A lone pony was running at breakneck speed through the winding corridors of the Canterlot Royal Palace.

"Excuse me! Move! Urgent message for the Princess!" he yelled while running by, and sometimes stumbling over everypony in his way.

Only moments earlier he was simply doing his duty as a member of the royal guard - guarding the palace doors and checking in who wished to gain entrance. A simple yet important job to be sure.

It was a rather relaxing morning, and seemed to be turning into a very pleasant day. However, the mood took a drastic turn when the palace mail-carrier arrived, having a frantic look on her face.

"Sir! I have an urgent message from the Crystal Empire! It was sent from her highness, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza herself! I have instructions to make sure this get's delivered to Princess Celestia immediately." Her face grew more and more distraught as she spoke. "I'm not sure what it's about, but it seems to be serious."

"Thank you, ma'am. I'll bring this to her highness right away."

So here he was, charging through the castle like a madpony. Although unaware of what the letter said, he knew it was something important. He could only pray it wasn't anything too terrible. Either way, he was about to find out, as he was about to reach the throne room.

* * * * * *

Her coffee was cold this morning. Everypony hates cold coffee, the Sun-Goddess herself included.

'Oh, this is going to be a bad day.' The unpleasantly tempered beverage slithered down Celestia's throat, leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

"Thank you for bringing me my coffee," Celestia said to her server girl, mustering up the biggest fake smile she could. "It's very much...appreciated." The server respectfully bowed and left.

"Now, let's get down to the business for today." Celestia sat atop her throne, ready to sort through all the ordinance proposals, party invitations and fanmail that had flooded her palace. She looked begrudgingly at the mountain of paperwork in front of her. "Hopefully today won't be to terribly eventful."

"PRINCESS!"

...So much for that notion. "Yes Flash, what is it?"

"Urgent news from the Crystal Empire! I didn't read the letter so I'm not sure what the news is though. But it came from Princess Mi Amore Cadenza herself!" Droplets of sweat were still running down his muzzle.

"It's odd she would send a high priority message via letter like this. She usually visits face to face when she needs to talk to me." Celstia thought to herself for a moment. "Very good, Flash. Bring me the letter please."

"Yes ma'am." She took the letter from his hoof, the rough condition of the letter making her apprehensive. However, she opened it and began to read.

"Princess, Equestria is in danger! I don't know how, but Sombra and his forces have returned! He has even greater numbers than before with him! They're moving in on my kingdom at an alarming rate. Shining Armor has taken some of our troops to set up barricades and defenses around the area, but that will only buy us time. We need help immediately. We're hopelessly outnumbered, and there's nothing we can do. Please help!

Everypony could hear the sound of the letter hitting the ground.

'How is this possible? He was banished forever! And if his forces are as numerous as Cadence said, we don't have nearly enough soldiers to combat an invasion...' Celestia's thoughts were racing, trying to figure out the best course of action.

"Ma'am? Is everything alright?" Flash noticed the worried look on her face.

Celestia looked up. "Equestria is in danger. King Sombra has returned, a colossal invasion force at his side. They are en route to attack the Crystal Empire even as we speak."

His heart began to race. "Wh..what are we going to do? We don't have anywhere near enough soldiers to face this kind of battle."

"I know." Celestia's eyes fell to the floor. "We're going to have to take drastic measures. I need you to send word out to all the cities and towns requesting volunteers for the army. Meanwhile, I'm going to go to the Crystal Empire to help, and learn about what we are dealing with."

"But Princess! Can't you just get rid of Sombra like before? Your the most powerful being in existence."

"Even my power has it's limits, Flash. And I don't want to take any chances. Please, carry out what I told you, as quickly as possible. I'm going to inform Luna of what has happened."

"Yes, Ma'am!" He said, giving a quick salute. "I'll begin immediately."

"Thank you." Celestia gave a quick sigh while walking towards Luna's room.

'I can't believe this is happening.' Celestia's mind began to race again. 'The last thing I wanted to do was get my innocent civilians involved. But what choice is there. We need all the help we can get. So many lives are at stake!' Tears started to form around her eyes. 'We had no time to prepare for this. I'm not sure how we're going to manage, even if we get volunteers. Maybe Luna can help me strategize, or formulate some sort of plan. And maybe things aren't as bad as Cadence led on. Maybe I will be able to handle this by myself.' She started to feel a bit better about the situation, but still felt a dark gloom overshadowing her. She knew something bad was on the verge of happening.

"I knew this was going to be a bad day."