Empire for days. Twilight was only capable of shielding much smaller areas like her home, she was smart but Cadence had experience.
Cadence saw that Luna has inadvertently wounded Twilight’s confidence. “Don’t worry, Princess Celestia trusts you and so do I.”
Twilight smiled, she knew Princess Luna wasn’t trying to make her feel bad; the way she says things at times just come out a little harsh, but that was just Luna being honest.
Celestia turned her attention to Cadence. “I want you to return to the Crystal Empire and inform Shining Armor that I will be sending a few of my royal guards to help assist in any way they can, if the citizens see a bunch of royal crystal guards running in and out of the empire they could get nervous. But if we make it look like a training exercise they would be none the wiser.”
Cadence nodded in agreement. “Don’t worry princess; I’m sure Shining Armor will find plenty of exercises for them.”
Celestia then turned to her sister. “Luna you and I will continue with our regular schedules, everything must look as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening.”
Luna nodded. “Very well, but I will be sending my guards out on night patrols, they work best at night and if they see anything suspicious we will know.”
“That’s a good idea sister; night recon could give us an edge if this new threat works in the dark.” Celestia stood from her throne and walked towards Twilight. “As for you faithful student, I want you to return to Ponyville and prepare your friends, if we hear anything you must be ready to act.”
“Of course princess, as always you can count on me.” Twilight’s wings puffed up and a determined looked washed over her face.
“I know I can; now if you will all excuse me, I must prepare my royal guards for their ‘exercise drills’ at the Crystal Empire. Come Cadence, you and I will speak further on the situation at hand.”
“Yes, your majesty. Good luck Twilight and you too Princess Luna.” Cadence waved to the two princesses and followed Celestia into the halls.
Twilight turned to Princess Luna who had a composed look, Luna stared back at her. “Um, Princess Luna, do you really have such little faith in me?”
“It’s not you I have little faith in, Twilight Sparkle, believe it or not I’m questioning my sister’s decisions.”
“If I may ask why, the princess has a plan and she knows what’s best, right?”
“Twilight, you put too much faith in my sister, nopony’s perfect. Celestia has made plenty of mistakes in the past, we both have and we both paid the price a number of times.”
“What do you mean, like when you turned into Nightmare Moon?”
“That’s one example yes, but what I really mean is that we have both made enemies. We didn’t become the rulers of Equestria because we asked nicely.”
Now that she thought about it, Celestia never told Twilight how she and Luna became rulers, Twilight only knew about how Discord was defeated and she assumed that was the end. “Princess Luna, what can you tell me about Princess Celestia’s past? I never thought about it before but, I know very little about my own teacher.”
“My sister’s past is not for me to reveal Twilight, you must ask her yourself and if she refuses to answer your questions than it may be for the best.”
Twilight never thought to question Celestia, nopony did really, why would they? She has protected Equetria for over a thousand years; she was the sun Goddess and brought joy into their lives. “She doesn’t talk about you becoming Nightmare Moon and while I was very curious on the subject I never pushed it, so can I ask you about the time you lost your way?”
Luna averted her eyes to her sister’s throne, it was so long ago, yet she remembered the fear and anger that had consumed her as if it was very recent. “We were both filled with shame and regret after that tragedy, my sister and I, when you purged the corruption from my body I was embarrassed. My sister and I are amongst the most powerful creatures on this planet, but I was too weak to fight the corruption and she was too weak to destroy it, yet you and your friends were capable of bringing me down.”
Luna pointed her hoof at a glass stained window showing Twilight and her friends beating discord. “And you continued to show great promises by defeating Discord and then reforming him to join us; my sister and I were only able to turn him into stone. You help save the Crystal Empire and eventually proved that you were capable of so much more.” Twilight had no idea where the princess was going with her reminders, Luna continued. “I see you are confused, simply put Twilight Sparkle, you and your friends have been fixing the mistakes Celestia and I made.”
Twilight began to understand, Princess Celestia’s mistakes wasn’t something to take lightly and if this new threat is something from her past than the citizens of Equestria will surely need their princesses.