It was a beautiful morning in Canterlot, one of those mornings in which the sun seems to rise earlier and the clouds clear quickly, the sun rose in the east staining the sky pink, cyan, and orange, the birds began their song and the plants seemed to wake up and move with new life in the sunlight.
Princess Celestia was walking calmly on the outskirts of Canterlot, she was taking a little time to herself, admiring the scenery, enjoying every breath of fresh air with the fragrance of flowers and the dew on the plants, she walked until she reached a plain with a large field of flowers and on the edge a small pristine hill without flowers or weeds, not even clovers, it seemed that nature had put that lump of earth there so that it would function as a viewpoint so that the one who placed hooves there could admire the flowers, Celestia sat on the top of the hill and took a deep breath, admiring the view she had already known for so many decades. However, something felt different this time.
She looked around trying to find what was that different thing that gave her that strange feeling in the bottom of her stomach, she felt a slight, but strange trembling in her back that only made her feel more scared and confused, then she heard a small sob and a low screech like it came from a small animal coming from nearby bushes.
The sobs turned into crying, a cry that sounded familiar, Celestia got up and went to the source of the crying, hidden in the bushes was a basket and inside it a foal. "Shh, sh, sh everything is fine, I'm here" Upon inspecting a little Celestia noticed that the foal was, in fact, a creature she had never seen, it had holes in its hooves and hair, its horn was twisted and also full of holes, it's hair was green and similar to some kind of algae or weed, it seemed to shine as if it was wet but it was dry to the touch, she noticed on its abdomen a kind of sack or shell like that of insects, in fact, its whole body seemed to be covered in what was the exoskeleton of an insect, she also noticed that it had wings, thin and crystalline like those of a bee or a dragonfly, she was fascinated to see those wings, she thought for a second if what she saw was an alicorn, No, it couldn't be possible, a baby alicorn was not possible, but still there it was.
The creature yawned and showed its two huge fangs, Celestia dropped the basket and it hit the floor, immediately Celestia realized what she had just done so she took the foal in her hooves the moment it started to cry and snuggled it a little trying to calm it down "Shh, Shh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry little one, I don't know what happened to me, please don't cry" Celestia lowered her head and planted a kiss on the foal's stomach, it stopped crying immediately and began to release small giggles, Celestia smiled when she saw the foal change its mood, she saw in the basket a note that said "Amara, Take care of her with Love"
Celestia looked at the filly on her hooves and watched her laugh for a second, then the filly stared at her as if she expected something, Celestia felt something sprout in her heart, it was similar to that feeling she had when she saw Sunset, and her previous students for the first time, but it had something different this time, it was stronger and more. . . close, she could not understand it but she felt something strong, instinctive, that made her see the filly with different eyes and gave her the signal that she had felt before when taking in a pony, but this time not as an apprentice or student, "I will" she said, the filly seemed to understand her because she immediately began to giggle and chirp like a cricket.
Celestia put her back in the basket and wrapped her with the small blanket, Amara stared into her eyes while she rocked the basket and finally fell asleep, Celestia lifted the basket carefully using her mouth, opened her wings, and took flight back to the castle.
Hours later Amara crawled through the throne room, attracting everyone's gaze, many were surprised to see Celestia bring the filly to the castle but were more surprised to see her appearance, some were scared and others watched her with curiosity, but everypony alike got used to her with incredible ease and noticed the change in the princess that morning, they saw her smile and be happy as they had never seen before.
Amara began to crawl toward Celestia sitting on her throne. Celestia giggled while she did not take her eyes off her, Amara climbed the steps that led to the throne and then tried to climb the throne from its left side, Amara slipped and fell on her flank, but that did not seem to matter, she got up and tried again, this time she managed to get on and leaned next to Celestia, she used her magic to lift her up in the air and nuzzled Amara with a smile on her face. "Well done Amara", Amara raised her little hooves, stretched them, grabbed Celestia's face, and began to giggle, then gave her a little lick on the nose "Aaaw," said Celestia as she lowered her and carried her in her hooves "You're so cute".
Amara was by her side the rest of the day, Celestia took a while to find her something to eat because she did not know what Amara would like, but she discovered that she liked flowers with a lot of nectar, leaves, and vegetables, which surprised her because, Well, normally foals don't find the vegetables very appetizing, but even so she ate almost three whole lettuces, Celestia also noticed that Amara ate like a caterpillar, literally, she bit off pieces of the outline of the leaf until she reached the center.
After feeding her, she took Amara to her bedroom and they huddled by the fire, Amara trembled slightly, Celestia tucked her under her wing and she fell into a deep sleep, Celestia picked her up carefully not to wake her up and put her down on the bed, she put her in the center and surrounded her with pillows to make sure that during the night she did not wake up and/or roll over and fall, the crib she had ordered would not be ready until tomorrow afternoon, other than that and the monotonous meetings with the nobles and the parliament, the only thing left to do was to make the public announcement, Celestia knew that she should communicate to her subjects and the other nobles that she had decided to adopt the little filly, at that moment horrible thoughts crossed her mind like an arrow piercing her heart, how would the nobles react? The chain of command would have to be reorganized, and surely they would not feel comfortable knowing that if something were to happen to her, Amara would be the one who would be in command and not any of them and/or their houses, what would her subjects say? Celestia knew that her subjects loved her, but how would they react to Amara's strange appearance? Would they hate her? Would they see her with disdain? Or maybe even worse, maybe they just wouldn't care about her in the least, would they ignore her? Celestia knew that her subjects were sadly capable of doing it and also knew the harm that could do Amara. Celestia looked out the window and saw the figure depicted in the full moon with sadness, resentment, and hatred, those last two not towards her but herself, then she saw Amara again and thought about her safety, there had been attacks against her before, it is true that it was many centuries ago, even some of them were a millennium ago, but the most recent had been just a century and a half ago, Celestia then looked at the drawer of her dresser thinking about the photos, drawings, and diaries that lay inside, her student and her niece had died in that incident, now she was looking at Amara worried, What if they attacked her? Celestia had scanned her magic, she was not immortal, although she had a lot of magic within her, at least more than usual for a filly, that did not guarantee her safety, What if they foalnapped her? Celestia had realized that her magic was very difficult or almost impossible to track, if they took her it would be impossible to find her, or even worse than that, what if they tried to kil-? Celestia shook her head in denial as she approached the bed. No, it wouldn't happen, and if it did, she would be there to prevent it. Celestia took off her regalia, put it on her dresser, and leaned next to Amara, delicately brushed her hair from in front of her eyes, and looked at her face for a moment, she looked so calm, so delicate, so beautiful, so tender and so. . . perfect, it was strange, she had found her that same day, but she felt how Amara completed something inside her, like a hole in her heart that was filled with pure joy, as if the universe had given it to her, to make her happy, she smiled, gave her a kiss on the forehead and closed her eyes, immediately some dust or dirt seemed to enter her nose, Celestia covered herself with a pillow and sneezed so low that she could barely hear herself, she looked at Amara, good, she was still asleep, she put down the pillow and laid back down, at that moment she let out a short yawn, and then Amara began to cry at full volume, Celestia frowned, she had forgotten about that part.
An 8-year-old Amara ran through the halls of the castle giggling as she was chased by Celestia. She was wearing a tiara and her little regalia. She had grown healthy and strong, the holes in her wings had filled in over the years and her horn had grown longer.
"Come back here little one!" Celestia said while laughing playfully.
“They will never catch me alive! Haha!" She said entering the throne room. Celestia entered behind her, but could not find her, she looked around in bewilderment, she approached her throne and looked under it, she looked under the carpet, at the edges of the windows, behind the columns, at the flowers at the bottom of the throne and even behind the tapestries on the walls, but could not find her, finally, she looked up and saw a figure inside the chandelier, Celestia smiled triumphantly and took flight up, carefully approached the chandelier, but when she saw inside she saw a black cardboard cutout with Amara's silhouette glued to the glass, suddenly she heard a small creak when she turned around she saw Amara trying to open the door of the throne room, she smiled again and dove to pick her up.
"Got ya!" she said lifting her off the ground and hugging her "There you are, my little butterfly!"
"Mommy!" she said spreading her hooves to hug her back "What did you think of my new trick? Did you like it?!" she said wagging her tail.
"It was very good Amy, you almost managed to fool me," She said nuzzling her "But, you still need to perfect your stealth if you want to achieve it," She said while landing "Since you don't want to use magic in these games"
"It's just that using magic isn't that fun." She said.
Raven Inkwell appeared at the door holding a clipboard with her magic, "Are you going to see somepony today?" asked Amara.
Celestia nodded “Yes, I will. There is a filly that has caught my attention; she seems very strong with magic and I wanted to supervise her entrance exam ”She said.
"Why? You've told me before about very strong ponies at your school, but I've never seen you personally go to an entrance exam before" Amara said curiously.
"Well, do you remember last week you told me about why you liked our walks around town so much?" Amara nodded, “Well, I kept thinking about what you said, in how spending time around others made you understand our little ponies better and allowed you to feel how others felt about you, the truth is that I have not interacted directly with my subjects since I exi-, since a long time ago, so I thought I'd try to interact with them more often, and I thought interacting with my future students would be a good start."
"Oh, ok," Amara said.
Celestia walked to the door, but before leaving she looked back at Amara "Would you like to come?" she asked her.
"Oh! Can I bring Pepper?" She asked.
"Of course dear," Celestia replied. Amara quickly ran to her room, came back without her regalia, and brought a small box with her. As soon as she returned, she mounted on her mother's back.
Celestia left the castle and headed towards the building, upon arrival they entered a room with four ponies with clipboards who bowed to her.
"Greetings everypony," Celestia said as Amara got off of her back and walked to the front of the room.
She passed by two ponies, a blue stallion and a gray mare with a gray and purple mane, the stallion looked at her impressed.
"This is my daughter, Amara, she only came with me to observe the presentation" Celestia told them.
"Oh, that's fine with me. Hi Amara, I'm Night Light it's a pleasure to meet you" Said introducing himself, in that moment he saw the box she was carrying "What have you got there Amara?"
"This is Pepper," She said opening the box, Night Light saw inside it a baby black cat sleeping soundly.
“Well, it's a pleasure to meet you both. I'm Twilight Velvet ”said the gray-coated mare.
"It is also a pleasure Mrs. Velvet" Amara fixed her gaze on a filly with purple fur that lay walking in circles worried next to a wooden cart "Excuse me" she said as she walked towards the filly.
Celestia saw this and accompanied her "Greetings Twilight Sparkle, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Twilight looked at her, you could see on her face the amazement, admiration and extreme stress mixed with nervousness, Celestia planted her hoof on her shoulder and looked at her in a way that reassured her. "Gre-Greetings to you too pri-princess Celestia, it-* Gulp * it is also a pleasure to meet you" She said gathering strength not to stammer.
Celestia pushed Amara lightly and put her in front of her "This is my daughter Amara".
"Hello!" Amara said warmly shaking her hoof in greeting. Twilight looked at her, Amara was taller and bigger than her.
"Hello! I'm Twilight Sparkle” she said, introducing herself a little more confident.
"It's a pleasure Twilight" Amara said, then she saw the lilac egg with purple dots, "Oh!, who is this?"
"It's a dragon egg, I named him Spike, I'm supposed to open it" she said nervous and worried.
"I can't wait to see it, it will be great" Amara said looking at the egg with interest.
"I-I hope I can do it" she said even more nervous and shrinking into place in fear.
"I know you can do it, surely you had to study a lot to get here, I don't see why you couldn't do it, you seem like a mare that knows what she's doing" Amara said in a comforting tone filling Twilight with confidence. Amara withdrew and sat in one of the middle rows of the auditorium to get a better view.
Everypony else took their seats, Twilight took a deep breath and tried to charge her horn with magic. Nothing happened. She tried again, and again, and again, but the result was the same, Twilight started to get very nervous, she kept trying and straining. And even if it didn't make any difference, Amara didn't stop supporting and encouraging her.
"Come on Twilight! You can do it!" She said encouragingly. Suddenly Amara felt something, her ears turned towards the window, and she could hear a strange buzzing noise, but no one else seemed to notice it. Twilight seemed to give up, at that moment a loud sonic boom was heard. Twilight gasped and her horn lit up, she launched a ray of magenta magic towards the dragon egg and it hatched in an instant, suddenly Twilight's magic went crazy, she began to float and her eyes shone as she was surrounded by magenta energy, the four clipboard ponies were raised into the air, her parents turned into plants, Spike grew to the size of an adult dragon, Amara was turned into a beetle and Pepper turned into a chimera.
Twilight scared could not stop throwing magic rays in all directions, Celestia approached her and planted her hoof on her shoulder "Easy, easy, I'm here, everything will be fine, I'm with you" Twilight looked at her, her expression turned calm, her magic faded, the 4 clipboard ponies fell to the ground and the others turned back to normal.
Twilight quickly regained reason "Princess Celestia !, I'm so sorry! I-".
"You have something very special Twilight Sparkle" Celestia said impressed.
"Uh?" Twilight said confused.
"I've never seen a pony with your abilities," She said still impressed "But you need to learn to use them."
"Uh?"
"Twilight Sparkle, I would like to make you my own personal protégé here at the school," Celestia announced to the entire room.
Twilight gasped, this time not confused but incredulous.
"Well? What do you say?" Celestia said. Amara had come down the stairs of the auditorium and stood next to her mother, having heard the conversation and smiling as she looked at Twilight waiting for her response.
Twilight turned to see her parents, who were nodding happily indicating that they were in complete agreement "YES!!" she shouted happily.
Twilight started jumping in circles happily yelling "Yes!" non-stop.
Amara stopped her, grabbed her and shook her "That was amazing!" she told her.
"I know, right?! For a moment I thought I wouldn't make it" she responded excitedly.
"Are you kidding?! I've never seen anything like it!" Amara replied, the two of them stood there for a moment holding each other while giggling with excitement, “Mom, if Twilight will be your student, does that mean she will have her own room in the castle with us? and if she will have her own room, can we have sleepovers?" She asked excitedly and smiling, hugging Twilight, almost squishing her, but Twilight didn't seem to care, she was also smiling while looking at Celestia, Amara and her parents.
"A room is not the only thing she's receiving," Celestia said pointing to Twilight's flanks and they could see a fuchsia star superimposed on another white star, all of it was surrounded by 5 small white stars.
"My Cutie Mark!" Twilight yelled in amazement "YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Dad, Mom! Look! I got my cutie mark!" She said running to her parents who greeted her with hugs and kisses while telling her how proud they were.
"Cutie Mark?" Amara asked curiously.
"That Amara, is when a pony discovers their special talent" Celestia explained. Amara looked at her own flank which was blank.
"Will I get one?" Amara asked.
"You never know, no one has ever seen a creature like you before" She started to say "But, I'm sure you will get yours very soon"
Amara smiles, the two hugged and shared a light nuzzling.