The Next Best Thing.
Time flies when you’re having fun. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for being overworked without having so much as a second to rest, which inevitably means that some things go forgotten. So perhaps it should have come as no surprise that at least half the things that Celestia had intended to do that day had gotten pushed to the next, and then the next, until they had fallen off her mental radar entirely.
After four days of dealing with a huge scandal over the possible rigging of the mayoral election, another three days spent drafting a proposal to the Zebra tribes (making an entire diplomatic document rhyme was far from easy, after all), and an entire week spent attending an overly ceremonious tea party to which she had been invited by the dragon ambassador, she had completely lost track of time. Not only that; she had all but forgotten about the filly she had accepted as her student. Which wasn’t a problem until an attendant came up to her in the middle of morning court.
“Twilight Sparkle and her parents have arrived, and are waiting by the side entrance as you requested, Princess,” he whispered to her, while she was focused on a dispute between a pair of farmers (whose original quarrel had concerned a tree, but had since evolved into a full-fledged case of land-grab).
She gave him an absentminded nod, trying to keep up with the confusing shouting match the entire argument was threatening to devolve into. “Thank you. Tell them I will be with them shortly.” She righted her posture and cleared her throat. It took a full ten seconds before the farmers finally noticed that the rest of the room had gone quiet and quickly bowed to Celestia in apology. “Gentlecolts,” she said, smiling benevolently. “While I am deeply moved by the passion you both display, I have been called to attend to other matters. I will therefore leave you, and the rest of this morning court, in the capable hooves of my councilors.”
The councilors in question (who had been softly conversing amongst themselves while treating the entire court progression as an extended banquet opportunity) balked at the sudden and unwelcome attention. One by one they scrambled to the throne, settling down on the platform situated halfway up the dais—the place they should have been sitting from the start. They quickly busied themselves with catching up on the last hour of proceedings, allowing Celestia to leave the room with a smile that was more devious than benevolent.
The name had sparked some recognition, and Celestia realized she had forgotten to take care of a few very important things... such as actually getting the castle ready to situate its newest occupant, or even preparing any sort of teaching schedule. But it wasn’t until she had followed her attendant around the corner and saw the purple filly gawking at everything while talking a mile a minute, that she remembered how... driven Twilight actually was. Which only exacerbated those problems.
And don’t forget that you still haven’t delegated any of your responsibilities.
The filly was enthusiastically pointing out statuettes and decorations to her exhausted-looking parents, who were being helped out of a cart’s harness by the castle staff. The cart itself was another thing that drew Celestia’s attention: It was filled with more than a half dozen well-worn travel bags which all looked like they were filled to capacity. And, judging by the struggles of the ponies helping to unload the cart, probably contained the makings of a personal library for her young student.
She looked around, trying to find Sunny in the bustle that surrounded the cart. The unicorn had been her closest aide for over a decade now, and was thankfully smart enough to have made some preparations without Celestia having to ask for them. Hopefully, they had included reserving a room.
Even if Sunny had made any preparations, however, they wouldn’t help Celestia right now. Unlike the eager-looking filly, her assistant was nowhere to be found, which meant that she would have to make do with what she could come up with on the fly. Celestia hated going into any kind of situation without some sort of plan, but there was little she could do about it now.
She put on the gentlest smile in her vast repertoire and made her way towards the trio, nodding towards the parents before focusing her attention on the filly. “Hello, Twilight. Are you ready?”
“Princess!” It looked like Twilight would trip over her own legs in her haste to get to Celestia, yet she skidded to a halt right before she did. Then she dropped into a polite curtsy, which was no doubt the result of a stern lecture on proper etiquette by her parents. Or perhaps it was because Celestia once again fully looked the part of a princess, complete with all the regal adornments and golden horseshoes that entailed.
“She’s been ready for the better part of a week, Your Majesty,” Twilight’s mother replied, nudging the filly upright with a hoof. “But we managed to keep her occupied a little longer.” The mare smiled, but something about it was off. There was a hint of motherly unease; she clearly didn’t really want to let her daughter go.
“You look exhausted. If you wish, I will ask the castle staff to make you comfortable while I get Twilight situated?” Celestia proposed cautiously.
Both parents shook their heads. “We want to help her get settled,” her father replied, giving the closest staff members a grateful nod when they floated a glass of water over to him.
Her mother nodded in agreement, adding: “We can always rest once we get home.”
Celestia inclined her head slightly. “Certainly. At least allow the guards to take care of the luggage...”
A guard took the last bag from the back of the cart, struggling against the weight the moment he picked it up. He toppled over when he misplaced his legs while bracing himself, and got a giggle out of Twilight for his troubles. It made everypony smile, even the stallion himself, although his was more of a bashful one.
Celestia’s own smile lingered while she watched the guards struggling with the luggage, before eventually taking the two heaviest pieces for herself and leading the entire procession down the labyrinthine hallways of the castle. She chuckled inwardly at the frankly ridiculous amount of ponies it was taking to get Twilight’s belongings to her would-be quarters—including even herself, even though it meant falling even further behind on her schedule.
“Here we are,” she announced when they had finally made their way through the winding castle.
True to their training, most of her guards came to a halt without so much as a squeak. Only the newest recruit ran into a spot of trouble: He was dragging the bag that had toppled him around flank-first, so that he ended up bumping into one of the other guards, unaware of the fact that they had already reached their destination. At this point, the flustered stallion swiftly straightened up and stood at attention, visibly winded, whilst the others silently rolled their eyes.
Twilight herself bounded into the room with the same level of enthusiasm she had been displaying ever since her arrival, forgoing peeking her head around the corner to instead perform an enthusiastic jump right into the middle of the room so as to satisfy her curiosity instantly.
Her parents, on the other hoof, looked first at the room, then at each other, and finally at Celestia. “Excuse me, Your Majesty?” Twilight’s father began. “We were under the impression that you had planned to refit one of the old astronomy towers to serve as Twilight’s room. May I ask what happened?”
The very moment he brought it up, Celestia remembered showing them the old observatory. It had been in disuse for nearly two centuries and was a constant reminder of some particularly unpleasant events in the distant past. Having the tower redecorated as a young filly’s room would have been as much for Celestia’s benefit as it would have been for Twilight’s. But she had, of course, forgotten all about it. Not that the excessive amount of luggage they were carrying would have made a trip up to the tower a pleasant journey in the slightest... But that was immaterial. More importantly, she wasn’t about to admit to losing sight of her promise to Twilight’s parents.
“That was my original idea, yes,” she said smoothly. ”However, since I will be taking care of Twilight personally I decided it was a good idea to have her quarters be situated a little closer to my own, just in case she happens to run into any problems which she might require my help with.” She pointed to the end of the hallway, indicating a sun-emblazoned set of double doors. “My own quarters are just down the hall. So she can easily come to me with any difficulties she might encounter, be it day or night.”
Twilight’s father looked relieved, but her mother furrowed her brow and subtly nudged her husband, whispering: “Honey, could you make sure that they’re careful with the dictionary?”
The stallion looked at his wife for a moment before nodding firmly and giving her a nuzzle. “It won’t be as bad as you think, hun,” he said. ”Try to relax.”
His worried spouse nodded, albeit reluctantly, and then the two of them followed the guards into the room.
Celestia watched the exchange with a sense of growing dread. She had known couples that could convey most of their feelings with a single look, without having to utter a single word, but Twilight’s parents were on another level entirely. They seemed to be capable of having an entire conversation in the span of a few moments, their thoughts conveyed nonverbally in between the sparse few words that were actually being said.
Any moment now, she is going to turn to me and—
“Excuse me, Your Majesty?”
Here we go. Celestia plastered a masking smile on her face—one meant to convey patience and understanding, even though she had the sneaking suspicion that the coming conversation was going to serve no other purpose than to reassure an overly-concerned mother.
“Yes?”
“I wanted to ask what Twilight’s lesson plan is going to look like,” the mare said, eyeing the door to Twilight’s new room with a hint of trepidation, like she was worried something inside might somehow explode.
“I...” Celestia paused. Giving a young filly the same tests she had always given her students probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but she hadn’t yet found the time to draft new ones. Nor had she bothered to formulate any kind of lesson plan yet, for that matter. However, now that she thought about it, she realized she should probably determine what Twilight’s general level of knowledge was beforehoof, so that she could take that into consideration. “I was thinking of starting her off with some tests I usually reserve for my older students,” she finally said, opting to go with the (slightly embellished) truth. “She seems to be very curious, well-read, and certainly intelligent enough to be able to pass them without too much difficulty.”
Twilight’s mother, however, didn’t seem quite satisfied yet. “And what of her lesson plan? Please don’t take this the wrong way, Princess, but I don’t think you quite understand how hard it is to keep Twilight’s mind occupied. She’s a wonderful filly, but if you’re not careful...” The mare flushed with embarrassment. “Let’s just say that she has a way of finding out about certain... things. Things you might not consider her quite ready for at the time.”
Celestia chuckled good-naturedly. “Speaking from experience? Do not worry, I have seen my fair share of bright and eager students. I will make sure to keep her occupied. Now… Was there anything else?” She waited for another question, but the other mare merely shook her head. Celestia smiled again and inclined her head towards the door. “Well then, shall we?”
She waited for the mare to enter the room and then turned to one of her guards, instructing him to find Sunny Scrolls and ask her to make whatever emergency preparations she could manage in such a short timespan. Another one she tasked with finding some reading material suitable for a young but remarkably intelligent filly. If Twilight’s mother had been right, after all, she was going to have to take steps to ensure that Twilight was kept occupied, or at the very least denied entry to some of the more potentially dangerous spell-books.
When Celestia stepped into the room, the first thing that caught her attention was Twilight Sparkle herself. The filly had clambered onto the bed and was standing at the hoof end. She had adopted a curious position, perched atop the footboard like a princess overseeing her realm. That was, if all princesses sported excited gleams in their eyes at the prospect of getting a new room.
As soon as she spotted her mother, Twilight hopped down with a huge smile on her face. “Mom, Mom, do you see how big it is?” she asked excitedly, whirling around as if she could make her see everything through her eyes merely by pointing it out.
Her mother looked at her for a moment before shaking her head and conjuring up her best smile. “Just don’t make a mess of it like you do at home, okay? And make sure you brush your teeth and listen to everything the princess says. Oh, and don’t forget to write!”
If Twilight had anything to say about her mother’s behavior, she chose not to speak her mind. Instead, she opted to bound off to find her father and so avoid any further doting.
Celestia stepped close and lightly tapped the mare’s side with a hoof, giving her a look of understanding which was swiftly repaid with a grateful smile.
The two of them walked around the bed to find Twilight, her father, and many of the guards crowded around a single bag that had caused the poor souls responsible for carrying it an inordinate amount of trouble. They had set the bag down next to the bed, and the sudden shift in weight had caused the latch to pop open. Inside of it was a single tome, whose inscription had been carefully etched into the cover and filled with golden ink. It read: The More Than Complete Mareiam-Webstar's Dictionary, Revision Date Nine Hundred and Ninety A.N.
“Jeez, what’re you planning on doing with that, little girl?” one of the guards asked, looking like his worst highschool nightmare had come to life right in front of him.
Twilight grinned. “I’m gonna read it! It’s a great way to increase your voc—voca—vocabu... something.”
“Vocabulary, sweetheart,” her father corrected her. He shared a look with his wife and then they both caught Twilight in a hug, leaving the filly struggling at the sudden attention. “Your mother and I have to go now,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. ”You be good, okay?”
Her mother tilted her head up and sighed. She had tried to postpone it as much as she could, but she had always known this moment was inevitable. She cleared her throat and drew back, smiling at her daughter. “This is it. From now on, Princess Celestia is the one looking out for you." Her lips began to tremble and she levitated a tissue up to her face to wipe away the tears that were welling up in her eyes. "Listen to everything she tells you, sweetheart. Study hard, make good choices... Write to us every week.” She gave Twilight a kiss on the top of her head, seemingly finished with her last-minute lecture, but ultimately couldn’t resist adding: ”Oh, and don’t forget what I told you about staying up late!”
“Mooom,” Twilight whined, hiding her face in her father’s chest. Sadly, even this failed to fully conceal the embarrassed blush that quickly reached all the way up to her ears.
“We’re proud of you sweetheart, and we’ll miss you,” her father added, patting her on the back before he, too, let go.
“I’ll miss you, too,” Twilight replied, drying her mother’s tears with a gentle swipe of her foreleg and following it up with a nuzzle for the both of them.
Celestia cleared her throat, and at her unspoken command all of the guards left the room quietly. She followed them out, waiting in the hallway to give the soon-to-be-parted family some privacy.
A few minutes later, Twilight’s parents came out of the room. They were visibly struggling with their feelings. Celestia had a good notion of what they were going through; they were sending their daughter away, to live outside of the home she had grown up in... And at such a young age, too.
She beckoned one of her guards and quietly ordered him to make sure they got home safely.
Twilight’s mother surprised her by lifting one of Celestia’s hooves with her own. “W-will you take good care of her, Princess?”
Celestia nodded solemnly. “You have my word.”
They exchanged goodbyes and then the two unicorns left, after which Celestia stepped back into the room.
Most of the heavy bags had already been relocated haphazardly around the room. The dictionary, however, was still sitting next to the bed, looking more like a bedside table than anything, whereas the rest of Twilight’s belongings littered the floor, the bed, and even the desk on the opposite side of the room.
Celestia watched as Twilight stuffed a few more of her own books into the bookcases, putting them in between the historical documents and cultural reference guides with which they were already stocked. The filly was using her mouth and hooves in lieu of her magic to accomplish this, though, which struck Celestia as more than a bit odd.
The moment she realized that Celestia had stepped back into the room, Twilight whirled around to beam at her. “I’m ready to begin with my lessons, Princess!”
She walked over to one of the smaller bags and opened it. Much like the rest of her luggage, this one was mostly filled with books. However, it also contained a finely-carved oaken chest, some toiletries, a soft yellow dress with a blue trim, and what appeared to be a rather patchy-looking doll.
Twilight picked up the small chest and set it aside, before taking out a single book that looked a lot like the one Celestia had given her two weeks prior.
“I finished the book,” she said, giving Celestia a bright smile while puffing out her chest—both of which quickly vanished when all Celestia did was to give her a dumbfounded look. “That’s, uh... That’s okay, right?”
Celestia’s jaw dropped in bewilderment, which was a novelty in and of itself. After the events of two weeks ago, she had actually expected it to take at least a year before she might be caught off-guard by anything again. Things like shock, amazement and wonderment become rare occurrences when one has passed four thousand years of age, after all.
She chuckled, reveling in the feeling, which had the added benefit of reassuring Twilight as well. “Of course that’s okay, Twilight. I’m just... surprised.” She took the book with her magic and handed it off to one of the remaining guards, who had discretely positioned themselves just outside the room. “In all honesty, I had not expected you to finish that particular tome for at least another month.”
Twilight’s smile returned with a vengeance and she made a joyous little hop. “Oh! Oh! Do you like books, too, Princess?” She raced back to her bag and carefully extracted another book from it with her teeth, before running over and carefully depositing it in front of Celestia, who leaned down to read the cover with interest.
“Daring Do?”
Twilight nodded emphatically. “She’s the greatest explorer that ever lived! In this book, she discovers the ancient temples of Mare’zhul, uncovers the secrets of the Icans, and finds the lost city of Iwanthis!” She nosed the book open and leafed through it, showing off several pictures that offered panoramic views of various exotic locales. “I’m going to be just like her when I grow up!”
Celestia watched the filly happily browsing through the book for a while, but spoke up before the filly could lose herself in its pages. “Twilight?”
As it turned out, though, she was a little late: Twilight had already managed to become engrossed in the book, enthusiastically trying to find all the best pictures and sentences to show to her mentor. It took quite a few moments—with only a single ear flicking in Celestia’s general direction—and a healthy dose of willpower for her to actually tear herself away from her reading and look her mentor in the eyes.
“Um, yes, Princess?”
“I’m curious... I haven’t seen you use your horn even once since you arrived. Is something wrong with your magic?” Celestia gestured at the filly’s horn as she spoke, making the latter cross her eyes in an attempt to look at it.
Twilight shook her head and blinked a couple of times to get her eyesight back to normal. “No, Princess. My mother just told me that I shouldn’t use magic until you taught me how to control it.”
“It’s perfectly alright for you to use your magic, Twilight. It’s highly unlikely that whatever happened to you two weeks ago will happen again.” Celestia put a reassuring hoof on Twilight’s back and smiled at her. “Just take it easy at first. Magic is like a muscle: If you don’t use it for a while, it will take some time for it to get going again.”
“But you can’t be sure,” Twilight said with a frown. “What if everything goes wrong, like before, and I end up hurting somepony again?” She shook her head and went back to staring at her book. “Maybe it would be better if I just don’t use magic at all anymore...”
“Twilight...” Celestia sat down next to her young student. “If you never use your magic again, then how can I ever teach you some of the more advanced spells, like the ones in that book I gave you?” Her horn lit up, and she conjured up a miniature pony that promptly began walking around on the open book between them, looking very much like the explorer described therein. “Or show you all of the wonderful things you could do with illusions? Or explain the method behind teleportation, like you asked me to?”
For the briefest of moments Twilight looked up, her eyes alight with the same boundless eagerness with which she had tackled the book Celestia had given her. Then the shadow of doubt set in and she averted her gaze, looking at the floor, the book, the bed... Anywhere but at her mentor.
Celestia watched the troubled filly shrinking away, burdened as she was by doubt and fear. She had intended to dangle a few carrots, to make Twilight reconsider and hopefully conclude that everything would be okay if the princess said so.
But alas, that simple strategy had backfired spectacularly.
Twilight’s shoulders slumped. She uttered the next sentence so softly that Celestia had to strain to hear it: “So... So I can’t be your student anymore?”
She looked so lost and forlorn, in stark contrast to the excited cheerfulness she had displayed upon entering the castle. Celestia wanted to drape a wing around her and tell her that they would work on it together, that everything would be fine, that—
“Ahem. Excuse me, Your Majesty?”
Celestia looked up to see another one of her attendants waiting in the doorway. He was holding a stack of papers with his magic. Behind him, several other ponies were also all impatiently waiting to inform their princess of the latest developments.
Stifling a groan, Celestia waved the lot of them off to the hallway with a shooing gesture, then turned back to Twilight. She couldn’t very well drape a wing over the poor filly now, she knew—however much she wanted to. It was too intimate a gesture, one meant to be shared solely between close friends or members of family. She was neither. To make matters worse, it had become abundantly clear that she had already spent far too much time getting her young student situated. There was a lot on the agenda today, and her advisors wouldn’t remain quietly waiting on the other side of that door forever.
“Don’t be silly, Twilight,“ she said at length, smiling disarmingly. ”Of course you can still be my student! In fact, why don’t I give you your first test right now? We’ll worry about whether or not your magic is truly dangerous later on, okay?”
Twilight nodded morosely. She turned to Celestia, though she seemed unable to keep herself from stealing the occasional, longing glance at the diminutive Daring Do still merrily prancing across the pages.
“Follow me, then.”
Celestia waited for the filly to get up before stepping out of the room. The gaggle of attendants loitering just outside the room had already swelled to even greater numbers, and judging by all the hopping up and down that was going on, all of the messages they bore were equally and gravely important. Even so, when the most forward pony among them opened his mouth to inform her of the latest, crucial developments in the agricultural sector, she silenced him with a look.
Giving her youngest student a much-needed boost of self-confidence with one of the older, easier tests she had created long ago, she decided, was now her top priority.
Twilight needed this. She needed her...
They made their way through the castle to a classroom which Celestia and a previous student had used often in the past, but which had since fallen into disrepair. That had been three centuries ago; by this time, it served as little more than a glorified storage room.
During their trip, Twilight seemed to regain some of her spark and was soon taking in the hustle and bustle of castle life with a wide-eyed look of pure wonder.
Officially, Celestia was the only pony who lived in the castle. Unofficially, however, she had decided that it was far too vast—not to mention lonely—for her to be all by herself. Which was why, for as long as any mortal pony could remember, the enormous structure had served as a home for more than a hundred families, all of whom were in service to the Crown in some form or another. The hallways never grew as crowded as the streets outside the castle, true, but neither were they ever completely empty. Ponies came and went from the dining halls, gardens and countless workplaces with remarkable regulartiy.
Twilight looked at it all with a nearly palpable sense of wonder. “Princess?”
It took Celestia a moment to respond. She was already rapt in contemplation again, trying to decide which tasks to delegate and to determine how to best handle Twilight’s education, leaving her body to move itself toward her destination purely on auto-pilot. She looked down at the filly walking beside her and abruptly slowed her pace, finally noticing that Twilight was having trouble keeping up.
“What is it, Twilight?”
“Why are there so many ponies around here?” the filly asked, nearly stumbling over her own legs when she tried to point out one of countless small groups of conversing ponies.
Celestia chuckled softly. “They live here, Twilight,” she said, using an almost imperceptibly subtle flow of magic to help the filly stay upright. “Just like you, from now on.”
“Oh.”
That answer seemed to satisfy Twilight, who immediately went back to quietly observing the castle’s many denizens, most of whom bowed for the princess as they passed.
At least, until the next question inevitably spilled out of her mouth: “Princess?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Where are we going?”
“Well,” Celestia began, coming to a halt and lowering her head so that it was roughly on equal level with Twilight, “we are going to an old classroom that hasn’t been used in a long time, where you’ll be able to take the test I mentioned without anypony disturbing you.”
Twilight nodded in understanding—just long enough for the next question to make the trip from her brain down to her mouth. “Where is it?”
Celestia righted herself and resumed walking. “You’ll see when we get there.”
A short while later, they arrived at a visibly more ancient part of the castle; its hallways weren’t populated by nearly as many ponies. Twilight even came across a few spider webs... And in the most unfortunate way, too, walking straight into them and then having to stop to pluck them from her face.
Celestia herself either didn’t notice the mess or simply didn’t care, quite unlike the stubborn attendants and advisors still trailing them, one of whom fled to go find a group of maids (and possibly the Royal Guard) the moment she spotted a spider in one of said webs. The princess came up to a plain wooden door, which swung open under the influence of her magic to reveal, primarily, quite a lot of dust. Once that had settled, rows upon rows of haphazardly stacked books could be seen, dominating the entirety of the room that lay beyond, giving it the appearance of a chaotic library more than anything.
Celestia looked at the room for a full minute before turning to the closest of her loyal aides. “Broad Strokes, could you please see to it that this room is properly cleaned, and that all the books within are relocated to my personal chambers?”
“But Princess! It is vitally important that—”
Celestia held up a hoof. “Cultural funding for schools will not be cut.”
The flabbergasted stallion opened his mouth, then closed it again. “It will be taken care of, Princess,” he said with a bow, before hastily taking off.
Celestia slipped on her most benevolent smile; she was clearly going to need it to deal with the small army that had only grown in numbers behind them on the way here. Half of them she was able to appease with some quickfire answers before they’d even had time to ask their all-too-familiar and often tedious questions, but the rest, sadly, were clearly not going to be so easily dismissed.
Before she got started with them, however, she first turned to Twilight. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I fear this is going to take me a little while to… to…”
The spot where she was certain she had seen Twilight sit down upon reaching the old, abandoned classroom was empty. Celestia looked around in confusion, but couldn’t find the filly anywhere. At least, until a tiny sneeze from inside the room told her exactly where the curious little scamp had gotten off to.
“Twilight?” she called into the room, a genuine smile now tugging at the corners of her lips.
There was another sneeze. A few seconds later, a dust monster only vaguely resembling her student came tumbling out of the debris, stirring up entire clouds of the stuff. Celestia quickly erected a shield to contain it inside the room, although she saw to it that Twilight (and all the grime clinging to her coat) got through just fine.
Celestia was thoroughly entertained by Twilight’s antics, though the same could not be said for the majority of her advisors, who turned their noses up at mere sight of this walking hygienic disaster.
Twilight herself seemed to agree with them; she scrunched up her face, dancing on the spot whilst squeaking: “Ew-eww-ewww!”
Luckily, her discomfort didn’t last long, as Broad Strokes chose that exact moment to return. Following him was a veritable battalion of maids, which descended on Twilight like a flock of hungry vultures. When they had finished, her coat was completely drenched, her hair was hanging around her face like wet rags, and even her horn had been left with a soap bubble dangling from it.
With that out of the way, the tireless maids lined up in single file and marched into the classroom, dusters firmly in hoof. The last one slammed the door shut behind them.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Celestia asked her squeaky-clean student with an amused smile.
Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but instead of words, her mouth produced only hiccups and the occasional soap bubble. She coughed into her hoof a few times and then shook out her coat, sending droplets of water flying everywhere. Finally, she parted the curtain of dripping mane obscuring her face. “Uh… Not really, Princess.”
Celestia smiled. “Not to worry, Twilight. Once the maids have finished cleaning up the place, we’ll give you something to do.”
She left Twilight to wring herself out a bit more and turned to her remaining followers, answering questions and giving out orders which mostly pertained to day-to-day life in the castle. She found herself hiding a frown upon realizing just how many ponies relied on her to make even the simplest of decisions.
I should have streamlined all of this long ago...
Before long, the maids returned from their labors in the classroom. They marched out, once again, in single file, like a company of weary soldiers after an extended mission. Their coats had taken on a distinctly greyish tint, they carried buckets full of murky water with them, and their dusters were worn from extended use. As a result of their efforts, the room left behind was hardly even still recognizable to Twilight, who had scrambled to her hooves and run back inside as soon as she was allowed to.
Celestia herself followed a few minutes later. By that time, she had dealt with every last question her restless attendants had so anxiously wanted to ask of her.
Once inside, she found Twilight on the floor, sporting a disappointed frown. Celestia understood; she imagined that the eager little unicorn’s high hopes were probably crumbling at the disappointingly mundane sight of a room filled with nothing but student benches, a blackboard, and a single lectern, rather than the fabulous magical artifacts ponies so often claimed she had stashed away for use by only those closest to her.
“Not what you expected?” she inquired, giving the filly a soft nudge with her hoof.
Twilight shook her head, however, darting over to sit down in the foremost student bench. She was still looking around though, seemingly trying to find something out of the ordinary with the room around her.
Celestia calmly walked over to the teacher’s lectern, which was, in fact, very old—the wood had grayed to the point where nothing short of a fresh coat of paint would be able to salvage it. She opened the compartment in the back and took out an old written test, which she recalled administering to another student of hers once upon a time, long ago. He hadn’t been as young as Twilight, obviously, but she figured the intelligent little pony would be able to handle it, even if the archaic terminology might give her some trouble.
Unfortunately, the ancient document disintegrated the moment Celestia applied pressure with her magic.
She cursed under her breath and glanced nervously at Twilight. By some stroke of luck, the filly hadn’t been paying attention, as she was still trying to figure out if there really weren’t any hidden magical properties to her surroundings. Quickly then, Celestia wove a spell to summon forth a more recent—albeit also somewhat more advanced—test from the main library.
Originally, her hope had been that, if she somehow managed to answer all of her attendants’ questions quickly enough, she would have the time to oversee Twilight taking the test, allowing her to offer her assistance should the filly run into any trouble—providing, of course, that she found the right questions to ask.
However, as with everything that day, it seemed like the universe was actively conspiring to keep her off-balance.
The very last pony in the throng had been the guard she had sent to fetch Sunny Scrolls; he had told her that her presence was required in the courtroom post-haste, as the scheduled hearing on the magical explosion from two weeks prior was still pending. This left Celestia with little choice... In all likelihood, this particular test would prove far too difficult for poor Twilight; she knew that. But at least it would keep her occupied for a spell, while Celestia went off to take care of whatever everypony thought was so darned important...
“Ah, here we are,” she said, drawing Twilight’s attention back to herself. She levitated the sizable stack of papers out from behind the lectern and set it down in front of the filly, before conjuring up a quill and jar of ink for her to use. “This will be your first official test, Twilight Sparkle. Please take your time and read everything carefully. You have until I get back.”
“Where are you going?” Twilight asked, somewhat nervously, her eyes flitting from their eager analysis of the first page of her assignment to a thorough scan of Celestia’s face in but an instant.
Celestia let out a soft sigh. She was already running late and Twilight’s constant questions certainly weren’t making things any easier. But still, she managed to slip on the mask again, smiling benignly and looking down at her rightfully-worried student.
“There are many ponies who require my attention, Twilight. I’m afraid I cannot simply abandon them because you are taking an evaluation test.”
Twilight nodded, though her eyes stayed fixed on Celestia, the stack of papers remaining momentarily neglected in favor of her continued attempts to gauge her enigmatic mentor’s mood. “O-okay, Princess.” A hesitant pause followed, and then: ”But, um, will you be back soon?”
“It will take as long as it will take, which I fear might be quite a while.” She noted Twilight’s frown and patted the first page with a hoof to draw her attention back to her assignment “I will be back before you know it. You just worry about this test!”
Her horn lit up, glowing with the ethereal energies required for your basic emergency teleportation spell... But then Celestia reconsidered and halted mid-cast.
“Think of it this way, Twilight,” she added as an afterthought, smiling widely, “the longer it takes me to return, the more time you will have.”
Despite the convenience of being able to appear wherever she wished at any given time, teleportation wasn’t by far Celestia’s preferred way to travel. It was simply too flashy; since the magical requirements made it impossible for all but the most powerful unicorns to cast, making use of it always drew far more attention to her mostly-hidden power than she would like.
When she was this short on time, however, there were few alternatives.
Getting Twilight situated, waiting for the maids, the little mishap with the first test... It had all cost her far more time than she would have liked. Even so, Celestia had hoped that taking the most direct route to the courtroom imaginable would have given her a precious few minutes extra to prepare some appropriate retorts to the accusations she would no doubt have to deal with. But those hopes had been dashed the moment she had materialized: The entire room was filled to the brim with ponies, from the most prominent teachers at her School for Gifted Unicorns to a large number of fearful Canterlot residents she hadn’t even known existed until now. All of them looking at her in awe.
Celestia sat down heavily, immediately regretting her rash decision to teleport in. She spared a brief thought to the whereabouts of her council, who should have been here answering questions but were once again nowhere to be seen. Then she let out a soft sigh, contorting her face into a pleasant smile again.
It was going to be a long, long day.
Her practiced, well-worn smile only barely held against the cacophony that followed. Everypony in the room seemed to have taken her sudden arrival as the go-ahead to begin giving their varied opinions about the event that had transpired. Apparently, it had put Canterlot as a whole on edge far worse than she could have ever predicted.
While her faithful guards tried to secure some silence, Celestia herself struggled to resist the urge to press a hoof to her face. Instead she ended up holding it aloft in a commanding gesture, waiting until the room had quieted down a little before speaking: “My dear little ponies! Your Princess understands that you all have concerns, and you may rest assured that I will address each and every one of them. But please, await your turn.”
The crowd responded, of course, by launching into another screaming match with each other.
This time, Celestia’s hoof actually did reach her face.
By the time Celestia had finished explaining how she had taken steps to prevent any further disturbing events from occurring in future and the crowd had finally begun to disperse, it was almost sundown. Utterly drained, she ordered the number of guards on duty throughout Canterlot to be doubled, wanting to make sure that nopony tried anything senseless.
Once that had been settled, it was only a few minutes before it was time for her to set the sun. But at least Celestia could finally let out the weary sigh she had been saving up this entire time, and, at long last, lose the phony, magnanimous smile she had been wearing for hours on end.
She smacked her lips and allowed herself a small, satisfied smile—a real one this time.
All done, and with time to spare! I should hope for more days like these.
She stepped down from the throne and flexed her wings briefly, before taking off toward her private chambers. She had managed to create a little free time for herself, after all, and she was going to take advantage of that fact. Perhaps some tea would be in order… And a few moments spent in the company of a good book probably wouldn’t hurt her, either.
Indeed, Celestia had very nearly convinced herself that she would finally be allowed some time to relax—right until Sunny Scrolls fell into step beside her.
“Your Majesty?”
“Sunny, I just spent several hours fruitlessly telling ponies things they should already know,” Celestia cut her assistant off, keeping up an even pace and continuing to make her way to her chambers. ”To be perfectly honest, I currently have no desire whatsoever to discuss tomorrow’s schedule.”
“That wasn’t actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Princess.” The unicorn levitated her trusty clipboard in front of Celestia’s face. It featured a long list of responsibilities and an equally lengthy line of check-marks. “You have completed your schedule in record time today, but, from what the guards have been telling me, I fear Your Highness has forgotten about one very important thing.”
“Everything on here appears to be checked off and completed,” Celestia replied, still a little agitated by her grilling at the hooves of her very own school’s administrators and staff. “The only way I could have possibly forgotten something would be if that something was, for some mysterious reason, not on this list. So tell me, is there something that’s not on the list?”
“As a matter of fact, yes there is,” Sunny fired back without missing a beat. “Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say somepony. She’s purple, about yey high—” She drew a line in the air with her magic “—and has been anxiously awaiting your return since this morning.”
Celestia stared at her, uncomprehending, for exactly three seconds. Then a feeling of abject dread crept up her spine, the full meaning of Sunny’s words finally hitting her. “Twilight!” she blurted out, coming to an immediate halt. “See me in my chambers in an hour,” the blurry after-image of a teleporting Celestia instructed Sunny before bursting into flames, leaving the ‘we have a lot to discuss’ hanging unsaid in the air.
Despite the inherent flashiness which she so loathed, teleportation could be very convenient when one was running late—incredibly late—for a meeting. Or, in this case, when one had a classroom containing an abandoned and utterly forgotten filly to get to in a hurry.
After appearing at her destination, Celestia had expected to either be assaulted by a whole lot of whining, or to find the classroom as empty as it had been for the last three hundred years. Instead, she found Twilight still sitting in the student benches where she had left her. The filly was snoring lightly, her head resting on an impressive stack of scrolls which was currently serving to absorb the drool dribbling from the corner of her mouth.
Celestia smiled wryly, lifting up both the papers and the filly with her magic and gently transporting them to the door.
Judging by the sheer amount of paper Twilight had used, she could only conclude that the her new pupil must have somehow managed to complete the test—and then some. The little pang of disappointment she experienced upon skimming through the fruits of the filly’s labors and finding that most of the answers she had provided were, in fact, wrong was quickly drowned out by more self-berating thoughts.
It is a miracle she even understood a fraction of the magical terminology used. You should be proud she even got this far.
She stepped into the hallway and carefully lowered Twilight onto her back, then set off for Twilight’s room, trying not to jostle her peacefully-snoozing charge too much.
For the second time that day, the two guards who normally flanked her at all times came galloping down the hallway, having correctly guessed where she had teleported off to. She smiled apologetically and waited for them to catch their breath a little, taking the opportunity to look through the rest of Twilight’s test results.
If nothing else, the unicorn’s answers were all very well thought out.
One of the guards opened his mouth, likely to ask what the rush had been. She quickly shushed him, turning sideways and showing him the sleeping filly. Fortunately, he took the hint, and the two stallions quietly fell into step behind her while she walked the rest of the way to Twilight’s new room.
Twilight mewled piteously when she was lifted from the source of the warmth she had been resting against and squirmed when her body hit the bed, voicing her displeasure with a low whine. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked sleepily, looking around in confusion at her new surroundings. Then she bolted upright.
“What time is it?”
“It is nearly sunset,” Celestia answered her with a small smile. Rather than smiling back, however, she could see Twilight’s eyes filling with fear.
“I’m sorry!” Twilight said quickly, tripping over her own words. “I was almost done! I was just—I need a little more time!”
“You’ve already had more time than you were supposed to, Twilight.” Celestia’s smile faded and she sighed. “That was partially my fault, but nevertheless... Your time is officially up.”
Twilight let her face drop, her ears pinning themselves to her skull. “Please don’t take my magic away...”
Hearing the note of fear in Twilight’s voice hurt. Not only did it show how afraid the young unicorn really was, but it also made it abundantly clear that all of that fear was directed squarely at Celestia herself.
Celestia swallowed heavily and took a deep breath, before putting what she hoped was a comforting hoof on Twilight’s back. “What makes you think I would take your magic away, Twilight?”
“That’s why you gave me that test, isn’t it?” Twilight cried. ”I failed, and now you’ve determined that I will never be good enough.” She shied away from Celestia’s hoof and curled up, trying to protect herself from all manner of threats, real or imagined. “But you already knew, right? That’s why you left...”
That, more than anything, shocked Celestia. From everything she had seen of Twilight Sparkle so far, she would have probably concluded that she was a lot like the other fillies attending her School for Gifted Unicorns: Brighter than the average unicorn, perhaps, but young and naive enough that they generally had very little concept of how the world really worked, and unconcerned with anything beyond their grades and their social standing.
Celestia pulled Twilight forward with a simple spell, watching sympathetically as she struggled feebly against the telekinetic aura.
“Twilight, it’s okay,” Celestia said reassuringly, but the filly only struggled harder the closer she came to the edge of the bed. “Twilight? Please calm down.”
The struggling stopped, and so did the crying, for the most part. Twilight looked up at her pleadingly and asked, “Is it going to hurt?”
“Of course not, Twilight. I couldn’t take your magic away even if I wanted to.”
Twilight blinked. “You can’t? But Professor Brighthoof said—”
“He is wrong,” Celestia growled, rueing the day she hired the tactless stallion. Brighthoof was going to get a ‘promotion’ to a teaching position near the northern borders, she decided, or at least be forced to take a few serious sensitivity courses. “If I were to try such a thing, I would much sooner vaporize somepony than ever ‘burn out’ their magic, as ponies keep insisting I am capable of.” As soon as those words left her mouth, Celestia mentally cursed herself, seeing Twilight’s eyes go wide with renewed fear. She quickly shushed the filly before she had a chance to begin panicking again: “No, no, I’m not going to do anything except maybe take another look at how you performed on the test, Twilight.”
The test in question resembled an inky battlefield. Out of all two hundred and three questions Twilight had only gotten about a dozen or so correct, though that wasn’t really what was so surprising. What did surprise her was that, even though the answers themselves were wrong and the underlying grasp of the theory was shaky at best, many of her writings showed a deep, almost instinctual understanding of the practical application of magic. Twilight, it seemed, had more natural affinity for spellcasting than some of the best mages Celestia had known in her time.
“But I wasn’t finished...” Twilight said sullenly, her initial fear slowly giving way to pure disappointment. She dropped to her hooves when Celestia canceled her spell and promptly plopped down on the spot.
“That’s alright, Twilight. I couldn’t really expect you to finish all of it.” Celestia put the filly back on the bed before summoning a small booklet. “For now, I want you to have this.”
Twilight’s horn glowed for a second before she caught herself and reached out with her hooves instead. “What is it?”
“It is an instruction booklet. It was written by a former professor of the school and widely distributed in order to explain to Pegasi and Earth Ponies why magic isn’t something to be feared. Of course, back then, things were a little more hectic, since every noble wanted me to, um...”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Twilight silently mouthing words as she read through the first page. Well. That went well, all things considered.
“Princess?” Celestia hadn’t even turned around before Twilight spoke up. “What language is this?”
“Hm? I don’t believe it was ever printed in anything but Equestrian… Let me see.” She took the booklet from Twilight and leafed through it, quickly realizing what the problem was. Equestrian was an ever-evolving language, of course, and the archaic wordings used in this particular book must have seemed indecipherable to a young, modern pony like Twilight. “Ah...” She cleared her throat and gave Twilight a somewhat sheepish smile as she sent the book back to the dusty bookcase from whence it had come. “Forget about it, then. How about you just… go to bed early today? We have a lot to do tomorrow.”
“Do I have to?” Twilight asked, a soft whine slipping into her voice. “I wanted to read another chapter of my Daring Do book.”
She pranced on over to the other side of the bed, reaching out to grab a book from the nearest bookcase.
Celestia winced when Twilight misjudged the distance, and face-planted inches away from the book she’d been trying to grab. She was up and about again in seconds though, the youthful resilience all fillies share helping her shrug off injuries that most adults would find incapacitating.
On the second try, Twilight managed to pick up the Daring Do book with her teeth. Then she climbed back onto the bed and dropped it in front of Celestia.
“In this book, she’s been sent by the handsome prince Solaris to find the long lost artifact of—“ She paused, blinked, and looked up from the cover of the book to Celestia. “Why are there always so many ‘long lost’ artifacts? Wouldn’t ponies be very protective of something that’s valuable? And what about—”
The droning sound of Twilight’s transparent stalling tactic faded to the background as the sun softly tugged at Celestia’s thoughts, letting her know that she was once again late for sunset. It was an altogether far too common occurrence, and definitely not something she was happy with.
Her charges tended to be adamant about the times she helped them rise and set, even if she had other things on her mind at the time. Like getting a good night’s rest...
“Twilight.” Celestia’s voice was calm and gentle, but authoritative.
The filly in question promptly stopped talking and looked at her expectantly.
“Remember what your mother said.” Celestia lifted both her and the book to the top of the bed and tucked her in. “Good night, my student. I will see you again in the morning.”
Twilight sat pouting beneath the covers; she had no intention of going quietly. When Celestia turned around and walked to the door, she threw off the covers and sat up in bed. “What are you going to do?”
“I need to go set the sun,” Celestia explained, ”and then worry about my evening duties.”
She came to a halt when a purple filly who looked suspiciously like the one she had just tucked in suddenly appeared next to the doorpost. A swift and bewildered glance backward confirmed that these two fillies were, indeed, the very same.
“Can I watch you set the sun?”
The alicorn closed her eyes for a brief moment, trying to think of what she would’ve done in this situation a few hundreds years back, only to remember that she had never actually had a student this young and impetuous. Simply telling her to go to bed wouldn’t work, that much was clear… In the end, she decided to settle things as she would in a diplomatic dispute.
“If you promise that you’ll go straight to bed afterwards, you can come with me and watch the sun set.”
“I promise,” Twilight said quickly, nodding enthusiastically before skipping out the door.
Celestia followed, but found a sheepish and uncertain filly waiting for her outside. She indicated the direction they were supposed to be going in with a subtle nod of her head, and then followed the bouncing little pony ahead of her to the balcony where she usually went through the process of setting the sun. The bounciness ran out quickly, however, being replaced by a happy canter a short while after the first flight of stairs. A few more of those, and what remained was more of a sluggish trot.
After spotting Twilight trying to stifle a yawn before they had even reached the balcony, she shook her head, a small smile playing around her lips. “Perhaps this was too much for you after all, Twilight.”
“No!” Twilight replied, “I’m no—” She had to stop talking to hide yet another yawn behind her foreleg “—not tired at all!”
Unceremoniously picking the filly up by the scruff of her neck, Celestia wordlessly deposited her onto her back, between her wings, leaving her to hang on for dear life whilst she increased her pace.
Sunset was already late enough as it was; the pressure the sun was exerting on the back of her mind was becoming more uncomfortable by the second.
When they reached the top floor of the Tower of Royals, the guards fell back, taking up their traditional positions at the top of the stairs while Celestia made her way up to the balcony. Her horn lit up as soon as she came to a halt, reaching out to both the sun and the moon with her power, willing the former to set while the latter rose.
It was a sight to behold: With the sun setting as quickly as it did, it felt like a single vast shadow swept over all the lands, covering everything with pitch-black darkness in an instant. Then the moon rose, taking away that darkness and replacing it with the silvery light of its gentle glow. It was a wonderful moment to experience, and even more wonderful to be the one that brought it all about.
The moment didn’t last, though. It never did.
Every night when she raised the moon, Celestia was forced to see the same haunting image of a mare imprinted on the moon. And every night she cried, lamenting the many mistakes she had made. It was like that face stared straight into her soul; an ever-present reminder of everything she had lost.
Nopony knew of her tears. For generations, she had instructed her guards to give her some privacy whenever she set the sun, to the point where it had become ingrained in their training. Being alone was both a curse and a blessing: Having ponies see their Princess cry wouldn’t be good for morale, after all, but sometimes... Sometimes, maybe just once, she wished that somepony would be there to comfort her.
She was brought out of her state of sadness by a pair of tiny hooves, which wrapped around her neck from behind.
“What’s wrong, Princess?” a small voice filled genuine concern asked of her. “Why are you crying?”
Celestia sniffled and took a deep breath, burying her emotions. “I... I’m fine, Twilight. And I think it’s about time we get you to bed.”
She received a nuzzle to the back of her head for her trouble. The hugging didn’t let up either.
“It’s okay to cry, Princess. My mom always says that you feel better afterwards.”
Maybe it was just the fact that she had somepony with her—somepony who wouldn’t judge. Maybe it was because of Twilight’s assurances that it would make her feel better. Or perhaps it was simply the fact that she was being hugged, which was an act of intimacy and trust she hadn’t experienced in over a thousand years. Whatever the cause was, the emotional dams Celestia had so carefully constructed over the years finally ruptured and broke, letting everything spill out.
Her entire body trembled, and she let out a cry of anguish. Her legs gave way, buckling beneath her as all of her built-up stress hit her all at once, making it impossible for her to remain standing.
Celestia lay down on the cool marble of the balcony and sobbed.
Twilight hopped off and walked around her, sitting down in front of the much larger mare and giving her a nuzzle beneath her chin, trying to provide some manner of comfort.
She couldn’t know that she was helping the world's most powerful ruler through a heartache that spanned a thousand years.
She wanted to ask what could possibly make the princess this sad, but held her tongue. Right now, she knew, Celestia simply needed somepony to hold and comfort her, so that’s what she would do. She let the alicorn cry, trying to help the only way she knew how, imitating what her own mother—and, more recently, Celestia herself—had done for her, employing a mixture of soft nuzzling, gentle hugging, and lots of reassuring cooing.
They stayed there together much longer than it normally took Celestia to set the sun. One of the guards reluctantly came to check up on them, but was waved away with a wing before he could even open his mouth to ask.
When Celestia’s tears had finally subsided, she wrapped a leg around Twilight and whispered a soft ‘thank you’ into the filly’s ears.
The filly responded with a soft snore, earning her a wan smile.
“Good night, Twilight Sparkle.”
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So precious:)
I look forward to the next chap
Very good. I enjoyed this. Hopefully the next chapter will be soon? I almost forgot the first chapter.
Aaaah, how nice! I love these stories about Celestia and filly Twilight's life!
Cuteness and d'awwing abound in this chapter. I need more!
Gods...so cute, adorable, and then I cried...
How? How do you do it?
Well that was an enjoyable enough read~
noooooooooooo!
it was too perfect!!
why did the new chapter have to end? i want more!
you are really good at what you do, the perfect story, doing exactly what it wants and needs to do
although i find the idea of twilight reading that huge dictionary very funny, and cute at the same time
THE FEELS! THE CUTES! THE
If Twilight gets any more adorable than she is in this chapter i'm going to have a heart attack
Your story was added to Anti-Depression Ponies group because of the feels.
So touching. Great story thanks for writing it.
Cute.
Overload.
My god I cried, man. I CRIED! no ones stories have ever made me cry! I give you my thanks for this amazing story.
I died!
It's just. SO. CUTE,
The last bit gave me d'awwww induced heart failure
Oooooow. My poor feels. Poor, poor Celestia...
FUCK YEAH!
“Everything one here appears to be checked off and completed,” Celestia replied.
Right now I wish I could favourite this story twice. It's awesome
This was too damn awesome.
I hope I will see more chapters soon!
3814226 it IS twilight after all
Is Iwanthis a sister city to Icanhas? Lol
Shoot... the feels
3817038
That funny bit almost made up for all the feels at the end of this chapter.
Yeah, like the Want it Need It spell, eh?
The feels in this chapter is amazing; so much cuteness in Twilight's part, and then the end when Celestia breaks down... ouch.
Anyway, I'm loving this story, and it's nice to see another chapter of it, one to put a large smile on my face. Can't wait for the next one
*sniff* These are manly tears, damnit!
Dawwws were had.
Now make haste and craft another of those chapters so we can have the Dawwws again!
Absolutely wonderful. I look forward to more.
You mean things like this story?
3816760 i know shes going to read it, i meant the idea of a filly twilight reading a book twice as big as she extremely funny
I can now see why many authors treat the relationship between Twilight and Celestia as a quasi-mother/daughter relationship. Celestia helped raise Twilight for part of her life, along with her parents, and thus is something of another mother for Twilight, moreso than any other pony in Equestria.
3819976 true enough. I'd give her 1 1/2 months before she finishes
I read the first chapter back when it was posted, but didn't star it to receive updates. I've corrected that oversight.
Another chapter? Another chapter! I had forgotten about this story. I'm glab I gave it a favorite, so I might be able to get to it again.
Eeee! So good! I can't wait for the next chappie!
3816089 My poor feels got hit too. Along with my rich feels and all of those in between.
This is by far the best depiction of Twilight's studies with Celestia that I've ever seen.
Celestia's viewpoint trying to find time to back up her impulse to teach Twilight really shows through here. Her uncharacteristic unpreparedness made for some creative moments. It'll be interesting seeing her learn to delegate more, and learn how to teach Twilight; it's clearly not something she's remotely prepared for, but that's one of many things making the story so interesting.
The results of Twilight's test were extremely satisfying. Showing her acing an advanced magical test would have been unsurprising, but "unsurprising" is not necessarily a good thing in a story. Showing her failing yet demonstrating an instinctual understanding of magic (not to mention a characteristically ludicrous degree of diligence) is far more creatively satisfying, and will make the future depiction of her studies that much more unusual and unique. It gives plenty for her to have left to learn, yet gives a reason for her to grasp it incredibly quickly once Celestia figures out how to teach it; I look forward to seeing whether Celestia can keep up with her combination of curiosity and magical affinity.
And the scene at the end was extraordinary, both in its characterization of Celestia and of Twilight. I hadn't expected nearly this much depth on Celestia outside of her role in teaching Twilight (and finding time to do so), and it's touching to see the two of them get closer and open up to each other.
Got here too late, no! Loved it though, beauty at its best.
beautiful and wonderful
3849273 cant say it better if i tried
Hmm... reference?
3881131
Wasn't intended.
3889870 o3o
Wow, I'm late to the party. Lovely update.
I'm enjoying how Twilight is forcing Celestia to change her routine, and perhaps herself, just a little bit. It's nice to see a Celestia who makes mistakes, and a Twilight who's cute and eager without being unbearable to read about.
Mooooore
3881237
I love these 10k chapters
finally the missing chapter of Twilight life is being written! I'm really looking forward to more! thanks for writing this!
this story is so heart warming and cute,
i can't wait for you to make another chapter