Nidra and Annie walked through the calm streets of Ponyville passing by some vendors and citizens.

It was a sunny day but it wasn’t hot thanks to the gentle breeze flowing through the air, Annie hummed to herself happily while Nidra just followed her with a small frown of her face, they continued like that in silence for a few moments before Princess of slumber finally stopped in her tracks.

“Annie, would you mind me asking where are we going?”

Anthea stopped and turned around with confused expression, “Nidra? I thought you were leading.”

Nidra’s expression flinched “How could you even come to such conclusion? I was walking behind you the whole time.”

“Well one of the blurs in front of me had the same color scheme as you so I thought…”

Nidra face palmed “Never mind, so Annie you have any idea for what to do?”

Anthea stopped for a moment and pondered about their options, they stood there in the middle of the street for few moments before Annie smiled widely “We can go to my mom’s place!”

Nidra cocked her eyebrow “Is there anything interesting to do there?”

“We can help her with animals.”

Nidra sighed “Forgive me if I withhold my enthusiasm”

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun you’ll see!” She said and started to walk into the direction of her house Nidra mumbled something under her nose and followed her.

Meanwhile in the capital of Equestria, the great and royal Canterlot life was going on fast and noisy, everyone had something to do as they ran, trotted or simply walked toward their destinations, except for one place, in the small café at the outskirts of the city time seemed to stop, everyone could just enjoy some peace and quiet here while having a cup of tea, coffee or whatever else there is on the menu.

In this small oasis two siblings sat at the table, one of them was enjoying her cake and coffee, while other was having a hard time sitting as he continuously looked around, tapped his fingers on the table or scratched his neck all the while his expression showing nothing but concern.

Claire sighed and slowly put her cup back on the table “T, can you please calm down? Annie isn’t some kid that can’t handle himself, she’ll be fine.”

She successfully stole her brother attention as he looked her straight in the eyes “But Claire! What is something dangerous will happen when I’m gone?”

“For example?” Claire asked and immediately regretted that decision.

“Oh I don’t know, like pack of timberwolves emerging from the Everfree Forest! Or bandits!”

“T you’re seriously exaggerating…”

“Or what if the moon will fall down?”

Claire sat frozen for few moments before regaining her composure “Where did you even get that idea from?”

“Well I…”

“Never mind, I don’t want to know.” She sighed. “T, I understand you’re worried and you want to protect her because you love her and you care for her but… You’re totally overreacting, she can handle herself perfectly fine on her own and besides she has friends that can help her in time of need.”

Claire paused and took a sip of her coffee, agonizingly slowly.

“You always loved coming to Canterlot as a kid T, I figured that maybe you would like to come with me and Mom this time as you didn’t visit this place for a long time, I thought change of environment from time to time might be good for you, but it seems the only thing I managed to achieve is making you nervous and worried, I’m sorry T.” She said ending with a small frown, her brother caught all her words and pondered about them for a moment before finally smiling.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about Claire, actually I’m sorry that I acted like that, you’re right I became overprotective of Annie, she’ll be fine, lets just enjoy our day in Canterlot.”

Claire giggled “Yeah, lets.”

Back in Ponyville two girls just arrived at their destination, Fluttershy’s cottage, Annie happily walked forward while Nidra followed still unsure if this was a good idea, soon enough they arrived at the door and Annie slowly opened it “Mom, are you here?”

“I’m upstairs sweetie, just give me a moment.” They barely heard week gentle voice coming from above and soon Fluttershy showed up walking down the stairs while holding a small beaver in her hands

“Oh Annie, you came with your friend?” Her mom asked surprised to see Nidra again, last time she saw her was almost year ago at Grand Galloping Gala.

“Yup! And we were wondering if maybe you need some help, you know with animals?” Annie said grinning from ear to ear, Nidra on the other hand did not share her enthusiasm, small frown still adorning her face.

Fluttershy gently put beaver on the sofa and smiled kindly towards the girls “Of course, that would be wonderful, one of you could collect eggs from henhouse and the other could feed Micky.”

“I will take care of Micky then.” Nidra quickly stated getting confused look from Annie.

“You’re sure? Micky is very specific animal.”

“What kind of animal?” Nidra asked slightly worried.

“A bunny.”

Nidra stood frozen for a few moments before bursting out in laugher for few seconds, meanwhile Fluttershy silently left the room and walked back upstairs leaving girls alone.

“Really? You think I can’t handle feeding a bunny?” Nidra asked

“Well if it would be any other bunny, I seriously think you should take care of these eggs.”

Nidra’s frown returned as she actually felt a bit offended “Ok that’s final go and take care of those eggs.” She said and turned around before stopping “Or just before you go, where is kitchen I need to get few leaves of salad.”

Annie sighed and pointed in the direction of their kitchen, Nidra’s blur quickly disappeared from her vision.

Anthea shrugged and went outside, she wanted to walk inside henhouse with a basket but was stopped by what she presumed what Nidras voice.

Shouting.

“Why the hell won’t you those leaves! You’re bunny! Bunnies eat leaves.”

Annie sighed and went forward before she was stopped one again, this time however it wasn’t voice of Nidra that took her attention but a loud thud, she quickly turned back and walked inside.

“What happened?” Annie asked as she entered the room where Nidra was laying on the floor with a bruise on her forehead, leaves of salad on her chest and a cooking book near her head.

“That bunny didn’t want to eat those leaves, he wanted me to cook him a dish from this book and when I declined, he threw it at me.” Nidra stated blankly throbbing pain in her forehead being the only thing that made her believe it actually happened.

“Yeah, Micky isn’t really a regular bunny, but you should’ve seen his father, now that was one evil creature.” Annie said and walked up to Nidra offering her a hand which she accepted.

“So maybe you’ll take care of these eggs after all?” Annie asked with a smug grin on her face, Nidra sighed and simply nodded as she walked out with her hands lazily hanging on her sides Why did I even bother coming here in the first place. She thought to herself as she reached the henhouse and picked up the basket.

After few moments of work Nidra had all eggs in the basket, luckily this job wasn’t as bad as she thought it will be, she didn’t know if Annie was done with feeding the devil so she just sat down at the small outdoor table, pain in her forehead was long gone but she still didn’t feel like smiling.

Nidra pondered for a few moments if she should just tell Annie that she has some royal duties at Canterlot and leave before her train of thoughts was interrupted by a small squirrel jumping onto the table.

“What do you want? Hit me with something?” She asked waiting for squirrel to throw an acorn at her, but instead the small critter jumped few times and landed on Nidra’s shoulder and gently nuzzled her.

Although confused at first soon enough Princess of Slumber started to enjoy this unexpected show of affection.

Before she even realized whole place was getting filled by smaller and bigger animals, some bunnies, raccoons small birds, squirrels and others, to her further confusion they all started to jump around, few of them looked like they are trying to act few birds landed on the table and started to sing.

Nidra soon realized that these animals were just trying to cheer her up, all of them and even though she didn’t realize her frown was already changing into a smile.

Annie was finally done with feeding Micky, she sighed and walked outside and although at first she was rather surprised, she quickly smiled seeing Nidra playing around with animals giggling from time to time, she stood there for a few moments before Princess of Slumber finally noticed her.

“Hey Annie are you done with Micky?” Most of the animals shivered when she mentioned that name, Anthea nodded.

“Hey Nidra, when I was doing this meal for him I realized I’m actually quite hungry myself, maybe we could get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner, or maybe you prefer to stay here?”

Nidra smiled and shook her head “I had fun here but I’m hungry as well, lets go.” She stood up and waved her hand towards animals who also waved their goodbyes with their hand and wings.

Nidra walked past Annie and even though she couldn’t see it, Annie was sure that Nidra was in fact finally smiling.

Meanwhile in the Canterlot Claire and T were enjoying their free time at the market square, going from shop to shop, more often than not buying some sweet for Claire.

“Hey sis.”

Claire stopped eating her doughnut and turned towards her brother “Yes what is it?”

“I’ve just noticed that recently you were eating quite a lot, aren’t you afraid that, you know.”

Claire stopped in her tracks and looked at her brother with cocked eyebrow “Are you implying something?”

Oh shit Were only words that came to T’s mind at the moment as he realized what he just got himself into.

“Well?” Claire asked tapping her foot nervously.

As T prepared himself to answer, he was miraculously saved.

“Hey, T, Claire! What are you two doing here?” Both siblings turned towards the source of the voice and smiled for different reasons, T’s smile showed up from his relief and Claire smiled because she didn’t expect to see her boyfriend today.

“Coal! What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be at the castle?” Claire stated as she enveloped Illusion in a tight hug.

“I’m already done with my duties today, and I didn’t really have anything to do there, dad and mom are in Saddle Arabia, Nidra went to Ponyville and aunt Luna is busy, she recently got herself a student.”

“Princess Luna now has an apprentice? I didn’t know.” Claire stated slowly breaking her hug.

“So I thought that maybe there’ll be something fun going around in the city, luckily I found you two.” Illusion said with a grin and took his girlfriend hand by his own.

“Yeah, luck is a good word.” T whispered to himself while Claire already decided where are they heading next, but before they could resume their trip she turned towards her brother with blank expression and asked.

“So T, what was that about me eating too much?”

Back in Ponyville Nidra and Annie were just leaving Sugarcube Corner while finishing their muffins, during their meal they decided to go over to Sweet Apple Acres and check out what’s Del doing, it wasn’t long before the sun will set down indicating the start of the night.

They walked through the streets of Ponyville, some of the vendors were already closed but most people were still selling their food and other products, suddenly one of them shouted towards the pair.

“Hey Annie! You got the minute?” Shouted girl standing behind the flower vendor, Anthea smiled and waved back towards her, she turned towards Nidra who gave her approving nod and soon enough she was away.

Nidra stood there alone waiting for Annie to come back, she walked up to the wall of some random house not wanting to stay in the middle of the street.

“Hey there Princess.” Nidra flinched slightly startled and turned towards the direction of the voice, her smile once again turned into a frown as she saw three guys coming her way.

“What do you want?” She stated with a tone of annoyance in her voice, the guy in front of the pack leaned against the wall with his arm and whistled.

“Oh nothing really, you see none of us has any problems with sleeping and considering that’s the only thing you can do there really is nothing you can help us with.” Two guys who stood behind laughed in perfect sync, Nidra on the other hand wasn’t feeling like laughing at all.

“Fuck off.”

“Such words coming from the mouth of the Princess? Oh my.”

“Seriously, go away before I…”

“You will what? Put me to sleep? Oh I’m shivering.”

“Seriously what’s your problem?” Nidra asked annoyed to the brim.

“You want to know what’s my problem? Oh sure I’ll tell you, you’re my problem, you’ve been born as a Princess and now you’re living in a luxury in big fucking castle of Canterlot.” He said and leaned closer to her

“But what really annoys me is that you’re doing literally nothing, you’re completely useless and no one in Equestria needs you, the only thing you do is smile and wave oh our great Princess.”

Nidra opened her mouth to say something, anything but she couldn’t, she tried to think of something else but no matter what she tried she came to same conclusion.

He was right.

“What, no more swearing? No more arrogance?” He said leaning in even closer to Nidra, who now instead of being annoyed felt rather intimated and sad, she felt her eyes water and tried her best to stop her tears from flowing.

As soon as first tear appeared in the corner of her eye, she heard a voice of someone she never expected to come to her rescue.

“Hey! What are you guys doing?!” Annie shouted as she stepped between Nidra and the guy in front of her.

“Oh look it’s the blind girl, you came to rescue your friend? That’s nice what will you do, stare me into submission?” Once again his sidekicks laughed in perfect sync.

Their laugh was soon cut short as Annie did something that none of them, especially Nidra expected.

As Annie delivered her powerful kick right between his legs two guys behind both flinched while the kicked one fell on his knees his face twisted into silent scream of pain.

“Come on let’s go.” Annie said and grabbed Nidra by her hand, soon enough they left the place and breathed with relief.

“Thanks for that.” Nidra stated, she was glad it was over but his words were still echoing in her mind.

“Hey Nidra, I more or less heard what he told you.”

Princess nodded and before her eyes went wide with surprise as she felt Annie’s hands wrapping around her in a tight hug.

“And what he said wasn’t true, you might not be doing too much as a princess, but you’re surely not useless.”

“Thanks Annie but…”

“No buts! What you don’t believe me? For example you helped my mother with her animals today!”

“I just picked up eggs from henhouse that wasn’t really that much, it took me only few minutes.”

“But you did it didn’t you? And besides that wasn’t only thing you did today for them, I saw you playing with them later.”

Nidra wanted to say something but once again was stopped by Annie “And most important of all! You’re my friend! That’s definitely not being useless!”

Nidra was left speechless as she felt corners of her mouth turn up into an honest smile, she sighed and chuckled.

“I guess but the Princess of Friendship title is already taken I’m afraid.” Both girls giggled and stood there for a few moments before Nidra spoke once again.

“Annie I appreciate your help but..”

“But what?”

“You’re, well, touching my, chest.”

“…”

“Annie?”

“What?”

“Can you please let go of them?”

“Ohh fine!” Anthea stated and let go of Nidra, it seemed that they still had some time to go and visit Del but Nidra thought that it’s about time she returned home.

“Hey Annie.”

“Hmm?”

“Well I just wanted to say that I had great fun today, and we should do it again one day.”

“What you’re leaving already?”

Nidra nodded “Yeah I feel quite tired already.”

“Oh well, can I give you a goodbye hug then?”

“Sure but keep your hands off my boobs.”

“I have no idea what’re you talking about.” Annie stated as she enveloped her friend in a hug.

After that both girls departed, Annie following their original plan to meet Del and Nidra walking off into the direction of her royal carriage in which she came here in the first place.

Sun was slowly setting as Nidra finally crossed the boundaries of Canterlot castle, her first thought was to go to sleep but then she saw someone she wanted to have a talk with.

“Hey mom, can I take you a few moments?” She shouted towards Princess Luna who was stopped and turned around upon hearing Nidra’s voice.

“Oh, hello there, I actually am quite busy right now so…”

“Just a few moments really, you see I was in Ponyville today and instead of meeting T, I spent day with Annie, you know the girl I talked about you before, well you see it at first I thought that this day will go horrible but it didn’t, I actually had fun and I don’t think it will be easy but I will try to get over my crush on T, she definitely deserves being with him.” Nidra stated and looked at her mom who was nervously looking around.

“Is something wrong mom?” Nidra asked with confused expression, soon her confusion got even stronger as she heard someone laughing behind the corner.

It was her mom.

Nidra looked at her nervous mom in front of her, then at her laughing mom behind her, her eyes went wide as she couldn’t understand what was happening.

“Very well done Midnight, you changed your appearance and voice to the point where even my daughter didn’t realize it’s just an illusion, congratulations, now then I have few things to do so I’ll give you some free time.” Luna said and disappeared behind the corner still laughing lightly, as soon as she was completely gone and her laugh was no longer hearable Nidra turned towards her fake mother with an angry scowl on her face.

“Before you do anything, I’m very sorry that this happened, it was my exercise to change into Princess Luna, I-I tried to tell you but you didn’t let me speak.” He spoke still using Luna’s voice, Nidra cocked her eyebrow.

“All right but who are you?”

“I-I’m Princess Luna student, Midnight Star I’m quite sure she told you about me, I became her official apprentice a week ago.” He said as he started to lift his spell off and soon his features came in sight, he was same height as Nidra, he wasn’t very muscular but he wasn’t skinny either, he had short unkempt black hair with white highlights, and what especially caught Nidra’s attention were his dichromatic eyes, his left one was teal while the right one was golden.

“I don’t remember her telling me anything about you.”

“Oh well, maybe she didn’t anyways I’m very sorry for that, I really didn’t want that to happen, I won’t lie I enjoy pranking my friends but pranking a beautiful Princess is other thing.”

Nidra flinched and to her own surprise blushed slightly “You called me beautiful?”

Midnight’s eyes went wide as he started to turn red “I-I said that out loud? Well umm, that was… see you later Princess bye!” He said quickly and nervously walked away leaving Nidra with only her thoughts.

Maybe getting over T won’t be as hard as I thought.