//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns // by enamis //------------------------------// Chapter 5 “Fourty-two!” Twilight shot up from her slumber. She glanced around and deducted that this was not her room, nor at home, nor at the school. She looked behind her and saw a white wing on her back. She looked down and saw large, prestigious pillows, with golden tufts. She looked to her right and saw… Celestia… “EEP! IMSOSORRYYOURMAJEST-MFHH-MHFH!” Celestia jammed her hoof in Twilight’s mouth to muffle her loud apology. She softly smiled and giggled as the little pony freed her mouth. “Oh Twilight, you're just so adorable when you think you're in trouble.” Celestia laughed. She gently stroked Twilight’s mane as the filly looked up at her in fear, surprise, and admiration. The usual chunk of emotions she saw on all of her dear subjects. “You fell asleep after we had a little conversation. Seems like I lost track of time and let you sleep like the adorable little filly you are.” Celestia chuckled. “But… but… I… I MISSED CLASSES!!!!” Twilight screamed and broke down on the pillows and cried in desperation while Celestia struggled to not laugh out loud. She continued to softly stroke Twilight as the illusion spell of her study showed a beautiful sunrise. “It’s ok Twilight, you only missed math and two lessons with Mandagor’e, and I think that’s a good thing.” Celestia chuckled again. “I think you might be hungry, no?” Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but her stomach loudly grumbled in response as she turned deep red in embarrassment. “At least you’re not late for dinner. Care to join me?” Twilight energetically nodded. Celestia fell in deep thought for a few moments before speaking in her amazing voice. “Maybe you want to invite some friends? I'm thinking about eating here.” Twilight nodded again, more enthusiastically than before. “Then how about I go get them, and you set up the pillows?” Twilight just kept nodding. “Splendid. Try to use magic, that can be our lesson tonight.” Celestia smiled and paced out of the room. Twilight slowly stood up just after her head had stopped violently nodding and began to try levitating the fluffy pillows. Just as she almost had grabbed one Celestia poked her head through the door. She was wearing an odd and quite silly expression. “Oh, forgetful me… I forgot to ask which students I'm supposed to invite over.” Celestia looked silly with a blush, Twilight couldn’t help but snicker. “Well I want to meet Starshine, definitely. This might soften Lyra up… OH! Moonglow! If you get Moonglow I’ll be real happy!” Twilight beamed. She wanted to invite Blinky, Damien, Cluster and Moonglow’s two friends too, but that would be quite the crowd… so Twilight settled for a sister, a friend and an acquaintance. “Then I’ll be right back, Twilight.” Celestia vanished behind the large ornate door and Twilight got back to struggling with the pillows. --------- The room was ready. Five piles of pillows were set in a circle around the carpet, just because there was no table in this room. Halfway through, Twilight had given up on using magic. Guess it didn’t want to be ordered and came when it pleased. As the door creaked Twilight jumped into the pile of pillows meant for Celestia and hid in them. She saw Celestia enter the room with a straight and emotionless face. Behind her trotted a very scared looking Starshine and a cowering Lyra. Finally Moonglow entered looking like herself. Twilight saw Celestia shoot a gaze in her direction as they both began to play a completely unintentional joke. “Now, you’re probably wondering why I brought all of you here.” Celestia coldly looked at the three ponies. “That’s very simple. You're all in big…” “SURPRISE!” Twilight jumped out of the pile of pillows and managed to trip mid-air and landed face first in front of the surprised ponies. Moonglow was the first to react. She fell over and began to loudly laugh as Lyra and Starshine exchanged a confused gaze. Twilight picked herself off the floor. Her face was a bit red from impact. She looked at Celestia who was softly smiling. Then she turned to her classmates and smiled. “What in the hay…?” Lyra muttered. “The princess asked me if I wanted to have any friend’s with me while we eat dinner here. I picked you two and my sister Moonglow.” Twilight beamed. Lyra looked skeptical. Starshine looked around for a few seconds and joined Moonglow as they laughed. As Starshine laughed Moonglow managed to get on her hooves and walk over to the princess. She spoke as she slapped her hoof on the Princess’s shoulder and leaned on it. “Nice one Tia! I thought you had something under your skin, but I didn’t know ya’ got Twiley in on this!” She laughed. The three younglings gasped at her informal attitude. Celestia on the other hoof seemed almost appreciative of the fact that none of them bowed and even dared to use nicknames around her. She simply smiled as wide as ever. “How about we sit down and have dinner? I need to run a few more errands before ten pm, and you can’t be outside past then.” Celestia snickered as the five ponies sat around the empty carpet. Moonglow sat next to Celestia, Twilight next to Moonglow, Starshine next to Twilight, and Lyra was left on the other side of Celestia. Her eyes were wide in slight fear as she skidded a bit closer to Starshine. “Lyra! Get your own pillow!” Starshine protested. Twilight almost instantly understood why the filly was acting up. She was sacred. “Hey Lyra, how about you and Moonglow swap seats.” Twilight proposed. Lyra didn’t budge. “Ok than how about I swap with Moonglow and then you swap.” Lyra took a few moments but nodded. Twilight just didn’t understand, why was she so scared? After the small switcharoo they were finally seated. Celestia’s horn glowed and the carpet-table was filled with food. Spaghetti, pie, cheese, grapes, orange juice, apples, bread, butter, and a few cakes and biscuits filled the silver platter. “Dig in.” Celestia softly chimed. --------- “So Twi’, what happened today anyways? I heard about the fight and I tried to find you, but these two here-” Moonglow pointed at Lyra and Starshine with her mouth full. “-Had no idea where you went.” She finished and went back to slurping her spaghetti. Moonglow held the bowl in her telekinetic grip and used two sticks instead of a fork like a normal pony. She called them chop-sticks. That was Moonglow for ya’. “Well after the… incident…” Twilight was fairly wary. She had struggled with her food long enough, but didn’t want to look like a completely uncouth pony in front of Celestia when she gave up on the fork. “The princess took me here and we talked and I may have fallen asleep…” She blushed. Moonglow snorted and laughed with her mouth full until a single spaghetti came through her nose cutting off the laugh. Everypony except Moonglow grinned at the sight with a chorus of “ewww…!” “Oh dear Celestia, that can’t be good…” Moonglow muttered while she looked cross-eyed at the pasta. “It’s not that bad.” Celestia casually replied and sipped some juice. “No I mean… no, I… never mind…” Moonglow sighed and pulled the spaghetti out of her nose accompanied by the appropriate sound. Twilight lost her appetite. Moonglow placed it on the edge of the bowl. “I'm not eating that…” “I'm not hungry anymore.” Starshine stated and pushed the bowl away. “Me nether.” “I'm full.” “I guess I’ve had enough. Gotta’ keep the Royal Form.” Twilight, Lyra, and even Celestia pushed away their bowls and plates and sat an awkward silence. “Sooo…” Celestia began. “I’ll escort you to your tower so you don’t get caught by the Whisps on your way.” “By the what’s?” Twilight couldn’t resist the question. “I’ll tell you on the way, come along now, don’t worry I’ll clean up.” As the five ponies began their trot through the dark hallways Celestia began to speak. “Whisps are mostly forest spirits that live in the Everfree. There are also artificial ones. The artificial whisps are bound to a pony and they are created from their aura. For an artificial whisp there can only be one pony.” “Almost all of the teachers in the school have whisps and that’s how they communicate without walking long distances for a single sentence. And that makes them sound lazy…” Celestia and Moonglow chuckled. The three younglings just exchanged a gaze. “You will learn more about them in Creatures.” “Oh hail’ yea! Nightshade is like the best teacher besides Nyx, and what makes him so cool is that he’s a-” “*COUGH*!” Celestia interrupted Moonglow. “Don’t spoil it for them, dear.” Celestia softly smirked. “Heh…I, uhh...” Moonglow fell quiet for once. “But what about the ones at the school?” Twilight kept asking. “Oh, right. They are whisps whose essences and auras have been bound to the gems in the Canterlot Mountain. Thanks to Starswirl and Alexandra we managed to tame them and bound the whisps to the school.” “Seeing how I'm a goddess I technically own them since I'm the only pony besides Nyx and Amenix who they listen to.” “Why them?” Starshine spoke up. “Because their blood is tied whit the original unicorns that tamed them. Ah, we’re here.” Celestia cut her small lesson. “Goodnight my little ponies, sleep tight.” Celestia nudged Twilight through the door in the Star tower common room before closing the door with her golden magic. “Whelp’, that was fun… G’Night’!” Starshine yawned and began to walk up the stairs. Lyra followed and Moonglow right after. Twilight managed to catch her sister and hold her back for a word. “How come you and the princess are so informal with each other? It’s like you’re her billion-year-old friend or something!” Twilight instantly cut to the chase. Moonglow gently pushed her sister away and spoke in her clear and kind voice. “Relax Twi’! Did you forget I was Tia’s private student for 2 years before you came along?” Moonglow giggled. “We’re good friends Twi’ don’t worry bout’ it!” And she turned and headed up the stairs. “And her name is Celestia!” Twilight shouted after her sister. --------- “Umm Twi’?” A quiet voice came from the lower bunk. Twilight poked her head from the covers and spoke while yawning. “Yea?” There was a silence. “Thanks.” “For what?” Twilight was a bit confused. She thought her bunk-buddy Lyra was already sleeping when she came into the dark bedroom. Apparently not… “For… for taking me along… ” “It was no problem, really.” “I…” Lyra fell quiet. “I knew you wanted to take Blinky. Goodnight Twilight.” Twilight herd her tuck herself in and go to sleep. She, however, just sat there looking into the darkness. There wasn’t much to it. Then why was this nagging at her mind? Something about this sudden and short conversation… her tone… her voice… her everything… There was something about it and it infuriated Twilight as she simply didn’t understand what was going on. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing. As her mind buzzed Twilight slowly slipped away from consciousness as her brain simply shut off. Only a single day of many had passed… -------------------------------- Yea, I guess this was more of a filler than anything... Oh well... ----------------------------------- Edited by Midge Mannequin