Boredom. It is honestly, by far, the worst enemy of any sentient species. There is a very high number of actions done out of boredom, and even if it’s not, most reasons stem from boredom. Curiosity comes from boredom, because when you’re bored, you consider the details, and start asking questions. Anger can come from a person being bored and initiating conflict, which can either anger someone or give them satisfaction. Depression can happen because, when people are bored and alone, they’re left alone with their thoughts, and people tend to be very self-destructive. Yes, not every reason can be traced back to boredom, but a good portion of them can. People need distractions, entertainment, conflict, drama, whether they're doing it consciously or not, they everything they can to avoid boredom.

But what about things that can’t keep themselves distracted? That they can’t find some form of entertainment to keep them busy, that they’re stuck with their boredom. To bored all the time, to have nothing to distract, that would be…pitiful. But what if there was something worse? Take a god, for example. If they were omnipotent, omnipresent, and all-powerful? If everything was predictable? If they had everything down to a routine because they already know what’s going to happen? That would be the worst kind of boredom, it would take a bit, but not even a god could resist that kind of boredom for too long.

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Pinkamena, with a guard in front of her and behind, walked through Ponyville early in the morning. Occasionally, since she didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, she would drowse off. Luckily, the guards would wake her up. Eventually, she stopped. The reason she stayed awake, was because she noticed something, something strange. There were no other ponies around the town, other than the abnormal amount of guards. There were guards everywhere. Usually, there were maybe two or three. But now, there were squads of them. That letter from earlier was no joke; there really was some huge threat.

She understood that there it was very early, but this was Ponyville! Everypony here was weird in their own unique way, half the town waking up this early isn’t honestly that weird. But, other than the guards, there was not a single pony in sight. They didn’t even use a train to take her to Canterlot; they were a chariot being pulled by four Pegasi waiting for her. The town of Ponyville was seemed to be evacuated, it was then filled with tons of guards, and there was a private chariot to Canterlot just for her, this wasn’t a joke, this was serious.

Slowly and cautiously, she stepped into the chariot. The guards from before not following her, they watched her get in and then signaled the Pegasi to go. She felt a little sick at first, as this was her first time in a chariot, but she got used to it. After she was well into the air, the guards began to walk towards another group and began to talk to them. She was slightly confused, but she understood that whatever was going on, it probably needed as many able bodies as possible. Then, the Pegasi suddenly lunged forward, nearly giving Pinkamena whiplash. It wasn’t anything like with Rainbow Dash; there were four Pegasi instead of just one. But, she adjusted. While four Pegasi were faster one, Rainbow was a very fast Pegasus, so it didn’t take long for her to adjust.

Even by chariot, the trip from Ponyville to Canterlot would be a long one. Pinkamena, both sating her curiosity, and trying to find a way to pass the time, looked down on the ground. As she expected, it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. Both from the height, and from how fast the chariot was going. But, from what she could see, was the lack of ponies. She could see all Ponyville from up here, and there wasn’t a single civilian pony in sight, just guards. There even seemed to be defenses outside Ponyville, guards working as sentry’s, all the entries being blocked off.

Even when they left Ponyville, there were no carriages or anything on the roads. No travelers or hitchhikers, just groups of guards patrolling the streets. How did she miss this? It’s like the entire town of Ponyville was evacuated entirely, and replaced by guards in preparation for an attack. Did this happen while she was dealing with Sylia and The Voice? If it were quiet, that would make sense. When she was taken by the guards to Canterlot yesterday, there were still plenty of other ponies around. Overnight was the only time it could have happened; she would have noticed it otherwise. But why didn’t they get her first? Being an Element, she should have been one of the first to be evacuated. Maybe because of the whole situation with Celestia, priorities changed.

Time seemed to fly as she was observing the ground below, thoughts of everything happening to go through her mind. Sooner than she expected, they arrived in Canterlot. Surprisingly, Canterlot seemed to be the same as Ponyville, except more. There were guards everywhere, and no civilians. Except these guards were better armed, they were bigger in number and seemed to be doing more. Since Canterlot had walls, the guards had to patrol them and around the city. There were also in the towers working as sentry’s; it was way more defended than Ponyville. And, like before the changelings attacked, the recognizable pink shield was around Canterlot. Which could only mean one thing, changelings?

The chariot passed through the shield with no problems, for whatever reason, she felt relieved when it did. As soon as the chariot entered Canterlot, it went straight towards the castle. There seemed to be some sort of landing pad for chariots, surrounded by other guards. The Pegasi slowly landed, making her happy she was no longer blasting through the air. The guards said nothing to her as she slowly got out, they only stared at her intently. She still felt slightly sick from the ride, but not the point where she couldn’t keep face. As soon as her hooves touched the ground, she entered the castle, knowing Celestia would want her there as quickly as possible.

The halls of the castle seemed empty, well, more deserted than usual. There were no guards in the hall watching over her or guarding the rooms if she had to guess, they were probably patrolling the streets. The trip to the throne room was usually boring on its own, but now, with no guards to annoy on the way, the boredom was agonizing. Eventually, after what felt like hours of mind-boggling boredom, she arrived at the throne room. Surprisingly, the rest of the main six seemed to be waiting for her. Rarity and Applejack were arguing about something, Fluttershy was trying to calm them down, but going unnoticed. Rainbow was hovering above them and was also arguing. And Twilight was behind them and seemed to be rubbing her temples, probably because of a headache.

But they all stopped when they noticed Pinkamena, except for Twilight, she just continued to rub her temples.

“What took you so long!? We’ve been waiting here for twenty minutes!”

Rainbow shouted at her angrily, throwing her hooves up as she did so. Rarity and Applejack didn’t say anything, as Rainbow seemed to voice their thoughts. Fluttershy was too shy to speak up, and Twilight just seemed further annoyed. Before Pinkamena could retort, Celestia herself opened the doors to the throne room.

“Everypony’s here, good. Please, all of you, come inside, we have much to discuss.”

She said calmly, as she looked down at all the ponies in front of her, except for Pinkamena, she only glanced at her when she came in. She then walked back in the throne room, waiting for them to follow her. They did as she said, after bowing when she came in and entered the room. Other than Rainbow shooting her a glare, they didn’t pay any attention to her. She was happy about this; she was way too tired to deal with Rainbow and the rest right now. She followed behind them, with an annoyed look on her face. As soon as she walked in, the door behind her was shut by Celestia’s magic.

Celestia was sitting on her throne, looking down to the rest of the ponies in the room. Like the halls, there were no guards in here; not even Luna was anywhere to be seen. There were only seven ponies in the room, the main six, and Celestia. Twilight and the rest sat in the area in front of the throne, the same place Pinkamena was in the day before. They all had patient looks on their faces, except for Rainbow, she had an annoyed one on hers, she had grown tired of waiting.

Pinkamena, on the other hoof, didn’t really want to show her interest. She walked over to one of the windows of the windows of the throne room and looked out to the city below. She didn’t want to show how curious she was; she wanted to look like she wasn’t listening when she was. Celestia’s face turned from a calm one to a worried one. She looked down on all her little ponies and sighed.

“Sombra is alive.”