//------------------------------// // Chapter: 1 Celestia's Slightly Defective Student // Story: Empty Pages // by Blind Gardener //------------------------------// For Celestia, Vanquisher of Discord, High General of the Crystal March, and Banisher of Nightmare Moon it had been a fairly tame day. But for Celestia, Princess of Equestria, Tea Connoisseur, Strawberry Cake Fiend, and Terror of the Palace Kitchens the day had been quite exciting. In one swoop Celestia had felt the Elements of Harmony regain some of their lost power as a mysterious rainboom shattered the sky. Were that the only entertaining event to have occurred, it would have been more excitement than Celestia typically witnessed over entire decades. That she had also acquired a new young student named Twilight Sparkle, who seemed to have an unusually close connection to the elements of harmony, was simply the strawberry on top of the day’s events. Returning Twilight’s parents to normal had been comfortingly routine. Celestia smiled to herself, recalling the warm feeling of Twilight, pressed up under her wing. It was good to have a student again. Twilight’s parents had told Celestia that she would be ready today, and Celestia was eagerly awaiting her new student’s arrival in the Rosemary tea-room. It didn’t do for royalty to be impatient, but Celestia glanced at the clock nevertheless. “Where is that silly little filly?” she murmured to herself. It had already been 20 minutes after the agreed upon meeting time. Thoughts flashed through her head of Twilight being mocked by other, jealous, students. Or worse, physically assaulted for the terror she had inadvertently caused other ponies. Celestia’s smile turned upside down. Maybe she should tell the guard to find her new student, before something terrible befell her? No, surely everything was fine. It was only 20 minutes. It had been more than a hundred years before anypony had been this late to a meeting with Celestia. She did not like the feeling, and if she had possessed a mustache she would have been chewing on it. How to deal with this… oh! She clicked her tongue softly in summons. One of the castle staff promptly materialized. The green and purple earth mare bowed her head respectfully. “Yes Princess?” She asked. “Please go find Guard Trainee Shining Armour, and tell him to make certain that his sister arrives at our meeting safely.” Celestia commanded. The earth pony nodded, and whisked herself out the door. Celestia nodded and went back to waiting, a pleasant smile frozen on her worried face like a death rictus. Twilight Sparkle was enjoying herself. The massive guard she was dragging around was not. “This is Prunus amygdalus.” Twilight said enthusiastically patting the tree. “And over there is some Achillea millefolium.” She paused a moment, pondering “Most parks don’t have quite this variety of plants. This is fascinating!” She grinned, writing checkmarks on a long list. The guard remained silent, uncertain as to the filly’s intentions in giving him impromptu lessons in botany. What he did know, from yesterday's events, was that she was frightfully powerful, had recently been appointed Celestia’s student, and was the little sister of Guardsman Trainee Shining Armour. Everypony, except for Shining Armour, knew Shining Armour was being trained up as the replacement for the current captain of the guard. While that meant that the other guards were expected to be extra tough on Shining, his family was to be treated with a certain amount of deference. Therefore there were three good reasons not to struggle too hard to get away. Also three very good reasons to sweat bullets. “Sister!” a voice called out, startling Twilight. “Are you bothering the other guards again?” A small white unicorn had managed to work his way through the courtyard to arrive near Twilight just as she was about to pull another book and checklist out of her seemingly bottomless saddlebags. “I… But… You!” Twilight spooked, glancing between the massive white earth pony, and the smaller white unicorn besides her. “... Brother, you really need to get a special uniform, so I can tell you apart from the other guards” That small white unicorn chuckled “You can ask Celestia about it yourself… did you forget?” Twilight blinked curiously. Then she began to dig through her saddlebag, completely missing a note marked ‘important, read first’. That small white unicorn noticed it, enveloping it with his pink magic. “Twilight,” he murmured, leaning forwards. She failed to respond, continuing her frantic digging. “Twilight.” He repeated. “Twilight!” He stomped a hoof to the ground to get her attention. “Yes… uhh...” She blinked at him once more, owlishly glancing at the other white guards pony nearby “Brother?” He wiggled the note at her playfully. She read it. Her nose scrunched up. She took a deep breath. One of the white ponies braced himself. The other glanced aside at the first, then followed his lead. She began to shriek, giggle, and dance simultaneously. “I’m the princess’ personal student!” One of the white ponies began to relax, but then the other tapped the first and shook his head. Twilight glanced at the battered watch that had been a gift from somepony important, then began screeching again. “Hoofstones! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” She started to run so fast that she left purple and magenta streaks in the air behind her. The white unicorn began jogging to keep up. The white earth pony relaxed, and returned to his post. He had been a royal guard a long time, but one fact remained inescapable. Unicorns were very strange ponies. Twilight barreled through the castle, sparing not a single glance to the sides as she followed a ball of her magic, a tracking spell she had invented for just this purpose. It lead her past, around, over, and under obstructions, including other ponies, to take her to her destination in the quickest quantity of time calibrated to her current running speed and athletic prowess. Thus she did not notice the ball leading her into a textbook perfect third baseman’s slide under a massive Alicorn, a tea table, and onto a small lilac cushion. She sat, and began to catch her breath. It was only then that she noticed the pony staring at her across the table. She was pretty sure that there was only one Alicorn, which made identifying her easy. “Um. Hi princess Celestia. Uh, sorry I was late. I, um, forgot.” Twilight gasped. Celestia stared at Twilight a little bit longer, then began to release a melodic peel of earnest laughter. “Oh dear. And here I thought nopony could forget such an event. I suppose the events of yesterday were fairly overwhelming.” Celestia’s voice washed over Twilight like a soothing balm. “Er… yes they were,” Twilight said simply. She crossed her eyes slightly as she remembered the events, setting Celestia off in another quick bout of giggles as her new student made a face like a filly with a bee on her nose, as opposed to in her bonnet. That white unicorn stepped quietly through the door, then struck the ground loudly with a metal clad hoof. “Announcing Twilight Sparkle.” “Oh, she’s already quite announced” Celestia beamed. “Were there any difficulties in finding her?” “None, Princess. I just searched for the most uncomfortable looking guard in the castle.” The blue mained white unicorn said. Celestia felt like she was maybe missing part of this conversation. “And why was that?” “My sister has an unfortunate habit of assuming that any white pony she sees with guard armour on is me.” The white unicorn stated as though this were the most normal thing in the world. Celestia was a little taken aback. “Well, I suppose the purpose of the uniforms is to make ponies look alike. I suppose she was harassing another unicorn?” “Nay. An Earth Pony. Name of Hard Knocks.” The unicorn said with a quick shake of his head. Celestia’s eyes widened, and a short flicker of what could even be called fear crossed her face. “... We should continue this discussion at a later date, Guard Trainee Shining Armour. Dismissed. Return to your previous posting” “Yes, ma’am” Shining said, blandly. His body language was utterly unreadable. Celestia turned back to Twilight. Twilight, for her part, was already snout deep in the cup of tea Celestia had poured earlier. Noticing Celestia’s speculatively narrowed eyes on her, Twilight self consciously straightened her posture and carefully pushed the half empty teacup gently away. Under Celestia’s continued glare she spoke up “Sorry. The tea was just soooo goood. I’ll drink more politely in the future.” Some tea dripped from her muzzle quietly onto the floor. Celestia suppressed a strong urge to rub her face with her hoof. Training this new student might be more difficult than she expected. Perhaps a lesson in manners would be a good start. And perhaps that magic surge had damaged her new student. This would require careful observation.