//------------------------------// // Chapter: 3 An Unstoppable Force and an Impenetrable Shield // Story: Empty Pages // by Blind Gardener //------------------------------// Canterlot was an unusual city, one with two different vibrant and beating hearts. The first, true, heart of Canterlot was the palace, and the surrounding noble's district. The nobles' district was a large walled city unto itself. 2,000 years ago, it was Canterlot. Over time a city grew around the outer walls of Canterlot, and new outer walls were constructed. The inner walls were eventually repurposed as a sort of privacy curtain between the castle and surrounding estates of the inner city nobility, and the rest of the holi-poni outside. The second heart was the commercial district, where crafts ponies and merchants from all over Equestria worked, lived, and hawked their wares. It was loud, crowded, conveniently near the train station, and apartments were universally located above nightclubs, potters, greengrocers, coffee shops, and other inner city necessities. Twilight's incredibly purple house and its excessively purple colored yard, was a small 'estate' located between the two hearts of Canterlot, near other modest estates owned by accountants, doctors, lawyers, scholars, and nobility who were not wealthy or important enough to be located within the inner walls. This was very appropriate partly because, well, Celestia could count more than 50 shades of purple, and partly because Twilight's parents fit well into the social atmosphere of the neighborhood. Twilight's mother, Twilight Velvet, was a Dame of the Order of the Recondite Tulip, a researcher in the department of High Energy Magic at the University of Canterlot and had once had a medal bestowed upon her by Celestia for writing an amusing filly's adventure novel entitled "The Grand High Mugwump" that had poked fun delightfully at the stuffy attitude that many of Celestia's nobles had wrapped themselves in. In truth the middle aged wizard was better known for her writing career than her magical breakthroughs to which her greatest donations were an obscure treatise about the manifestation of earth pony and pegasus magic with regards to sensory perception and a thesis on the mathematical modeling of the compression of magic infused closed spaces. Twilight's father, Sir Night Light was a Knight-Protector of the Order of the Radish, and was a guiding member of the Committee of Magical Monitoring and Regulation. He had received his knighthood for services in removing maloderious and malignant magical pests from Celestia's atrium. They were not close acquaintances of Celestia, but she did see them from time to time and offer a nod in their general direction. Both unicorns were in the top first percentile of magic ability, even among nobles. Celestia's informal entourage consisted of Twilight, and four guards. Shining Armor had already run ahead to inform his parents of the impending informal visit by their ruling princess. As though any visit by one's princess could be considered 'informal'. Which, of course, was why she had given them ample time to prepare. She paused a moment in front of the door, then nodded to one of her four guardsmen. "Sergeant Sanshiro, please knock upon the door. Gently, if you will" "Hai," the black maned pegasus said, stepping smartly to the door and rapping twice upon the wood. The door swung open, revealing the face of Night Light. "Your Highness, welcome in," Night Light said, performing an informal bow. "My wife is already at the table, getting the refreshments ready. If you'll come in?" "I do believe I shall, Sir Night Light," Celestia responded. The table in the solarium was too small for an alicorn of Celestia's size. It was also draped with books. Despite the general cleanliness and lack of dust within their house, the most common decoration contained within were books. Big ones, small ones, even a few magazines here and there. A large mug of hot coco had been placed in front of Celestia, along with a large collection of small strawberry based pastries. She munched through both at a slow but steady rate. Her guards were sitting in the servant's quarters having cucumber sandwiches with a maid, a gardener, and Shining Armour. Twilight had retired to her bedroom, claiming not to be hungry for tea. Other ponies, when Celestia visited, typically tried too hard to make her comfortable or keep her happy. Velvet and Night Light seemed to have a better grasp of how to maintain a formal level of informality. "I would like to thank you for the wonderful spread, dame Velvet," Celestia said, a gentle smile on her face. "It was the least I could do your highness" Twilight Velvet said, beaming with modest pride. "Please, call me Celestia. I am teaching your daughter as my personal student, after all." Celestia winked at the two unicorns. "Very well... Celestia," Twilight Velvet said "We have always know our daughter was a very remarkable pony, but becoming your personal student is certainly more than we had anticipated!" "Could you tell me a little more about what she was like before I met her?" Celestia asked, sipping at the thick, sweet, hot coco. The two glanced at one another, unspoken communication dancing in their eyes. "To sum it up in one word," Night Light said "Flighty." "Flighty." Celestia repeated back carefully, prodding the two with a carefully sympathetic look. "Yes. Flighty. One day we'd wake up to find that she had glued butterflies to Miss Smarty Pants to make her fly. The next we'd find her in Pony Joe's trying to bake doughnuts." Night Light confirmed. Twilight Velvet giggled "And she'd never sit still for anything. She's matured a lot since then, you've been a good influence on her. Ever since she saw you raise the sun she's been studying." Celestia smiled warmly "I'm glad I've been a positive influence on her but... was there anything unusual about her behavior?" The two glanced at one another, then back at Celestia... Upstairs in Twilight's room, a little filly was crying into a stuffed doll. "An' Celestia's gonna stop teaching me an' I'm gonna have to go back to Magic Kindergarten... 'Snot fair. I'm not broken. I have my lists an' my notes." She whispered to Herr Professor Doktor Smarty Pants. She enveloped the Smarty Pants in her magenta magic, turning the doll's head to look at her. "Well, I just can't seem to get the hang of her etiquette," Twilight slumped. She cocked Smarty Pants head to the side in a questioning fashion. "They're... boring. And they all look like Big Brother. I can't keep them straight," Twilight said, shaking her head. Smarty touched herself in the chest with drooping ears hanging free. "Well, that's because you look different from the other dolls," Twilight stated with an imperious wave of her hoof "Anyway it doesn't have anything to do with magic!" Smarty gestured expansively while bouncing up and down a little. "But there's nothing to simplify and memorise in smaller parts," Twilight whined, lips flapping nervously Smarty shoot herself vigorously, then pointed at Twilight. "No, I can't just 'do it'. It's not something that you can just do the same every time. Everything changes every time you do it," Twilight said with frustrated hoof stamps. Smarty gestured at the magenta glow enveloping her. "But magic is different. I can predict how I need to change things. It makes sense." Twilight shook her head once again, snout pointed down dejectedly. Smarty inched closer to Twilight. "No, nothing else makes quite as much sense," Twilight's snout was almost touching the floor now. Smarty patted Twilight gently on the horn, then gestured to some of the small knick knacks around Twilight's room. "Yes, well, that's because I learned math." Still, Twilight raised her snout a little. Smarty pointed at Twilight's face and then her own. "It's just nopony else seems to have any trouble with it... I think." Twilight tilted her head sideways as though hearing something far away. Smarty shook her head, then touched Twilight's horn again. "You're right, maybe it's hard for everypony and I'm not noticing. After all, why would there be classes in it if it wasn't hard?" Twilight awkwardly patted the well loved doll. Smarty patted her back, this time gently on the muzzle. "Awww, I don't think you're broken either, Smarty. You always know the right thing to say" Twilight hiccuped and snuggled with the toy, letting the glow of her magic fade. "No, can't say there is" Twilight Velvet said, after a moment's hesitation that Celestia did not fail to notice. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with our little filly." Velvet gave Celestia a glare, as though daring her to challenge Velvet's statement. Celestia shook her head, frustration at her subjects' stubborn evasiveness dancing across her face. "Tell me... did she always have a hard time telling other ponies apart, or did she suffer some sort of traumatic injury in the past? Was it the magical overload?" "My daughter. Is not. Damaged." Twilight Velvet said, pounding the floor with a hoof for emphasis. "If you believe that she is, we would be glad to take her off of your hooves, and invite you to leave." She gesticulated towards the door. "I do not believe that you are a bad parent," Celestia rumbled through clenched jaws "But right now you are potentially denying Twilight the help that she desperately needs. I am not here to repudiate my student. I am not here to accuse you of bad parenting. I am not here spread prejudice or throw around accusations. I am here to figure out what, exactly is wrong with my student and how to fix it." "And if it can't be fixed?" Night Light's voice rumbled dangerously, eyes narrowed menacingly "Then I will teach her how to work around it." Celestia hissed, her wings shaking and rattling at her sides and her ears tight against her head "I care as much about her as you do. Possibly more since I am actually trying to help her instead of pretending that her patently obvious problems don't exist to protect her from imaginary threats." It was later agreed by everypony involved that this was around the time that the first buck was kicked.