Twilight Sparkle trotted happily down the road to Canterlot’s Palace. Today she would be learning magic from her newest favorite pony in the whole world, Sunset Shimmer. Twilight spent a lot of time reading up on the theory of magic, but Sunset made her apply it. Usually the lessons exhausted the little filly, but she learned more about how magic worked. Sunset was a stern teacher, but that didn’t stop her from giving Twilight positive reinforcement when she did well.
Twilight finally got to the castle gates. The tall regal spires still overwhelmed the filly even though she’s been going there on a regular basis for the past month or so. She walked forward after admiring the castle as she saw her brother walking from the training grounds.
“Twily!” Shining Armor greeted, with a big grin.
“Hi Shiny!” Twilight greeted happily, She adored her big brother, almost as much as she adored Sunset Shimmer. Shining Armor would take her to the amusement park or treat her to ice cream whenever he got a day off, and while that all was fun, learning from Sunset Shimmer was the best fun the filly could think of.
“So, you going up to study?” Shining asked.
Twilight nodded, “I’m going to learn some magic with big sis!”
“Oh,” Shining’s face fell, “Her... Just... be careful, okay, Twily?”
Twilight tilted her head in confusion, why did everypony have that reaction when she mentioned Sunset? Sure Sunset was a stern teacher, but she never said anything bad to Twilight.
“Okay, Shiny.” Twilight said automatically as she trotted into the castle. She traversed the halls that she had already memorized in the past month or so. She entered the residential wing of the castle and stopped at Sunset’s open door.
“Big sis?” Twilight called out into the empty room. Twilight walked into it, slowly looking around. Usually Sunset would be in her room, preparing for the lesson, and there would be books scattered around. Twilight had spied a covered bird cage and noticed a note taped to it. She floated it over to herself and read it.
Twilight,
Sorry to be missing the lesson, Celestia had to deliver a speech to the new recruits for the royal guard and I needed to keep an eye on Cadance.
However, there is still a lesson today: You will be taking care of Celestia’s Pet Phoenix, Philomena, until I return. Good Luck!
SS
Twilight uncovered the cage to see a sickly looking bird slightly resembling a chicken. It was molting horrendously, and the cage was lined with it’s slightly warm feathers. It was hardly the majestic creature that twilight read about, but as Sunset Shimmer had usually said, ‘don’t believe everything you read’.
“Well, I guess the first thing to do is to feed you.” Twilight muttered looking for some food.
She found a bag of phoenix feed, which looked less like feed and more like wood chops, behind Sunset’s desk. Twilight took opened the cage and took out Philomena’s feeding tray. She floated it over a scooped up some of the feed and floated it back to the cage, which was now empty.
Twilight did a double take looked into the cage and all over the room to find the Phoenix. Twilight started to look frantically everywhere.
“Philomena!” Twilight called, to an expected silence.
Twilight scanned the room and found a trail of feathers leading out the door. She followed the trail into the hallway. The feathers stopped at Cadance’s room. The filly paused a bit, she didn’t really like the pink alicorn, mostly because she seemed to irritate Sunset to no end. Twilight steeled herself and went into the room.
Cadance’s room wasn’t that bad actually. It was much too pink for any sane pony, the plush carpets were a bit much, but all in all, there was nothing in there that offended Twilight.
The trail of feathers lead to under the bed. Twilight lit her horn and took a look under the bed. She saw Philomena past the the other things that Twilight was too young to understand. Twilight grabbed the bird with her telekinesis and floated the bird with.
“Running away isn't very nice, Philomena,” Twilight scolded while escorting the bird back to Sunset’s room, “I’m supposed to take care of you!”
The bird coughed and hacked in response.
“ And you sound like you need a lot of care,” Twilight added
Philomena sat at a small table in Sunset’s room with a bib around her neck. Twilight floated a bowl of soup over to her.
“I read somewhere that hot soup helps with a cough,” Twilight said as she watched the bird.
Philomena just sat there and stared at something… It was hard discern what exactly, her eyes were looking opposite directions. Eventually, Philomena fell face-first into the bowl.
“Maybe it was a bad idea to have you eat soup…” Twilight concluded.
The rest of the day proved to be difficult for Twilight. For being Princess Celestia’s pet, Philomena proved to be the single most unruly bird Twilight has ever met. Not that Twilight has met many birds, but the ones she usually saw didn’t seem to delight in ponies’ misery.
Philomena refused to eat, which was fine for Twilight, The bird obviously wasn’t hungry. The bigger annoyance was that the bird would keep running away from her. Twilight would remember the layout of the castle inside and out after this. To add to the frustration, Philomena was continuing to molt and she was leaving less and less feathers for Twilight to follow.
Twilight followed the feather trail into the throne room, and saw Philomena perched on Celestia’s throne, devoid of any feathers. Twilight was a young filly, and not a lot actually phased her.
“Philomena, come down here this instant!” Twilight commanded with an adorable stomp from her hoof.
This was phasing her.
“Philomena!I am giving you to the count of five!” Twilight said.
The bird just stood there as uncomprehending as ever.
“One…. “
Philomena continued to stand there, her head tilting limply.
“Two….”
The bird coughed in response.
“Three…”
Philomena wobbled a bit.
“Fo-ur….” Twilight’s voice caught when she saw the bird waver.
Philomena fell off the throne, somehow catching on fire on the way down.
“Philomena!” Twilight ran towards the phoenix only to be met with ash.
“No…” was all that Twilight could muster while standing before the pile of ash. She blinked her eyes, allowing the tears to flow freely.
“Hey, Squirt, We’re back!” Sunset’s voice called, while she entered the room, “I saw the feathers leading here, I hope she’s…”
Sunset paused as she beheld the crying filly in front of a pile of ash. Sunset sighed and walked up to Twilight.
“I-I tried my best, big sis, I really did” Twilight cried.
“Well congratulations, Philomena, you made a small filly cry, I hope you’re proud of yourself” Sunset said to the small pile of ash.
The ash was swept up in an invisible wind and recomposed itself into what looked like a fiery red hawk, something more akin to what a phoenix is supposed to look like. It perched on Sunset’s shoulder, while Twilight looked on in astonishment.
“Now, apologize to Twilight, or you won’t get a treat” Sunset said, and the bird sheepishly cooed an apology.
“Sorry Twilight,” Sunset said, “If I had known she was going through her reincarnation cycle I wouldn’t have made you look after her.”
“Re… In…” Twilight tried to sound the word out.
“Sometimes, Phoenixes burn themselves up, but they get reborn from their ashes” Sunset explained, “Unfortunately, Philomena has developed a habit of messing with ponies when that happens”
Twilight nodded, sure to remember this day for a long time to come.
Twilight walked along the streets of ponyville, fresh off of seeing The Princess off from her visit. She was kind of disappointed that Sunset couldn’t make it, but it was because of Sunset that Celestia could make her visits.
Twilight was making her rounds to her friends, thanking them for making a good impression on the princess, and to encourage them to make a similar impression when they meet Sunset. Although, for some odd reason they would suddenly get nervous whenever she mentioned her ‘big sis’.
Twilight went up to Fluttershy’s house and knocked on the door.
“Hi, Fluttershy! I just wanted to drop by and say thank you so very much for making such a good impression on the princess today,” Twilight said as she let herself in, she paused when she saw Fluttershy trying (and failing) to medicate a red chicken.
“You…” Twilight snarled, “What do you think you’re doing!”
“Oh, Twilight, I’m so sorry, she just looked so sick and -” Fluttery tried to say.
“You are not pulling this on one of my friends, especially Fluttershy!” Twilight scolded as she marched up to the chicken, much to Fluttershy’s confusion.
“Now you either leave my friend alone, or I’ll speed up your reincarnation myself”
Philomena promptly ran back to her cage, and cowered before Twilight.
“That wasn’t very nice, Twilight” Fluttershy scolded, “Philomena is very sick!”
“She’s a phoenix, Fluttershy, she’ll burn herself up and come back good as new” Twilight explained, “She also likes to mess with ponies like when she does that.”
“Oh,” was all Fluttershy could say, looking at the floor.
Twilight smiled and put her hoof around Fluttershy, “Hey, don’t look so sad, your heart was in the right place, it’s just a shame that you had to take care of her”
“How do you know so much about Philomena?” Fluttershy asked.
“Big sis made me pet sit her when I was a filly” Twilight Drawled
“Oh… Your ‘big sis’ … That makes sense”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she grabbed Philomena’s cage and floated it over to Fluttershy.
“Come on, Let’s take Philomena back to Princess Celestia” Twilight said and thus they both exited the cabin with with no other problems. Well, no other problems pertaining to Celestia’s pet phoenix at least.