“You need to greet ponies as you walk by. Just a simple ‘Good morning’ should be enough, but you usually greet everypony by name. You’ll have to start relearning those.” Spike was brushing Twilight’s tail as he explained to her how she was supposed to act walking around the palace. The maids had not returned once they ran out to get Celestia, thankfully giving Twilight and Spike time alone for him to talk through things with her.
He had already gone into great detail all about the report that Celestia put out that he had written. It was huge national news when she had been cursed; after all, she was a high profile public figure, second only to Celestia herself. Twilight had been a bit embarrassed to know that the whole country was aware of her condition and now recovery. Obviously the part about her memories being mostly wrong was kept a secret.
A brush floating in Twilight’s magic was brushing her mane gently, trying to get it under control before they left the room. Tangles were tackled and dismantled with smooth efficiency. “Okay, greet ponies. I hope I’m friendly towards the staff?” Twilight asked.
Spike nodded. “You are, so give them a smile. But remember that we are headed for breakfast, so we’re not expected to stop and chat. Most of them will bow and address you as Lady Sparkle, so don’t act surprised.”
“Right,” Twilight said with a bit less confidence.
“Oh, and you need to wear this!” Spike jumped off the bed and ran over to a dresser. He pulled open the top drawer and rummaged through it for a brief moment before he removed an ornate jewelry box laced with winding trails of gold and platinum. “Celestia gave this to you, and you always wear it when you go out.” Popping open the chest with one quick flick, the inside revealed a necklace with a thick silver chain and her cutie mark printed on the front. It reminded Twilight of a similar but smaller version of Celestia’s own neck-piece in shape.
She gently took it with her magic and slipped it around her neck. After a moment, she commented with interest. “It’s a lot lighter than I expected. I can barely feel it.”
“Well, it’s enchanted,” Spike said casually as he put the box away. “Now, we need to get going. It’s nearly time for breakfast.”
Twilight moved over to a nearby mirror and quickly double checked that her mane and tail were presentable. “Okay, I’m good to go.” When Spike didn't climb onto her back she turned to him, frowning a bit. “Don’t tell me you don’t ride on my back.”
Spike blushed a bit. “No, I did. It’s just that I didn't want to add any extra strain for you. I mean, you struggled a bit-” He was cut off as Twilight’s magic grabbed him in a lavender aura.
He was gently lifted up and placed on her back, the brief--nearly forgotten--sensation of weightlessness sending a small bout of butterflies to run amok in Spike’s stomach. Twilight turned and gave him a smile. “There we go. I feel much more relaxed with you there. It’s a... familiar weight.”
“Okay, if you say so.” Spike sighed, giving in. If it made Twilight comfortable, he wasn't going to argue the point. Besides. The nostalgia of riding on Twilight’s back was enough for him to be silent and savour the old feeling. “Do you remember the way to the dining room?”
Twilight nodded and headed for the door. “I believe so. Tell me if I miss a turn.” With almost hesitant trotting, she slowly made her way out into the hallway. It was empty, but the sound of hoofsteps echoed from around the corner. With a deep breath, Twilight held her head up high as she started to walk down the hall.
Spike sat as he normally did on her back, his claws gently holding onto the fur of her coat near the base of her neck. “Last chance for breakfast in bed?”
“Not going to happen, Spike,” she whispered. She rounded the corner and froze mid-step. There were dozens of ponies all standing about in the hallway, talking to each other idly. Only a few mares dressed in maid outfits walked down the hall with any purpose.
Somepony spotted Twilight and called out. “Lady Sparkle!” Almost immediately the throng of ponies were lined up along either side of the hall, watching her. Even the maids had cleared a path for her, and stood diligently should they be called upon by the Countess.
Twilight forced a smile and started walking down the hall. The sight, admittedly, was rather unnerving. “Good morning, everypony.”
The crowd bowed, somehow completely in sync. “Good morning, Lady Sparkle,” they replied in unison.
Awkwardly, Twilight continued to walk down the line of bowing ponies. Once she was most of the way through them, though, she stopped. “Please, as you were.” It might have been an awkward command to give, but it seemed to work. All the ponies raised their heads and began milling about once more, breaking the neat lines they had formed in seconds. Spike gave her side a tap and she continued walking before any pony attempted to start a conversation with her.
As she rounded the corner she could hear them muttering to each other about her being awake and looking just as good as ever. It was a bit strange and it made Twilight feel uncomfortable. As it turned out, she did remember the right path. And after only a few more encounters with staff members, Twilight grasped the handle of the door and swung it open gracefully. At least her comatose state hadn't dampened her ability to cast magic, to her knowledge.
Celestia was just getting settled in her usual seat. She looked up at the sound of the door. “Twilight! I didn't know you were feeling up to eating here. I was going to order breakfast to be sent to your room.”
Twilight gave the princess a warm smile as she walked over. “I’m feeling just fine, and I don’t want to be stuck in bed all day.” She let Spike jump off before she sat down. He took a seat next to her, putting Twilight between him and Celestia.
“Then I am very glad to have your company,” Celestia gave her a smile. “I see you’re wearing your necklace.”
Twilight glanced down at it; she had already gotten completely used to it’s weight. “Spike said it was a gift from you. It’s very pretty.”
“I gave it to you shortly after granting you your title. I very rarely saw you without it on after that.” A joyful expression threatened to arise from Celestia’s face. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you with it on again.”
Spike leaned forward, looking over at Celestia. “All of us being here like this is almost like how it used to be!”
Celestia chuckled softly. “Almost, Spike.”
The door opened as three stallions marched in, each carrying a large plate of food in their magic. They floated the plates over in varying hues to the table and set them down gently. They bowed in unison. “Breakfast is served,” the middle stallion said.
“Thank you; you are excused,” Celestia replied. She waited for them to swiftly leave the room before turning to Twilight. “So, tell me Twilight: What was life like in your version?”
Twilight grabbed her silverware with her magic, surprised by how good her food smelled. “It wasn't as busy as this, that’s for sure. I think the staff was only a dozen or so ponies, minus all the nobles and politicians who came in every day.”
“Only a dozen? How did everything get done?”
Twilight tapped her chin. In hindsight, she never questioned it before. “You know, I have no idea. I never saw anypony cleaning, but it was always spotless. Must have been magic.”
Celestia and Spike chuckled softly. “And you never helped run Equestria, right?” Spike asked.
“No, I was typically too busy studying to pay any attention to court or politics,” she answered with a blush. The conversation died off for several minutes as they started to eat. The food before her tasted even better than it smelled, which was quite the declaration. Questions started to form in Twilight’s mind about her history in this world. Eventually she had to ask. “Celestia, in my memories, I’m still considered your student… What made you decide that I was ready to be graduated and work on the court?”
Celestia hummed softly as she thought back. “You know, I think it was your idea.” After another brief pause she nodded. “Yes, I’m sure it was. I believe you started asking if you could help me. I gave you an actual court case to work on, disguised as a hypothetical assignment from me. I applied the solution you came up with and it worked. When I told you what I had did you were furious with me. You thought it was irresponsible to let ‘a mere student’ make such big decisions. So I graduated you on the spot and over the next few days the royal court gained a second member.”
Twilight blushed a bit; she completely agreed with her other self about it being irresponsible to apply her solution to a theoretical problem to a real world solution. “That does sound like something I would do…” She muttered, a bit embarrassed.
“If you’re feeling up for it, I would like for you to spend your day with me in court,” Celestia said, suddenly changing the topic. “I anticipate a large number of ponies will show up simply to see you once more.”
Nervously, Twilight nodded. She wasn't expecting Celestia to ask her to do something of this magnitude so soon. “Of course, I think I can handle that. As long as you don’t make me make any huge political decisions, I believe I should be fine.”
Celestia laughed. “No, I wouldn't do that to you.” With a quick spell, a golden ethereal pocket-watch appeared in front of her, before it vanished just as suddenly. “Let’s say... Forty minutes from now we get settled, and then we’ll begin court shortly thereafter.”
“Sounds fine to me,” Twilight replied.
“Spike, please make sure you get her up to speed on court procedure. If you need me, I shall be taking a hot bath.” Celestia winked at Twilight and vanished with a flash. The pop of the teleportation spell seemed to echo in the empty dining room.
Spike groaned, but continued eating without even pausing to finish his groan. “Well, there goes my plans. Once we’re done eating, I can take you to your office, I guess.”
Twilight blinked several times;she had been staring directly at Celestia when she teleported out, and nearly blanked out in thought. “You had plans?”
“It’s double donut day. I was going to go pig out until I couldn't move, but I suppose helping you is a better use of my time,” he replied casually. Twilight blinked once more, this time out of surprise. “Better eat up; court usually lasts ‘til sundown.”
“R-Right.” Twilight was a bit shaken by the sudden change in events. What had been a nice breakfast had suddenly turned into her last few minutes of free time before her entire day would be spent trying to learn how to be a good leader for an entire nation. A nation whose history she only somewhat knew.
Spike was standing on a large desk, ruler in his hand. He swung the ruler out and pointed it at the purple unicorn in front of him. “Again!”
Twilight sighed and resisted the urge to pull the ruler away from him. “Be courteous, but firm. The best solution may not make them happy. Think of the bigger picture. When in doubt, trust my gut judgement of the situation. Above all else, don’t ever trust Celestia’s math without double checking it.”
“Good, very good. We don’t want a repeat of when she accidentally gave the zebra tribes ten times as many bits as she thought we were giving them. That really hurt us economically.” Spike jumped down to the floor. “If you can remember all that, you’ll do just fine. I’ll be there to fill you in on anything you don’t know.”
She got up and gave him a quick nuzzle. “Thank you, Spike. You’re a huge help.”
“Well I am the personal assistant to both the Countess of Canterlot and the Princess of Equestria. I know my stuff!” He puffed out his chest and grinned.
Twilight giggled and patted him on the head. A knock on the door interrupted them, “Lady Sparkle. Princess Celestia has requested your presence in the council room.”
Spike climbed onto Twilight’s back as she headed for the door. Standing just outside the room was a tan unicorn mare. Spike smiled his childish grin towards the visitor. “Heya, Jot Down!”
Jot Down bowed slightly as Twilight exited the room. “Lady Sparkle. Mister Spike.”
Twilight had not seen this pony before now, but based on Spike’s reaction, she figured it would be best to appear friendly. “Good morning, Jot Down. I presume that Celestia is preparing for court.”
“She is,” Jot Down replied, standing back upright. “I have been asked to escort you to the council room.”
“Then please, lead the way.” Twilight gestured in what she hoped appeared to be an absentmindedly way to prompt Jot Down to lead her in the right direction down the hallway without giving away the fact that she did not know where she was going.
It seemed to work as Jot Down turned and strode off towards Twilight’s right. Twilight followed just a few steps behind her, trying to be as casual about it as she could. The layout of the palace was just different enough that she didn't know where they were headed. She had found the dining hall just because she had been there once before and could remember the path. “I can’t tell you how nice it is to see you up and about, Lady Sparkle. We were all quite worried that you’d never wake up.”
Twilight nodded, unsure how to reply to her. Even though Jot Down’s tone was formal, she could feel the emotion behind those words. Here, Twilight was someone very important to the ponies in the palace. Important to all of Equestria. She was starting to feel even more like she wasn't the right pony to be in this position.
It looks like there are images in the story, but none of them show up. You may want to fix that.
This is an interesting premise, and I'm really waiting to see where it goes. I'm hoping there will bee more questioning on if the world Twilight knew in her coma was real or not.
4288822 Huh, really? I might need to change image host then. Let me see what I can do.
4288829 I'm glad you enjoyed it so far! Don't worry, that will be coming up again soon enough.
My eyes keep sliding to Spike. You've done an excellent job to keep him in character, but somehow feel more grown-up. Even his mild complaints about having his own plans seemed a bit... off. Like he's older than he is portrayed in the show. He's his own dragon in this version. I like that.
I'm a little surprised we're a few chapters in and barely a day has gone by in the story. Don't worry about your pacing, though, its good to take it nice and easy when it comes to things like coma recovery. Keep going, I really like your work a lot.
~Aegis
This is probably one of my favorite stories on this website.
This is probably one of my favorite stories on this website.
4288939 Spike is just a whole lot of fun to write.
4289012 Thanks.
Pointlessly Long, Drawn-Out Theory: The Killing Curse What's-His-Face cast actually worked exactly as advertised... technically. Her soul was torn from her body and magically barred from returning, and since it had nowhere else to go, it went on to her designated afterlife or whatever happens to souls without bodies. The Twilight Sparkle of this world died in the way the spell intended. Avada Kedavera!
What went wrong was that her killer skipped over one vital step in the spell: He forgot to hit the metaphorical lights on his way out.
Even a successful Killing Curse actually takes several minutes to truly work; if it ends before the body degrades beyond what can support a soul, the evicted spirit may return and the spell would be a complete failure, though this becomes far less likely the longer the curse remains in place, with the absolute point of no return usually being called at around ten minutes. The spell lingers for a couple of minutes after that just to make sure, then fizzles away. Once that happens, it's nearly impossible to tell that the murder wasn't a sudden heart failure.
"Twilight Sparkle" was dead; the soul was gone, and all her memories and emotions went with it, but unfortunately for our late vigilante, the body didn't know that. It thought she was just unconscious, and so went into "standby mode" to keep everything in working order for her return, even though the curse was still blocking any soul that tried to enter the now-empty vessel. Since the body never "died," the curse never wore off, and for two long years it warded off any wayward spirit that tried to make it their new home.
Then the guy died, the curse was forcibly ended, and a Twilight Sparkle from a universe of the canon timeline somewhere between "Games Ponies Play" and "Magical Mystery Cure" died of sudden heart failure completely unrelated to any of this.
Empty body and bodiless soul looked at each other from across the infinite vastness of time, space, and the multiverse, shrugged their metaphorical shoulders and went, "eh, close enough."
Shortly after, Twilight Sparkle woke up to find herself in an almost-familiar world.
4289094
I agree with Aegis. Your Spike is Perfect and I cant wait to see where you take him.
There are a whole lot of Spike fans out there that wish he was given half as much love in the show...
Another thing I cant wait to see happen...
Celestia gave Twilight a wink when she was going to take a bath...
Shipping senses tingling ...
tingling ...
oops ... not yet ...
So, I'm not the only one that thinks that the whole "Twilight co-running the court" thing will end very, very badly, right?
4289809
Good theory , and I agree the most on this point:
it is very long and drawn out, in a particularly pointless manner.
My theory? The spell intended to kill Twilight ended up switching the Twilights from separate realities. It would certainly be interesting to see this universe's Twilight in the canon universe. "Who the buck are you? Why is your mane rainbow colored?"
4289094 No problem.
Just wanted to say great chapter and I cant wait till we see how Tia breaks the news to Twi that they were lovers (and see Twi's reaction )
4289809
4289821
4290090 Just don't let her hear you say that.
4290222
4291383 "Spike? Why do we live in a tree? "
4292027
I sense a rather interesting session of court is headed our way. This should be quite amusing.
4292027 Maybe THAT'S why 'Tia gave her the position of Countess... freaking brownnoser...
4292425 Interesting? What ever gave you that idea.
4292455 I love reading all the theories you guys are coming up with! But I'm not going to give anything away~
Celestia
4292889 I'm glad you're enjoying the story enough to leave a comment!
4294120 Oh noes! I'll go fix that.
I say that he probably cursed Twilight with a different curse when he miscast it, replacing her memories with false ones
4289809
Why completely unrelated? Also, your theory is amazing!
This Celestia has just proven herself to be better than the Canon Celestia, because if Canon Celestia had done this with Sunset Shimmer, (which I can't think of any reason that she wouldn't have), Sunset would have never betrayed and left her! I say this because it is canon that Sunset was an orphan before she met Celestia, and that Celestia was her foster mother...
And if Tyrant!Lestia wasn't canon, she'd be important to everypony in canon Equestria as well! Unfortunately, though, Tyrant!Lestia is canon, and she has complete control over the news outlets, so the news never covers the really important things, like the fact that Twilight has saved the world several times over by the time that this chapter was originally published. Here is my evidence: 1 saving Equestria from Nightmare Moon and restoring Princess Luna's sanity+1 Saving just Ponyville+1 ruining of the Grand Galloping Gala+1 saving Equestria from Discord+1 enslaving all of Ponyville with the "want it, need it" spell all in the name of high drama+1 being a pivotal part of the reason that Equestria was saved from the Changelings, (which I just love, because they remind me of the Changelings from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)+1 being the sister of Shining Armor, who is the Emperor of the Crystal Empire+1 being the sister-in-law of Princess Cadence, who is the Empress of the Crystal Empire+1 being a pivotal part in saving the Crystal Empire from King Sombra+1 saving Ponyville from being enslaved by another unicorn+1 solving an unsolved spell of Starswirls'+1 appearing in a Daring Do book. So, that is 12 times that her name should have appeared in the newspapers, with 6 of the 12 times being for "world saving stuff" which would mean that her name would be a household name in Equestria by the time of this chapter getting published, and ponies would have named their daughters, or sons, after her. However, because Tyrant!Lestia is canon, they had not heard of her, and her many accomplishments/failures. I mean, sure, Tyrant!Lestia probably does this so that ponies don't try and kill Twilight, just to be the one that said that they killed the savior of the world, or, more probably, so that ponies don't pester Twilight and friends, which wouldn't make sense but...