Twilight Sparkle, ruler of Equestria, sat on her throne as the usual pile of paperwork slowly grew at her side, no matter how fast she read and signed them. She knew by now that she would never finish it, since she had to hire a second secretary just so the piles of paperwork could be delivered to her throne before the day ended.
Twilight let out a sigh and tried to smile. “Just endure it a bit more. It has been more than a year. It will happen soon.”
One of her secretaries walked up to her and tried to whisper in her ear, but Twilight turned around in a snap, frightening the mare with her huge grin.

“What is it? An emergency? Which kind?” the alicorn asked excitedly, almost bouncing in place.

Her secretary composed herself and took a few steps back just for safety. “Uhm, I wouldn’t call it an emergency.”

“Tell me already!” Twilight exclaimed, her hair getting messy with her desperation.

The secretary took another step back and started sweating a bit. “W-well… Ink just injured her back while bringing in the next pile of papers, so I wanted to–”

The mare was suddenly lifted by a purple aura and pressed against her ruler’s face. “Are you telling me that there's no villain attacking Equestria right now?” Twilight asked with a tone of voice that gave the impression she was about to banish her secretary straight to Tartarus.

“No?” the mare answered trembling.

“Really? No major catastrophe about to destroy the world? Magical disturbance? Anything?!” Twilight asked, her voice getting louder with each question.

The secretary was too frightened to speak, so she just shook her head.

Twilight let go of the mare and put her hooves against her temples. “This can’t be happening. It has been a year already. Why is everything so… peaceful?” she asked herself, the last word leaving a bad taste in her mouth.
By this point, one of her guards was slowly approaching her with a book and a mantle, following the procedure in case of Twilight having a breakdown. But before he could tempt the godly bookworm with the literary sacrifice, the alicorn disappeared in a flash of light.

“Uhm, what’s the next step if she goes away?” the guard asked, and another soldier pulled out a small guidebook with Twilight’s cutie mark stamped on the front.

He flipped through the pages while the rest of the staff waited expectantly, until he found the answer. “Contact Starlight Glimmer, evacuate the castle, and panic.”

“Very well,” the guard with the mantle said before pointing at one of the pegasi. “Go to the School of Friendship and warn the Headmare. We will organize the evacuation in the meantime and–”

“Oh wait, I read it wrong,” the guard with the guidebook shouted. “It says panic, evacuate the castle, and then contact Starlight.”

The entire staff let out a sigh of relief.

“We almost failed to follow protocol,” one guard said. “That would’ve been much worse.”

Then they all started to panic.

Next Chapter: Betrayal Estimated time remaining: 21 Minutes