Moving On
Twilight slowly came to, much less dead than she had expected to be after that last stunt but also wondering if death might be an improvement over how she felt right now.
“Good morning, Twilight. We really must stop meeting like this. It seems it's becoming something of a bad habit for us.”
Twilight’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of the familiar voice. She tried to roll over, but the pain was too much. She lay back down again with a groan as the the voice’s source walked over to her bed, leaned over and nuzzled her forehead. The edge of her ethereal mane drifted against Twilight’s face, sending gentle, comforting tickles of energy radiating out along her nerves. Twilight giggled. It hurt to do so, but it was worth it just to feel the rush of being alive. “Hello, Princess Celestia,” she said.
“You had us all worried there for a while. When Captain Reinolds pulled you out of the water you weren’t breathing. They had to give you mouth to mouth,” said Celestia.
Twilight’s earlier relief vanished. “Captain Reinolds gave me mouth to mouth?” she asked with alarm.
“I believe it was a Miss Ample Booty who did the honors, actually. You and Luna certainly have made some interesting friends down here,” said Celestia, her smile as indecipherable as ever.
“Luna! And Ouroboros! What happened? What did... ow...” Twilight’s attempt to sit up as she realized she’d last seen her charge being devoured by a sea serpent uncovered a whole score of new aches and pains throughout her body.
“Ouroboros is dormant once more thanks to you. It will take it several days to recover from the wounds you inflicted. My sister and I will seal it away once more in that time. As for Luna, I arrived a few hours after dawn and was able to... extricate her from her predicament. There was no permanent damage, beyond what her ego suffered. She was as good as new after showering a few times,” said Celestia. “In truth, I don’t mind saying how glad I am to hear of your concern for her. When I stuck you two together, I’ll admit I wasn’t sure your relationship would ever recover after the fight you’d had. I hope you can forgive me for what I put you through. And for what I said to you that day.”
Twilight smiled despite herself. It was hard to believe that had only been three months, it felt like far longer. “What’s a little attempted murder between good friends, right Princess?” asked Twilight, playing it off. She was surprised at how little resentment she felt over the whole thing now.
“That sounds like an excellent, if somewhat unconventional, thesis for a Friendship Report,” said Celestia.
It took Twilight a moment to process the full implications of Celestia’s statement. “Wait, are you saying you want me to be your student again?”
Celestia beamed. “I do. Very much so. I see no reason to continue the punishment you’ve been laboring under, when it’s clear you’ve grown so much since I levied it. And if you’ll permit me to be a little bit selfish for a moment, I’ve missed you Twilight. I missed you so much.” She placed a hoof against Twilight’s cheek, ever so gently. “Midterms at the Academy start in two weeks, unless you choose to postpone them while you catch up. Whatever classes you’d like to take, I assure you we’ll find the space.”
It was a tempting offer. Part of Twilight, a big part, wanted to leap onto the suggestion that they go back to the way things had been before.
But another part of her knew that would be a mistake.
“I’m not really sure I’m ready to come back, Princess,” she said. Celestia was usually impossible to read, but nopony could miss the look of hurt and disappointment that settled on her face just then.
“I... I see. Well. I suppose, if that’s what you want,” she mumbled.
“I don’t mean forever. I like being your student. It’s an important part of me and it always will be. But I realized over the last few days that there are other parts of me that are important too, and I need to learn more about those. I thought for the next few months, maybe I would go see my friends in Ponyville and then do some travelling. When the new semester starts, maybe I’ll be ready then,” said Twilight. “Does that make sense? I’m not sure I’m explaining it very well.”
“It does. There is a great deal of wisdom in that suggestion, I think. Take all the time you need and know that whatever decision you reach, you will always have my love and support in everything you do,” said Celestia. “Now I think you have earned some rest, and I have lots to do here in Pensacolta. Try to take it easy,” she gave Twilight a gentle peck on the cheek and turned to leave. Twilight watched her go, wondering if she was making the right choice. In the end, though, she’d just have to deal with whatever happened as it happened. She lay her head back down on the pillow, and before long she had dozed off again.
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When Twilight woke up it was the middle of the afternoon. The worst of the pains had faded enough for Twilight to get up. She was starving, and realized that she hadn’t eaten anything for a full twenty four hours. Rather than call somepony in to fuss over her, she decided to take matters into her own hooves and gingerly lowered herself out of bed, testing her weight. She wasn’t going to running any races in the near future, but she could walk without too much of a limp. Nudging open her door and peeking through, she waited until a nearby nurse turned away from her before she slipped into the hallway following signs for the hospital cafeteria.
The lunch rush had ended well over an hour ago, and only a few tables had anypony seated at them. The three figures across the room sipping on mugs of coffee stood out and Twilight trotted over to them.
“You guys are OK!” she said. She grabbed Luna in a big hug from the side, causing her to yelp and drop her coffee. She only caught it with her magic at the last second. Twilight realized her mistake and let go. “Oh, I’m sorry Luna, I didn’t mean to-”
She was interrupted when Luna turned and swept her up in a hug of her own. “Do not worry, we were simply surprised. Some of our bite marks are still a little tender but you did us no real harm,” she said. Her mane and coat were scruffy and a little patchy in places, but Luna was probably in better shape than she was right now. Twilight realized she hadn’t seen her reflection yet, and wasn’t looking forward to it.
“Good to have you back, Sparkle,” said Reinolds from the other side of the table once Luna had loosened her grip. “That was a hell of a stunt you pulled back there.” Ample nodded from under a cloak that had obscured her features until Twilight got closer.
“I’m just glad everypony’s fine,” said Twilight. Ample’s face twisted into a sly little smile.
“Actually, Twilight, there’s some bad news. Ample Booty is dead,” said Ample. Twilight stared blankly at her. “Taken from us too soon, at the very pinnacle of her awesomeness. They never even found the body. Tragic, really. It’s all spelled out in the very official press release that tomorrow’s paper is planning to run.”
“Why would you let them do that? You’re a hero. They should throw you a parade or something,” said Twilight.
“Don’t I know it. But I’ve been a bad pony for a very long time, Twilight. I probably have a good seven or eight outstanding warrants, and even if Luna here gave me a royal pardon there are some ponies on the other side of the law that wouldn’t take too kindly to me helping you with Gumdrop. Not least her old crew. My old crew.” said Ample.
“But what will you do? Where will you go if everypony in the city thinks you’re dead?” ask Twilight.
“Plenty of other cities out there. I hear good things about Manehattan. Plenty of ways for an enterprising mare with my kinds of skills to make a living with a dishonest day’s work,” she said leaning back in her chair
Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She looked over at Reinolds and Luna, who seemed completely unsurprised that the pony in front of them had just blatantly confessed her plans to commit more crimes in the future. “You can’t do that, we won’t let you do that, right Princess?” she looked up to Luna expectantly.
Luna shrugged. “We cannot punish ponies for crimes they have not yet committed, Twilight,” said Luna.
Twilight frowned. She had come up with four different ways she could do just that through the proper application of divination and chronomancy when Reinolds spoke up again.
“Yeah, Manehattan's good. Too bad you aren’t considering Canterlot, though. There’s a pony there who I would have introduced you to. New recruit at the guard. Green coat, blonde mane, picture of a coin for a cutie mark. She’s screwed up a lot in the past, but I wasn’t really interested in that when I signed her up,” said Reinolds, pausing to take a long sip of his coffee. “What was important to me is that she’s clever, brave, and she stepped up to help a bunch of ponies she didn’t know when she could have just run off and saved herself. Frankly she’s a probably a bit overqualified for the job.”
Ample sat there for a long time, letting that sink in. “How do you know that I... that she’s cut out for the whole straight and narrow, legitimate citizen thing?” she asked.
“I guess I don’t know, for sure, but she really came through and helped me out when there was nopony else who could and I think I owe her the benefit of the doubt. I know this Princess, you see, and even though she’s a bit weird...” Luna’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but she didn’t interrupt him. ”...she and I are both believers in the power of second chances,” said Reinolds. “Wish I could remember the mare’s name though, it’s on the tip of my tongue...”
Ample looked down at her side, staring at the spot where her disguise covered her cutie mark. “I think...I think her name is Golden Heart. That sounds like the name of the pony that she hopes... that she wants to be,” said Ample... said Golden Heart.
“You know, I think that was it exactly. Luna and I can take care of the paperwork, but she better be at training by 7:30 sharp next Monday. She needs to get her mane trimmed down to regulation length before then, too,” said Reinolds. “Oh, and one last thing. If I ever find out she has stepped even a millihoof out of line, or she’s been anything less than the pinnacle of integrity and trustworthiness, she and I will finish the knife fight we nearly started on the Tranquility. Got that?”
“Understood,” said Golden Heart. Reinolds’ glare didn’t relent even a bit. “I mean, understood... sir.”
“Wait, you two were in a knife fight?” asked Twilight.
“For the record, I totally would have kicked this geezer’s flank if he hadn’t chickened out,” said Golden Heart.
“Not even in your wildest dreams, kid.”
The two stared each other down for several seconds, until suddenly they both burst out laughing. “Alright. If I’m moving to Canterlot, I better go see my sister and give her a rundown of what’s really happening. If she sees my obituary in the paper before I can tell her what’s actually going on she might decide to make it come true,” said Golden Heart.
“I’ll come with you. You might need the backup,” said Reinolds. The two of them got up from the table and walked out of the cafeteria together, leaving Luna and Twilight alone. Neither of them seemed quite sure how to handle the moment, and an awkward silence descended over them.
“So, Twilight,” Luna began at last, “I suppose Celestia informed you that you were released from your duties as a bodyguard to us when she spoke to you.”
“Yes, she did mention that,” said Twilight, “I hope I did an OK job.”
“Of all our bodyguards who allowed us to be eaten by a sea serpent, you were the best.”
“You aren’t going to let that go anytime soon, are you?” asked Twilight, a skeptical eyebrow raised.
“Our sister made it clear that she would be reminding us of this incident regularly over the next several decades. So no,” said Luna.
“Do you two really poke fun at one another for things that happened so long ago?” asked Twilight.
Luna smiled a mischievous smile. “Actually, Twilight, allow me to answer that by telling you a story. Quite a long time ago, Equestria was hosting a trade summit with the Draconian empire. At the time, our intelligence about the empire’s internal politics was somewhat limited, but we had just received a very credible report that one of their princes had a powerful crush on Celestia. We decided to take advantage of this fact,” she said.
Twilight frowned. “You took advantage of a young dragon’s feelings? That seems wrong. And also somehow familiar,” she said.
Luna held up a hoof to forestall her protest. “Hear us out. It has been some time since anypony in particular has caught my sister’s eye but when she chooses to flirt with somepony, or somedragon as in this particular case, she is utterly, utterly shameless and heavy-hoofed. For three days, she applied her... charms... to the dragon prince.”
“Did it work?” asked Twilight, unable to resist interrupting the tale again.
“Well, as we discovered later,” Luna said with a smirk as she neared the climax of her story, “the Prince had never been interested in her at all. The whole tale was a rumor about an adolescent drake with a crush on a young rock farming mare in the borderlands that had spun entirely out of control,”
“So the whole time...” said Twilight.
“Exactly. At the end of the third day the prince took her aside, thinking it was she who had a crush on him, with the intention to let her down gently. If the later reports are to believed, he also told her that he wasn’t interested in ‘older mares.’”
Twilight winced in sympathy. “What did Celestia do?” she asked.
“What could she do? She resumed the trade talks as if nothing had happened and nursed her wounded pride in private. If you ever need a laugh, you need only drop the name “Prince Grayscale” into a conversation with her. We recommend waiting until she has just taken a mouthful of tea for maximum effect. Oh, and when you do please make sure you tell her from us that ‘now we are even.’” said Luna.
The two ponies shared a chuckle at Celestia’s expense. By the end of it Twilight felt that the tension between them had diminished just a little bit.
“In all seriousness, Twilight, we wish to thank you most sincerely for your service these last several months. You took on a great burden, protecting us in body and perhaps more importantly restoring us in spirit. We will not forget your efforts. Still... We are certain that by now you are ready to move on with your own life, and surely eager not to be stuck by our side. We would not begrudge you for wishing to... avoid us for some time after all this. We must surely bring to mind many hard times just by our presence,” said Luna, staring into her cup of coffee.
Twilight shifted in her chair, uncomfortable. “Well, Princess. I’m sure you’re sick of me too. There must be lots of things you’ve wished you could do without me interfering or hanging around uselessly. So if you want to go off on your own, or want me to just try to keep away from you for a while that would be completely understandable,” she said.
“Right,” said Luna.
“Right,” said Twilight. Another silence descended over them and both ponies found something more interesting to look at than one another.
“...on the other hoof...” said Luna eventually, “We discovered in one of the hospital’s periodicals that the Pensacolta Public Library recently began a new program displaying ancient tomes of dark magic and eldritch knowledge to the public. We thought we would go visit them. By ourselves of course.”
Twilight’s ears perked up at the prospect of rare and ancient books on display. “I think I’d like to see that too. You know, by myself,” she said.
Luna nodded. “Naturally. Though if we will be attending by ourselves, and you will be attending by yourself, perhaps we could each attend by ourselves... at the same time?”
Twilight couldn’t contain her grin. “I’d like that very much Princess. In fact I think that if we both decided to independently and coincidentally visit the exhibit, say, right now we could even walk over there together.”
Luna’s nervous and tentative smile changed instantly into a wide and genuine one, and Twilight thought there might even be the slightest suggestion of tears in the corner of her eyes. “We would very much enjoy that. We try to make it a point to attend such events ever since a careless librarian accidentally sorted A Newbie’s Primer on Necromancy in the young foal’s selection.”
Twilight grimaced a bit. “Oh dear, that must have led to some serious mental trauma for the poor little things,” she said.
“On the contrary, the foals found the entire experience delightful and exciting. Their parents, on the other hoof...” and with that Luna began to regale Twilight with the tale of the Zombie Gerbil Horde that had menaced Fillydelphia fifteen hundred years ago.
Side by side, the two friends pushed open the doors of the hospital and walked out into the late afternoon sun. Whatever the future held, they’d face it together.