Twilight awoke with a start. It was the middle of the night. The moon shone through her window, causing the objects in her chambers to become encased in a frightening shadow. Their silhouettes assaulted her eyes and she shuddered. She lay back down and tried to return to sleep, but the haunting memory of those shadows ran all throughout her mind. They plagued her dreams and would not allow her to return to a peaceful slumber.
She tossed and turned and wished that the night would end. But time was not her friend. It seemed to drag on and on. She looked at the small digital clock beside her bed. 1:15 A.M…1:17 A.M…1:20 A.M. UGH! She groaned to herself, this night is so slow, I swear Nightmare Moon has returned and made the night last forever again! She tossed some more and tried to get comfortable, but to no avail. Her bed seemed to be made out of a solid board.
Having no luck in sleep, she decided to get up and read for a while. So she lit up her room and picked out one of her favorite books. It was one her brother used to read to her when she was a filly. "Ah," she said out loud, "The Fascinating Tale of Princess Magenta. This always used to lull me to sleep. Maybe it'll do the same for me now." So she opened it up and began reading. It was a filly's book, so the level of vocabulary wasn't quite at her own, but she still enjoyed it.
It told the story of a kind magic princess who found a secret tower, and in that tower, she concocted a magic brew that could cure any ailment. She went around town and gave the cure to anypony who needed it. But then, an evil sorceress found out about it and wanted to usurp the cure for her own devious purposes. In the end, the princess won and the sorceress was banished from the land forever. Magenta also fell in love with a poor pauper pony, and turned him into the new prince of the land.
Twilight smiled as she reminisced about her mother, father, and brother all reading the story to her when she was young. She remembered how they would act out the story for her, and sometimes she would get involved. She would play Magenta, and her brother would play the pauper pony. She would run into his arms and give him a big hug and he would say to her, "you'll always be my princess, Twily." She wiped a small tear from her eye. She missed her brother, sister-in-law, and little niece so much. They had gone on a year-long trip around the world and they wouldn't be back for 6 more months.
Suddenly, as she was thinking these things, her flank lit up. "The Cutie Map!" She said as she raced from the room. She bounded down the stairs and ran into the castle's throne room. Sure enough, her cutie mark was hovering over a spot in the far north of Equestria. But there were three other cutie marks hovering there as well. Twilight's mouth fell open as she recognized them. Her eyes grew wide and she absentmindedly pointed with her hoof. One cutie mark was a beautiful crystal, the second was a mysterious, yet wondrous crescent moon, and the third was a radiant sun.
"Th-th-th-th…THOSE ARE CADANCE, LUNA, AND CELESTIA'S CUTIE MARKS!" She suddenly screamed. A few seconds later, Spike came running into the room. "Twilight! What happened?! Are you okay?! Is there trouble?!"
Twilight shook and nodded. She pointed at the map again. Spike looked and his mouth fell open as well. "What on Earth are their cutie marks doing floating on our map?! I mean, they don't get called for friendship missions…do they?"
"I don't know, Spike," Twilight said, regaining her composure, "but I do know this. The map has summoned all four princesses to help resolve a friendship problem. Do you know how absolutely historic and utterly monumental this is?!"
"Somewhat…" said the tired dragon as he yawned. "Look, I'm gonna go back to bed. But, I'm glad that you're getting to participate in something so absolutely historic."
"Spike, wait!" Twilight said. The dragon stopped and turned, waiting for his best friend to speak. "Stay here with me, please. I may need your assistance." Spike groaned. Normally, he'd be happy to stay with her, but at 2:00 in the morning? That was asking a little too much.
"Twilight, please. I'm exhausted. Don't forget we reorganized your entire library yesterday."
"I know, Spike, but this is urgent! Nopony outside of my friends has ever been called by the map before, let alone my fellow princesses! I've got to send letters to all of them, and I need your help!"
"Oh, alright," Spike said reluctantly.
Over the next couple of hours, he and Twilight wrote and edited letters to the three princesses. When this task had been accomplished, he quickly sent them off and announced with great bombastic flair that he was exhausted and that Twilight had kept him up way too long and that he was returning to bed, whether she liked it or not. Normally, she would have scolded him for speaking that way, but it was 4 in the morning and she figured he had done his due diligence to her. So she simply nodded and the dragon returned to his room.
But she couldn't sleep. Now her night wasn't plagued by nightmares, but it was enraptured with wonder and inquiry. Why had the map called all four princesses? To where did it call them? What would the friendship problem be and how would they solve it? It must have been fairly significant for the map to summon all four princesses to the area. All she knew was that it was in the far northern part of the country, even farther north than The Crystal Empire. Soon, her inquisitive mind began to tire and she fell asleep on the table.
At about 11:00 that morning, she was shaken awake by a pair of rough hooves. "Alright! Alright! I'm awake! Patience is a virtue, you know!" She said in annoyance. She had finally been able to get some sleep, and now somepony had the nerve to wake her. She turned and prepared to lecture the pony on the value of sleep and how some royal ponies got very little of it. But then she saw that the unwanted help came from Princess Celestia.
"Oh…Celestia, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to snap!"
Celestia chuckled, "that's alright, Twilight. I understand how hard it is to sleep, especially as a royal pony. We're always so busy." Twilight nodded in agreement. But then Celestia's look turned concerned. "I received your letter just as my flank began…um…flashing. Luna's with me as well, and her flank is doing the same thing. I can't imagine why your map has called the four of us, and I don't know how Cadance is going to join us. They're halfway around the world, by now!"
"She'll make it, I'm sure," Twilight said, "but I'm glad that you and Luna are here. Now we can get started on our journey."
"We figured you might say that, so we went ahead and packed up our saddlebags. Thankfully, you mentioned in your letter that we were going to the far north. So, we packed very warmly."
"Good," Twilight said, "I'll pack my own things and be right back."
So Twilight dashed off to pack her bags and begin yet another adventure. She never told anypony, but she always secretly hoped her flank would begin flashing and send her somewhere. She loved the adventure of it all, but more than that, she loved helping ponies solve their friendship problems. Now, she would be at it again. But this time, she would have her fellow princesses by her side. Excitement filled her heart as she packed her things. This is sure to be the best adventure yet, she told herself.
