Ink and Promises
Another crumpled ball of paper was thrown to the top of the steadily rising pile at the end of the table. Exhaling a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding, Twilight’s face scrunched up in concentration quickly relaxed as she slouched against the wooden back of her chair. Her hooves fumbled on the table for a washcloth, which she used to dab away the beads of sweat around the base of her horn. Then, wearing the most adorable pout, she crossed her hooves and glowered at the pile. Her eyes narrowed in an intensity strong enough to set those failed attempts aflame if made manifest.
Unbidden, she let out a sigh.
“Here, try again,” Twilight Velvet prodded gently as she slid her daughter another piece of paper. “That time was much better, Twilight. The creases were much neater than before.”
“Do I have to?” she asked, her high voice nearly crossing into a whine. She looked down at her new challenger grumpily.
Velvet raised an eyebrow. “You want to get better at magic, don’t you?”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like I’m ever going to really need it," she complained. "Pegasi and earth ponies don’t.”
“Yes, but you’re not either, Twilight,” her mother replied. With look of rare patience privy only to her daughter’s eyes, she reached across the table and took Twilight’s tiny hooves in hers. “You were born a unicorn, just like all your family before you. Magic’s a part of our heritage; you can’t just forget about it because it’s hard.”
“But I’m no good at it!” Twilight insisted.
“Magic’s in your blood. It’s a part of you. You don’t have to be good at it; you just have to cherish and appreciate it. And that can only come—“ she glanced down at the blank sheet of paper, “—with practice.”
Twilight let out a small huff. “I can never get the wings,” she caviled.
Velvet smiled. “You’ll get them eventually. Come on, just one more time.”
As Twilight’s horn fired up with a lilac aura, Velvet began to speak: “Don’t get so worked up,” she said as Twilight folded the corners. “You’re focusing too much on too many details. Those don’t matter right now. Don’t be too worried about getting it perfectly in one go. All you have to think about is making it work. All it has to do is fly.”
Twilight soon slipped into the rhythms of the paper’s motions and her mother’s calming voice. Her magic field divided once, then twice into four forces each tugging at the paper. Twilight struggled to coordinate them all as she carefully fashioned the body, then the neck, then the head. Her eyes darted from one end to the other and back again. She couldn’t help but go faster, even as she scrambled to keep up with her own movements. The bundles of magic crossed over one another, twisting the paper until—
Dong! rang the Canterlot bell tower.
“Gah!” Twilight exclaimed. Her magic coalesced into one aura, which crumpled the rudimentary formations of her paper crane before tossing it haphazardly to the side.
Velvet stretched out her hooves to steady an amethyst vase filled with purple crocuses just as it was about to tip over from the paper ball’s collision. She paused, sighed, then looked up and glared.
“Oops,” Twilight said with a nervous giggle. “Sorry.”
Velvet shook her head as she straightened some bent stems in the bouquet. “And you say you’d be no good at hoofball,” she muttered. “Is your book bag ready?” she added.
“Yup!” Twilight jumped down from the chair, eager to stretch her legs, and grabbed her saddlebag from its peg in the hallway.
“Wait, aren’t you going to help me clean up this mess?” Velvet called.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Do you expect me to do two things at once?”
“I don’t like sass, young lady,” Velvet quickly reprimanded. “I can’t do all the housework by myself. Now that you’re a big filly, I’ll be expecting you to help me more.”
“Okay,” she answered willingly enough. In one quick motion, she swept the pile of crumpled paper into her hooves. She wobbled on her back legs a bit, trying to keep the highest balls from falling before she fell over herself, spilling the paper all over the floor.
“Dumb hooves,” she grumbled.
Velvet couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s the importance of learning magic.” She levitated a wastebasket over to them, and together they threw the paper away. “See, nothing too difficult. You made great progress today Twilight, and I’m very proud of you. Maybe you can ask your teacher for help if you want to try another magic exercise."
Twilight's ears slightly drooped. "Miss Silver Quill says she's offering a new set of classes for older students who are trying to make it into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. She might not have time to help me anymore."
"Well, there's no harm in at least asking. And maybe with enough practice, you'll be able to get into that class too," Velvet added with a wink.
"What? No way! I can barely keep up with the rest of my class. Who knows what those ponies can do! They probably defeat hydras and turn frogs into oranges and write new spells and can raise the sun! I can't do any of that!"
"Oh, I don't know about that," Velvet remarked, her eyes twinkling with laughter, "but everypony has to start somewhere, right? You can soar just as high as they do, Twilight; you should never be afraid of trying. If you want, we can practice more when I get home from the university, okay?"
Her previous frustration forgotten, Twilight's eyes lit up. "Really? Promise?"
"Of course," she answered as she tenderly smoothed her daughter's mane back into place. "I promise I'll help you in any way I can."
"Yay, thank you!" Twilight cried, wrapping her forelegs around Velvet in a hug. "You're the best teacher ever!"
"Aw, you're welcome, dear. Although, I might lose that title if I don't get to school on time. The same goes for you too, you know."
With a yelp, Twilight scrambled to quickly secure her backpack before she threw open the door. “Bye, have a good day at work, Mom!” she called over her shoulder. “I love you!”
Velvet smiled as she leaned against the doorframe and watched her little filly march into the world. “I love you too, Twilight.”
“That’s right! You heard me!”
Twilight Velvet recoiled in shock. “Twilight, honey, you can’t possibly mean—“
“Well, I do!” Twilight screamed, her body trembling as tears streamed down to form a tiny puddle at her hooves. She stood up, nearly toppling her chair in her anger, to stare her mother down like a raging bull, leaving Night Light and Shining Armor cowering at the table. With neither stallion courageous enough to enter the argument, they were both content to stay and valiantly guard the remains of their Hearth’s Warming Eve dinner, now long cold underneath the frost of ten minutes negligence and the icy spirit of hard feelings.
“I wish the Princess was my mother!”
The words were like a slap to the face. Twilight Velvet flinched and closed her eyes, turning away in grief at the crushing affirmation of her deepest fears. The words burrowed their way into her heart, unearthing those secret worries reserved only for late-night pacing and nightmares filled not with darkness, but a light that carried everything away, leaving her heart ringing with a dull and aching hollowness.
“I didn’t w-want to say it, b-but it’s true,” Twilight hiccupped with great, heaving sobs. “T-The Princess u-understands me. She’s always been so kind to me; she knows just what to say to make me feel better… she just gets me, in a way you never did.”
“Twily, you know that’s not true,” Shining said, deciding to utilize his bravery instilled from his three years of cadet training. “Mom loves both of us very much, and she always will. Nothing can change that. You know that nopony can replace our mom, not even Princess Celestia.”
“I get that and all,” Twilight cried, “but it would be so much easier to believe if she actually cared about what I’ve been doing with my life for the past two years!”
“Twilight, that’s enough out of you,” Velvet demanded sharply, shifting into her disciplinary mode as a university professor in Canterlot. “Perhaps if you actually chose to talk to me over those two years, I would know a little more about my own daughter. Now, come back to the dinner table and stop making all this fuss.”
But this only proved to agitate Twilight further. “See!” she cried, pointing her hoof accusingly her mother, as if wanting to put the blasphemous words on trial. “You’re not even taking me seriously! The Princess would know if something was upsetting me! She would try to talk to me and resolve the problem, not brush it off like it were nothing! She cares for me more than you, she lov—“
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight Velvet demanded in a dangerously low voice, all of her previous motherly patience gone. “Don’t you dare say the Princess loves you more than I do. I would do anything for you. I would give away all I have for you, would sacrifice my life for you. I love you, my little Twilight, more than life itself. Can’t you understand that?”
“Yes,” Twilight sighed. “Yes, I know. You try your best to love me, but… but you can’t do it perfectly. The Princess loves me perfectly, since she is perfect. Once you experience love like that… you can’t go back to flaws, to mistakes!” The teenage pony’s voice steadily ascended as each word fueled her distress all the more. “You can’t go back to being let down or misunderstood! You can’t go back to imperfection!”
At that crescendo, Twilight’s anger slowly drained to a quiet, somber sadness. “If you can’t understand that,” she finished, her voice barely above a whisper, “if you can’t understand how I feel, then maybe you were never a good mother.”
And with that, Twilight ran from the dining room and into her old bedroom, leaving nothing but a trail of bitter tears and soured hearts in her wake.
“Shining, go follow your sister,” Velvet ordered, barely keeping her voice from shaking. “Make sure she’s alright.”
Velvet watched as the colt obediently trotted after the prodigal daughter. She waited until the very moment when the door clicked shut to release her verbal tirade upon her husband.
“How was I supposed to know she didn’t like crocuses anymore?” Twilight Velvet cried. “When she was a filly, she always loved them! And how was I supposed to not accidently break her quill? It’s old anyway; it even has a purple ink blot on it! And how was I supposed to know what the Volat Ardea Spell was? I teach Astronomy, not Magical Theory! And how—"
“Velvet,” Night Light interrupted gently, putting a comforting hoof around her. “Twilight’s been away from home for two years. We can’t expect her to be the same filly now.”
“Yes, but I would have liked to know what happened to her during all that time! Four letters, just four brief letters was all the thought she gave her family for two years! And they were so stiff and business-like, as if somepony were forcing the words out of her! And even today, on Hearth’s Warming Eve, it was the Princess who requested she come here, not Twilight herself. She… she hasn’t missed me. In all that time, while I’ve thought about her every hour of every day, she hasn’t thought about me once. She’s been perfectly content to stay cooped up in that tower with her books and the Princess, far away from the mother who loves her!”
“There, there,” Night Light murmured as he brushed away Velvet’s tears. “As hard as it is to bear, you have to remember that Twilight’s living her dream right now. We know of the amazing talent she has; even Princess Celestia sees it, and she’s given our Twilight the once in a lifetime opportunity to study under her, something she hasn’t done in hundreds of years. We can’t begrudge either of them for that, nor can we be the ones to hold Twilight back from achieving her full potential with the Princess.”
“Yes, but the Princess is the problem!” Velvet protested. “She… she’s taken Twilight away from me! How is a wretched old mare like me possibly supposed to compare to the goddess of the sun?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say wretched—“
“Well, you’re right, I can’t,” Velvet smoothly interrupted, her voice now infused with an iron resolve. “But I’m still going to try! I’m not going to let anyone, Princess or not, separate me from my only daughter! Come on, Night Light,” she screeched, her eyes like that of one marching into a great battle. “We’re going to Canterlot Castle!”
“I… But… How…” The stallion was at a loss for words, dumbstruck at his wife’s recklessness. Still, he figured he might as well follow and try to talk some sense into her before she committed a felon of the state.
As Night Light headed for the door, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye at the night sky, with the moon cradling the darkened silhouette of its evil mistress, banished for a thousand years at the hoof of Princess Celestia and left to wander the moonscape alone.
Night Light silently prayed that Nightmare Moon would not be receiving visitors.
As would be expected, securing a private audience with Princess Celestia outside of Day Court was all but impossible for most ponies; however, being the parents of the Princess’s protégé did have its advantages. And while the night guard was not exactly thrilled to deal with an angry mare barging through the palace at such an ungodly hour, they eventually arranged for Twilight Velvet and Night Light to meet with the Princess in the Solar Garden the following afternoon.
“Now, are you alright with everything, dear?” Twilight asked her husband as the two made their way through the crystal white snow banks that coated the palace grounds.
“Me? Oh, there’s no need to be concerned about me, honey. In fact, I was more worried about how you would be handling this.”
It was Velvet’s turn to sound surprised. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Well…” Night Light began hesitantly, choosing his words with the care of a pony tightrope walking. His hoof nervously pawed the frost-webbed ground. “It’s just that last night, you were… less than pleased with Her Majesty.”
Velvet blushed in embarrassment at the memory. “I know I was angry then, but once I got around to really thinking about this whole situation… I realized that the Princess is probably the only one who can help us resolve this entire situation. Like it or not, even though she’s part of the problem she may understand Twilight better than we do. If she can’t help us get through to her that I’m her mother, then I have no idea what to do.”
At this, Twilight Velvet fell quiet, her face forlorn and uncertain. “I just… I hate not being able to help her,” she said, shamefully hiding her face behind her mane. “I’m her mother; I should know her better than anypony, but I don’t. She’s changed so much, and now… now I don’t know her at all. I wonder… if m-maybe Twilight’s right. The Princess is perfect in every way. Would Twilight really be better off with her? Am I a bad mother for wanting to keep her for myself? Twilight… she’s exceeded everything I could have ever imagined for her. She… she deserves better than me. She deserves the very best mother, and if that’s the Princess…”
She trailed off, not wanting to give life to the words that lay heavy upon her heart. Knowing words couldn’t console her, Night Light affectionately nuzzled her mane before the couple went on in silence.
It was too silent. Concerned, Night Light snuck a quick glance at his wife, who by this point had rearranged her face into one of focus, contemplation, and serenity, completely unnatural for her. As Night Light pondered this strangely calm demeanor, yet another fear formed in his mind.
“Velvet,” Night Light began tentatively, “don’t… hit her, okay?”
Twilight Velvet raised an inquiring eyebrow. “What in Faust’s name are you talking about, Night Light?” she demanded, her serene mask cracked in impatience. “I’d never dream of doing that to anypony, much less the ruler of Equestria! Despite any… less than exemplary feelings, I’ll still show my Princess proper respect! Honestly, what has gotten into you?”
“I… well, you… to make sure nothing… never mind.” Night Light decided not to question it any further.
However, he could have sworn he heard Velvet mutter under her breath, “She’d probably keel over with one hit, the old hag.”
Or stab you in the chest with that ten-foot horn of hers, Night Light thought to himself.
So with these two opposing thoughts in mind, Twilight Velvet and Night Light passed through the archway that led to the Solar Garden.
Whenever she wasn’t holding Day Court or away on diplomatic meetings, Princess Celestia, who disliked being cooped up in a stuffy office, could typically be found doing paperwork in the Solar Garden, as befitted the goddess of life and fertility. Because of this, Celestia’s constant magical presence had affected the landscape so that even amidst the icy chill of the day following Hearth’s Warming Eve, it was always summertime in the Solar Garden. Instantly upon crossing the threshold, the two ponies were welcomed with the merry solar breeze that pervaded that tiny haven of light amidst a dark and dreary world. Flowers bloomed in abundance, wearing their finest colors for royalty; smiling birds and critters flocked together in harmony; and the sun bathed the grove with its gentle rays so that the garden teemed with life. In the very center there was a fountain, crafted from snow-white alabaster and crowned with an emblem of the sun. In the afternoon sun, the sparkling blue water, seamless as glass, seemed to shatter and reform to create thousands of shimmering diamonds adorning the surface, all filling the garden with a spectrum of harmonious rainbow light.
Everything was perfect.
And sitting in a little gazebo, speaking to her secretary, was none other than the bringer of perfection herself, Princess Celestia.
Upon noticing Twilight Velvet and Night Light, Celestia’s warm magenta eyes shone with the light of an inviting smile. Motioning for her secretary to pause, she descended from the gazebo steps, every movement so heartbreakingly graceful that one would have believed her to be gliding on air. Her aurora mane swirled the unseen solar breeze, adding to her magic and mystery. The animals immediately stopped their scurrying to stand respectfully to the side of her path. Overhead, the sun almost seemed to create a spotlight around the goddess, as if wanting to pay special honor to the pony who allowed it to shine across the land every day. Wherever she walked, the grass always was a little greener, eagerly absorbing her vitality. The sunflowers in the garden all turned to face her, their sun on earth, like a crowd of expectant, smiling faces, ready to greet their perfect princess. And there she stood amidst it all, a goddess, a siren with an angel’s face who had lured Twilight away with her spellbinding song.
Twilight Velvet hated every second of it.
“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle,” Celestia greeted in her typical serene voice. “It’s such a pleasure to see both of you again.”
At this, Night Light and Twilight Velvet (Velvet with visible reluctance) bowed to the princess. “The pleasure is all ours, princess,” Night Light said. “Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with us.”
“It’s no trouble at all,” Celestia replied cheerfully. “You two are always welcome to come to Canterlot Castle. Provided, of course, you don’t attempt anything silly along the way, like breaking in during the middle of the night, alerting my guards, and throwing a sledgehammer through my balcony window.” Her smile unfaltering, she glanced at Velvet pointedly.
“Hehe… yeah,” Velvet chuckled weakly, all the while casting wary glances at the ten stoic guards stationed along the perimeter of the Solar Garden.
Not now, Velvet thought to herself, but one of these days I’m going to march right up to her, spit in that perfect face of hers, and slap her so hard her neck will—
“We assume you have had the opportunity to read the letter we sent to you last night, Princess?” Night Light asked.
Celestia’s smile dripped off her face like tears. “I suppose there’s no use in beating around the bush, is there? Yes, I have read your letter. And before you say anything, please, please know that this was never my intention. When I first took Twilight in as my protégé, I only meant to be her teacher, her guide through the field of magic in which she is so gifted, nothing more. Any actions of mine that caused her to feel otherwise were unintended. I am simply the mother of the state; I fear that my attempts at proper maternity would be woefully abysmal. And even if I could, I… I couldn’t bear the thought of making the same mistakes… with her…” Unable to look upon her own creation, Celestia turned her head away from the direction of the sun, her eyes eclipsed with the memory of a pitch-black moon. “Twilight would deserve a better mother than me,” Celestia decided, now speaking more to herself than to Velvet. “She deserves a mother free from the burden of my mistakes.”
“But that’s precisely the problem, isn’t it?” the sun goddess asked with a sad little smile. “Twilight thinks I’m perfect, that I never make mistakes. She desires a perfect mother without realizing exactly what that means. I suppose that’s what everypony thinks about me. Perhaps it’s time to set the record straight, once and for all.”
Turning to the silent couple, Celestia said, “Twilight Velvet, Night Light, you have given me the greatest joy by allowing Twilight to remain with me at the castle. All I wish for now is to impart that same joy to her, and I trust you feel the same.” The two ponies nodded vigorously. “I am well aware of how ponies have behaved over the centuries, and I know that ponies only ask for advice about a problem when they already know the solution in their hearts. You knew this when you came, and so let me tell that no, regretfully I do not have a way to lessen the pain of this emotional blow.
“However, I have thought over your… proposition, and yes, before you ask, I will tell you that my end of the arrangement is indeed possible. Truly possible. I will not allow Twilight to endure a mind game where the stakes are lies and her feelings are overridden. This must be real if it is to impact her; we cannot manipulate her desires. I believe her authentic happiness is what is most important to all of us, however this may resolve. The only question I ask is: do you truly understand the implications of what you intend to do?”
Twilight Velvet nodded gravely. “I do. I only want what’s best for my Twilight. I’ve… I’ve always wanted to keep her for myself, but now I realize she was never mine to begin with. She’s her own pony now, and… the last thing I want to do is hold her back. This problem has been building for years now, and I can’t avoid it any longer. And… this is the best way to solve it, isn’t it?”
“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is the best way, but it is certainly one of the only options feasible at this point,” Celestia said. “It’s brash, forceful, direct. Not a method I would have chosen, but something festering so long beneath the surface cannot be solved by a gentle talk, I fear. Twilight must rediscover what it is to love.”
Then she turned to Night Light. “I understand that this conflict has little to do with you, and yet its possible outcome will be equally painful for all parties involved, including you. Regardless, do you support your wife in this endeavor?”
“I do, Princess,” Night Light stated boldly. “An unhappy life isn’t one worth living, and I can’t possibly be happy if my wife and daughter are not. For their sakes, I will go through with this.”
“Very well,” Celestia replied. “Then I will give my full consent."
Velvet's eyes widened. "Just... just like that?" she asked. "You're going to agree just like that?"
Celestia tilted her head in confusion. "If you would like me to put up a resistance, I can, but fail to see the usefulness in it. Of course then again, I don't see the usefulness of bringing a sledgehammer to a discussion either..."
"Yes, but my idea... it's rather messy, isn't it? I mean, it was a spur of the moment last night, and I wasn't exactly thinking clearly at the time..."
"That's exactly why it works," Celestia explained simply. "It's taking a risk, but love in itself is always a risk. You're showing you're willing to put your very heart on the line; think of what that says to Twilight."
Celestia paused, her soul-piercing eyes examining Velvet curiously. "Twilight isn't the only pony who must face her feelings on this issue. I understand how difficult this must be, but you must have faith in your daughter's love. Just as you are flawed, so is she, which is why coming to terms with that is so important."
Noticing their uncertain expressions, she added. "Come. We can go over the details inside." Then, after beckoning them with her hoof, the princess turned with a practiced, effortless grace that sent her mane fluttering in the wind, and led them into the castle.
"I wish she would stop doing that," Velvet muttered under her breath, though not with the same bitterness as earlier. "It just kills everpony's self esteem."
"Would you like me to trip?" Celestia called out. Placing one golden-clad hoof in front of the other, she caused her long legs to fold under each other in one swift movement before rising just before she would have fallen to the ground. Her wings unfurled like a bird to steady her, the feathers shimmering in the sunlight. She stretched her legs out one by one with the precision of a dancer before replanting her hooves on firm ground, all without batting an eye.
Velvet rolled her eyes. "Go figure. She even makes tripping look good."
Twilight curled up on her old bed and gazed listlessly around her old bedroom. It was amazing how little had been altered since the time she had spent in Canterlot Castle. If Twilight were in a better mood, she would have thought it was like she had created her own little time travelling spell to go back to the days of her fillyhood. Now, however, it felt more like how a room was left abandoned after a pony died.
Still, regardless of how she looked at it, her room had for the most part remained untouched since that fateful day she had become Celestia’s student. Her textbooks were still perfectly in line in the several bookshelves that covered all four walls, although a few were left strewn haphazardly on the floor, remnants from her frantic packing the day the chariots came to whisk her away to Canterlot Castle. Looking back on the memory, Twilight wondered, had she really been that eager to leave? Even then, did she still harbor a sense of lacking from her life, her family… and her mother?
Just then, a soft, tentative knocking came at the door. “Twily?” Shining Armor called. “Can I come in?”
A noncommittal grunt emerged from Twilight’s mouth, which Shining took as an annoyed form of permission. He peeked around the doorframe cautiously, and after confirming that the coast was clear, he trotted over to sit next to Twilght on the bed.
“Hey, how ya doing, Twily?”
A blank stare.
“Mom and Dad are home, if you want to talk to them.”
No response.
“Wanna recite the square root of 546 for me?”
Still nothing.
“Well, I guess this is better than you blasting magic lasers at me like you did last night,” Shining chuckled, running a hoof through his slightly singed mane.
“Sorry,” Twilight said monotonously. “I didn’t mean to aim at you, just near you, enough to get you to leave me alone.”
“It’s okay,” Shining said. “In fact, it was kinda cool to see you were able to fire so many. Before the princ… before you left, you would jump all over the house in excitement for hours when you managed to fire just one.
“And I… I miss those days, you know?”
Twilight’s attention peaked at this. “You… You do?”
“Well, yeah. I think about those kinds of things when I’m at cadet training. You, Mom, Dad, the times we spent together. I don’t always dwell on them, but they do carry a nostalgic feeling sometimes. That’s why I was so happy that you were coming home for Hearth’s Warming Eve this year. I wanted to spend time with you, Twily, because… well, I’ve missed you.”
Twilight looked away in guilt. She hadn’t felt anything like that coming here or anytime, really. Her family had never really been on her mind at the academy. Then, she realized that she hadn’t only been neglecting her mother, but her brother and father, too. Was she slowly losing everypony? Was the Princess becoming the only pony in her life?
“And,” Shining added gently, “I know that Mom’s missed you too.”
Twilight sighed. “I know what you’re trying to do, Shining, but it’s not working. I know Mom loves me, but she slips up; she makes mistakes. It’s like love is the subatomic velocity of anumorphic particles being expelled at the proper impetus of 34,850.662 kilodecibles, but like Mother and I, if the two continuum rifts are in cognitive dissonance due to fallacious trajectories into antithetical universes of nullification, then the end result of teleportation is impossible.”
“Er… how about, ‘the gears don’t mesh correctly’?” Shining suggested weakly, after giving up on trying to comprehend Twilight’s intrinsic analogy.
“I guess that works, too.” Twilight shrugged indifferently before lapsing into silence like before.
After a while, Twilight sighed. “I thought if anypony could understand how I feel now, it would have been you, BBBFF. I mean, at cadet training, there are so many high-ranking officers. They’re all so proud, so admirable, so respected and dignified and honorable. Didn’t you ever wish that one of them could be Father?”
“It’s… it’s not like that for me, Twily,” Shining began. “Sure, I look up to them, and I’m even on a personal speaking level with a few privates, but I’ve never thought of them as family, at least, not in the way you’re my family. Each of my trainers has a certain place in my heart, but I wouldn’t want to trade one for another. They’ve all played a different role in shaping who I am, and my mind, well, that role is where they belong. Commander Lightning Eye is supposed to sneak me extra corndogs before training, and then make my life Tartarus during the 500-meter gallop; Father is supposed walk me to my first day of school and take me out to Ponyville to watch the annual meteor showers. They’re parts of different aspects in my life, and I appreciate them both for what they do.”
“I guess that makes me an even more horrible daughter,” Twilight lamented. “That’s not how I feel about Mother and the princess at all.”
“Hey, it’s not that bad,” Shining said. “Everypony looks up to Princess Celestia; it’s natural to feel some idolization towards her. But you can’t let it blind you into—“
“But you don’t understand!” Twight suddenly burst out. “You don’t know the princess like I do. You haven’t seen her like I have. I’ve seen her come to our private lessons exhausted from the Day Court. I’ve seen her laugh after watching one of those pompous nobles crash into a wall from titling their heads too high. I’ve seen her almost cry at the sight of a blind mare and her child begging on the street, even after she gave them fifty bits. I’ve seen her scream herself awake from a nightmare on Hearth’s Warming Eve. And I’ve seen her smile, really truly smile, whenever she walks into a room and sets eyes on me. There’s a sense of wholeness, of completeness that only comes from her. I don’t care if she can’t spend much time with me; one second with her is like a week of sunlit days. I used to idolize her, but now, now that I’ve gotten to know her, I think it’s something more. I’d do anything in the world to be perfect like her, to show that I’m worthy of her, and in turn, we understand each other perfectly. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be between parents? Isn’t that what love really is?”
Shining Armor was about to respond when a soft, hesitant knock came at the door of Twilight’s bedroom.
“Twilight?” called Velvet. “Can you come out, please?”
“No,” Twilight refused stubbornly, crossing her forelegs.
“Twilight, we have a visitor. Won’t you please come out?”
“No! I don’t care who it is; I’m not coming out!”
“Not even for me?” asked an elegantly musical voice.
That voice… it couldn’t be…
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight shouted, as excited as a filly on Hearth’s Warming Day, as she flung the door open wide with her magic. Even without adorning her usual golden regalia, she was still easily recognizable as Twilight’s caring mentor. Not even bowing in reverence beforehand, the little filly ran up and threw her forelegs around the alicorn. Twilight buried her face in Celestia’s soft aurora mane, now slightly dampened with the filly’s tears of joy. She would never let go, never…
Until she turned her head and saw Twilight Velvet, her eyes regarding them with thinly veiled resentment.
Celestia seemed to sense Velvet’s gaze as well. Her body tensed, and mentor and student pulled away into more professional stances.
“Princess, with all due respect, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked. “Did something happen at the castle? What’s going on—“
“All in due time, my faithful student,” Celestia chided, her usual calm, serene voice trembling and trailing off into the distance, giving the impression of some adamantine statue that was falling apart. “For now, just follow me.”
Twilight obediently fell into stride with Celestia, but even at her side, Twilight was still filled with uneasiness. The princess craned her neck upwards so as to shield her face from Twilight’s inquiring gaze, but even then, Twilight could see her teacher’s magenta eyes clouded with guilt. Ever so often, she would snap her eyes shut as if in pain and determinedly clamp her jaw shut. Not once did she make eye contact with Twilight.
Disturbed by this behavior, Twilight’s gaze shifted behind her to her mother, who looked as if she were resisting the urge to cry. Next to her, Twilight’s father was hurriedly whispering to Shining Armor, his eyes growing wider with horror at each word. Twilight turned back her attention back to Celestia, who was now ordering her guards to patrol the perimeter of the house, not allowing a single one to remain with her. Everypony avoided looking at Twilight, but whether it was out of shame or fear, she would never know.
Night Light insisted that Twilight enter the parlor room last, and so the now petrified filly lingered outside the doorway while her heart hammered with the force of a thousand drums inside her chest. From her place outside, Twilight could only hear a few broken sobs, unintelligible murmurings of affirmation, and finally, the command for Twilight to enter the parlor room.
The moment Twilight opened the door, it felt as if she had walked into a funeral home. The vases of her mother’s prized roses now gave the aura of mourning flowers laid on a tombstone. All four ponies, each in varying stages of grief and shock, briefly looked up at Twilight with identical expressions of sorrow before bending their heads once more to focus on the stack of parchment on the coffee table.
“W-What are those?” Twilight asked, pointing a shaking hoof at the papers in question.
Twilight Velvet raised her eyes to look at her daughter with a teary-eyed smile. “Are you happy now, Twilight?” she asked forlornly, with just an undercurrent of accusation. “After all, isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?”
“I-I d-don’t understand—“ Twilight’s protests were cut off as her mother used her telekinesis to push an inkwell and quill into Twilight’s hooves.
“Those are your adoption forms, my Twilight, my love,” Velvet declared. “And with your signature, you can put yourself under the full legal guardianship of Princess Celestia.”
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Possible error, "read the let we", I think it's supposed to be "Letter"
Ehh comment:P this is an amazing piece of work I love it!!
Wee! Suggestions! Take em or leave em!
I think the "dare" should be emphasized here, and word might be better as "sentence".
I'd suggest swapping out "untouched" with something else since your previous sentence just used that same descriptor for her room.
Here "and" should be "about" and I don't think "Mother" needs to be capitalized.
"seeing" might be better as "watching" here, to avoid repetition.
This should probably be "sunlit".
This should either be "slightly damp" or "slightly dampened" though I think "damp" is better.
Lastly, in your story description,
This should probably be "the card".
That's it! I really like what I'm seeing so far. I'll get on to chapter two here in a bit.
Please keep writing, I'll keep reading!
Wee! A word I don't recall seeing before!
"caviled“, old french, to mock, jest or rail.
If this is how Twi perceived her mothers encouragement, its no wonder the lesson was so difficult.Went back and reread that bit... Twi used the word... My first impression when I looked it up on wiktionary was that her mom was mocking Twi's frustration.
Now I suppose it should be Twi railing against her mothers insistance that she repeat the exercise yet another time.