May Those Who Step Through This Door Know What it Means to Rule
Twilight peered into the dark cavern, the light of her horn only barely illuminating the hole in the side of the mountain. Water slowly dribbled down glistening stalactites, clinging to the slick stone before tumbling down to the tiny pools below. The smell of wet stone clung to the stagnant air. Not a whiff of the wind that whistled around the peak outside touched the interior of the cave.
“Hello? Is anypony there?”
“Ah, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight started, whirling around. “Princess Luna!” She took a step towards her before she stopped, blinking. “Wait, where’s Princess Celestia? I thought she’d be here, too.”
“My sister is otherwise engaged.” Luna raised her head imperiously. “Is that a problem?”
“No! No problem! I just… wasn’t expecting you. Well, just you.” Twilight chuckled nervously as Luna arched an eyebrow.
“And why is that?”
“Well, I… no reason, I guess.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “Twilight, speak plainly.”
Twilight’s ears fell as she sighed, slowly running her hoof over the stone. “I just wanted to see her.”
“I see.” Luna strode forward. “You do realize that, as a Princess of Equestria, you need not beg for an audience; you may seek her out and speak freely.”
“I know that! I just… don’t want to waste her time.” Twilight looked away.
“And yet you feel it is necessary to vet your every decision through her by letter.” Luna’s voice was neutral, but Twilight flinched anyway.
“I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t making any mistakes,” Twilight mumbled.
Luna sighed. “It is as I feared.”
“What?”
Luna shook her head sadly as she stepped deeper into the cave. “Do you know what this place is?”
“No,” Twilight said as she trotted after her, peering at the walls as they moved towards the back of the cavernous space. “I didn’t even know these caves existed until I saw them on the map you sent me.”
Luna nodded her head slowly. “These are the caves where our ancestors first learned about Harmony.”
Twilight stopped mid-step. “Wait, what? The caves that the three tribes took shelter in were under Unicornia. Everypony knows that.”
“And that is where we are.” Luna’s horn ignited, casting its pale blue light across the cave like a beacon. Two unicorns reared out of the darkness, the dim light playing across their stony forms as they stood frozen, forever standing guard over whatever lay beyond.
Twilight stared at the statues, her mouth agape. “That’s impossible! Unicornia was renamed Canterlot when you and Princess Celestia became rulers of the three tribes.”
“That is correct, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said as she strode forward, her eyes locked on the tunnel beyond the statues. “But Canterlot was not the first city the unicorns built. Before Canterlot, this was Unicornia.”
Twilight trotted after Luna. “If there was a city here, why aren’t there any ruins?” She glanced up at the statues. “Other than this, I mean.”
“Because they were fools.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, her eyes moving back to the taller alicorn as Luna’s horn scattered its light down the passage ahead.
Luna flicked her tail. “The unicorns of old wanted a city that could compare to the one that the pegasi were building in the clouds, one that exemplified their might and majesty. They did not want to be looked down on, but seen as the equals – nay, superiors – of the ponies with wings. And so, they built their city here, perched high on one of the tallest mountains in all of Equestria.”
“Well, it always seemed a little impractical. But Canterlot is still standing; obviously it is possible to build a city above the clouds.”
“Possible, yes; but not the way they built it. They rejected the science of the architects; any city that could be built by earth ponies, no matter how grand, would not suit them. And so, they built Unicornia, the first – and last – city to rely on magic alone.”
Luna’s horn flared as she swept her hoof across the passage. Silvery light began to trickle down the walls of the passageway, the glowing magic flooding into cracks and recesses in the stone walls. As Twilight’s eyes focused on the patterns, they seemed to come alive, thin strings of light flowing along the cracks, moving both down and up against gravity. The lines and curves began to come together, forming the image of hundreds of ponies standing at the base of a great mountain, their horns all glowing with the same silvery light as tall spires and impossibly thin bridges took form.
Twilight gasped. “Is that really what the city looked like?”
“So I am told,” Luna said as she continued to stride down the passage.
Twilight stared at the image on the wall for several long moments before hurrying after the larger pony down the newly lit hallway. “But that’s impossible. The city would have fallen down overnight without—” Twilight stopped again, her eyes widening. “The whole city?”
“Indeed. Every morn and eve, the ponies of Unicornia would hold a great ritual, so that their home might remain one more day,” Luna said as she continued to stride past the images.
Twilight licked her lips as she followed close on the elder alicorn’s tail, glancing down at her hooves to make sure she didn’t stumble on the ancient stone steps, the crudely worked stone marred by millennia of the slow drip of water from the cave above. “So what happened?”
“Ponies left.” Luna shrugged. “With their reserves of magic depleted by the ritual, few unicorns could lead the life to which they had been accustomed. With fewer ponies came a greater need for magic amongst those who remained. In time, all moved to New Unicornia – the city now called Canterlot – and this place was allowed to fall into ruin. It did not take long, without magic.”
“Huh. That’s a little anticlimactic. I was expecting like, an earthquake or something.”
“Not every city is lost to Windigos.” The tunnel levelled out as the images on the wall of ponies flocking from all corners of Equestria to the great city began to fade, the silvery flow of magic leaking from the walls and back into the stone once more, leaving nothing but the dim glow of Luna’s horn to light their way once more.
“So why did you invite me here? I know it wasn’t just for a history lesson.”
“More so than you think.” Luna strode forward as the tunnel opened up into a great cavern, her horn blazing with blue light. Natural stone walls sloped up and away into the darkness, and a cozy warmth began to fill the room as the alicorn stepped over a thick line carved into the stone floor and stepped up onto a stone platform. Her metal-shod hooves clicked loudly on the granite as she strode towards the center of the room, the bright light of her horn illuminating a stone arch tall enough for even Princess Celestia to step through without ducking.
“What is this place?” Twilight asked, glancing around the dark cave.
Luna lifted her head high, her mane flowing behind her on ethereal winds. Magic coruscated around her horn as the same silvery light which had illuminated the carvings in the tunnel began to flow down through the three deep channels cut into the floor. Behind her, the doorway sprang to life as pink light began to leak from the carvings of six ponies on the frame – two pegasi, hovering above the top, joined by two earth ponies on the right and two unicorns on the left. Golden armor gleamed on the ancient rendition of Commander Hurricane, his head held high as he gazed down on the other ponies. The platinum crown of Princess Platinum shone on her imperious brow, and Chancellor Puddinghead’s hat seemed to ripple in the magic’s glow.
Inside the portal, a sheet of pink light throbbed. Veins of magic flickered around the edges of the doorway, forming bright letters that burned against the stone.
MAY THOSE WHO STEP THROUGH THIS DOOR KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO RULE
“Welcome to the Cave of Harmony, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Luna boomed, her voice reverberating off the bare stone walls.
Twilight slowly turned around. Her eyes flicked across the vast empty space, the cave devoid of any sign of life but the two ponies standing near the glowing portal.
“Long ago, the rulers of the three tribes would come here when they took power. With representatives from every tribe gathered as their witnesses, the gate would be activated, and they would step through, and come to know what it meant to rule. Every commander, every chancellor, every princess was to come to this place, step through the doorway, and be enlightened.”
“Why haven’t I read about this?”
Luna laughed humorlessly. “Even by my time, it was an old tale. Not everypony who stepped through the doorway came to understand what it meant, and over time, the tradition faded, then failed as ponies forgot what it meant to rule.” She straightened, looking down at Twilight imperiously. “By the time of Discord’s arrival in Equestria, this place had been forgotten, the gate, lost.”
Twilight looked back to the gate as pink sparks crackled against the polished stone. “Why didn’t they move it? Why didn’t they bring it to Canterlot?”
“Because it is inextricably linked to this place.” Luna waved her hoof across the room. “This place where the three tribes met, and fell to quarrelling over who deserved the greatest portion of the cave.” She snorted. “You can even see where the rock that stymied their borders once lay.”
Twilight blinked and followed Luna’s hoof, eyes settling on a kink in the line halfway across the cave. “Wow. I thought they made that up for the play.”
“I am afraid not.” Luna tossed her head. “One by one, the leaders of Equestria decided it was too much trouble to travel up a distant mountain and down into a cold cave for a ceremony, when they could simply tell their successors all that they learned by stepping through. But I suspect that, without the experience, the lessons of the gate were lost all the faster.”
Twilight licked her lips, lifting her head to meet Luna’s gaze. “Did you and Princess Celestia ever step through?”
“We did, long ago. In the darkest days of Discord’s misrule, we found this place, and activated it in the hopes that our long-dead ancestors might share with us some wisdom.”
Twilight slowly stepped towards the gate, tilting her head. “So, has Cadance been here?”
Luna hesitated for a moment before shaking her head. “No, I do not think so. Celestia seemed surprised at the idea that I might take you to the portal and show you our secrets, so I do not believe that Cadance has been here.” Her eyes hardened. “But I believe Cadance already has learned the lesson of the gate the hard way.”
“And I haven’t?”
“No.” Luna shook her head. “We rule Equestria, but in truth, it is Celestia and I who rule, and you who stand aside, save when crisis beckons.”
“I know I’m not much of a princess.” Twilight’s ears drooped.
“You do yourself a great disservice. You do many things for Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. But you forget yourself, and you look to us for aid and succor. You are uncertain, and you second guess your decisions, beseeching my sister for guidance even when you already know the answer for truth. You may be a princess, but you do not think of yourself as our equal, and when you speak to my sister, ‘Princess’ lingers on your lips.”
Twilight swallowed audibly. “And this will change all that?”
Luna stepped towards the portal, lifting one hoof to slowly trail it along the carved stone. “Once you step through this gate, you will be our equal in every way, save experience. There will be no part of rulership that will be more a mystery to you than it was to us when we came to power, all those centuries ago.”
“Will it change me?”
“No more than it changed us,” Luna said, turning back towards the smaller alicorn.
Twilight looked down at her hooves for a moment. “I see.” Slowly, she lifted her head, then squared her shoulders. “All I have to do is walk through the portal?”
“No. But the rest will be obvious once you do.”
“Alright.” Twilight closed her eyes and let the air rush out of her lungs before she took a long, deep breath and nodded her head. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” Luna took a step back, touching her horn to the side of the door frame. “Whenever you are ready.”
“Alright. Here goes.” Nodding her head to herself, Twilight took one step forward, then another. Brilliant pink and purple light filled her vision, but Twilight forced herself to keep her eyes open against the blinding glare. Another step, and the portal was before her, filling her entire field of view. Clenching her teeth, she took one more step forward, extending her front hoof towards the thin pane of magic before she stepped through.
A kaleidoscope of colors flashed around her, magic of every color ponies had seen and more besides whirling around her as magic crashed and crackled overhead. A purple heart hung in the air overhead, soon joined by a silver spear, a silvery crown, and a set of plowshares, whirling around, then bursting up towards the ceiling before exploding in a dazzling display of magical fireworks. Shimmering sparkles of magic clung to her coat, and Twilight’s mane and tail shimmered and sparkled with inner light, flowing on the same ethereal wind as Luna’s own before slowly falling back to her neck.
Twilight blinked, shaking her head to clear her eyes of the lingering blotches of color that clouded her vision. The light from the portal slowly began to fade, the silver lines on the floor draining away beneath the stone platform. Soon, there was no light but the dull blue of Luna’s horn as the older alicorn watched and waited expectantly.
Twilight looked around the room, then back at the doorway, then back at Luna. “That’s it?”
“Indeed.”
“But nothing happened!” She stamped her hoof on the floor.
Luna arched an eyebrow. “Did you not see the pretty lights? The variegated colors of the rainbow spilling across the room?”
“Of course I saw it! But it was all illusion! There wasn’t anything there! No magic knowledge! No new powers! I don’t feel any different!”
“Indeed.”
Twilight opened her mouth, then stopped. “What?”
“You experienced the same thing as ten generations of Equestrian leaders, onto whose shoulders the mantle of leadership was laid.”
“But it didn’t do anything!” Twilight shouted. “I’m exactly the same as I was before I stepped through! Are you telling me I went halfway across Equestria to see a light show?”
“Yes.”
Twilight shook, her wings lifting from her sides. “Why?”
“What do you think?” Luna regarded her coolly.
Twilight huffed a few times, breathing heavily as she paced back and forth in front of the gateway. “This isn’t a trick?”
“No. You are every bit our equal, save in experience.”
“But nothing changed! I’m exactly the same as I was before! Just more… sparkly!”
“Indeed.” Luna stepped forward, brushing past the smaller alicorn. “For all the magic and glamor, no pony who rules is any different from those who don’t. And that is the most important lesson of all. There is no magic to rulership, no secret knowledge. A leader is no more than a pony who is in charge, who everypony else trusts to hold all the answers.”
Luna glanced back over her shoulder and smiled. “Welcome to the throne, Twilight Sparkle.”
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Very nice!
7389954
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
It's very rare that a lesson can be both as silly and as significant as this one. Well done.
Ah, and that, right there, is why Luna is worthy to rule. And Twilight too, by extension, belike.
Well written, though a bit anticlimactic. Luna drops the mic, exits stage left, and...? I expect Twilight to pipe up, "You thought I was doubting my fitness to rule because I wrote Celestia too often? Did you consider that maybe I write her with rulership questions because I'm 23 and she's, oh, 5000 or so, and that I'm learning by consulting with a pony who has millennia of experience rather than by trial and error?"
It's still a great lesson, absolutely, which she's heard before: wasn't "a Princess shouldn't hold herself apart from her ponies" the lesson Discord taught her during the plundervine incident?
7389986
I'm glad you felt that way. I think it is really easy for all of us to forget that leaders are just people.
7389993
Indeed it is.
Nice use of belike there. Not a word I see very often.
Another great short by the always excellent Titanium Dragon.
7390000
Wow, that's a nice, round comment number.
Anyway...
I think that the lesson is different from what Discord taught her. Her conflict in Princess Twilight Sparkle was over whether or not she could go out on a quest with her friends, and was "held in reserve" (so to speak) as a result of the other princesses vanishing. But that was a fundamental betrayal of who she was and what she stood for.
This is more about how leaders don't have special powers - Celestia and Luna are good at what they do not because of some special powers granted by walking through a portal or being raised up on high by other ponies, but because of who they already are.
Luna was criticizing her for asking for help when she already knew what Celestia was going to say.
I'm glad you thought it was well-written. I feel like some of my stories are a bit light on description, so I decided to go into something which gave me a good reason to write about lots of interesting scenery.
7390018
Aw, thanks! I'm glad I have created such an expectation for you, and even more glad that I met it.
Good story but one little nitpick.
So Princess Luna and Princess Luna rule the three tribes?
7390053
Thanks!
And thanks for the catch. Fixed!
7390087
7390053
I'd like to see Princess Luna and Princess Luna rule the three tribes; crack or otherwise.
7390115
I have yet to write a story about how they came to power, though I have written a couple stories about when they were young. If I come up with a good story about how they came to rule Equestria, though, I'll definitely write it - I'm interested in how it happened too, after all.
Looks like someone couldn't decide whether to use "sprang" or "sprung" ;)
7390225
Whoops. >>
Fixed.
Very nice. A great lesson, and nicely written. Loved the description of the scenery.
7390299
I'm glad you liked the descriptions of the scenery; a lot of my stories focus heavily on dialogue, so when I wrote this story, I consciously focused on trying to fill in a lot more background stuff and set the scene and have interesting things go on around them that reinforced the story. It is good to hear it paid off for you.
Dear Princess Celestia
Today, I learned to never go on field trips with your sister ever again. We went out to the middle of no where, where she told me about how stupid my ancestors were for insisting on having their entire kingdom built out of magic. Like how does anybody use a bathroom in that kind of set up? Designing that everyday sounded like a total nightmare and thank goodness we got out of that trend. Anyway, your sister took me way out to a random cave for a bunch of flashy lights to give me a pedantic aesops that she could have just told me face to face about treating others as equals to myself. This is coming from the mare who could not refrain from shouting at everypony in "Royal Canterlot Voice" for what was probably a year. I took off work for this! The words on that door need to be changed to something like "May those who make you step through this door never get cookies" because this is ridiculous. In conclusion, please send your sister back to the moon for 1000 years, or I will do it for you. Tell her it is a lesson on respecting the time of others or something.
Your Faithful Student,
Sassy Twilight Sparkle
PS: Watch those talking heads at the beginning. We need more things to do in this scene.
I like the world building you set up, but the lesson at the end doesn't do much for me because well ... "You are every bit our equal, save in experience." For a pony like Twilight that means "you are not our equal" so it doesn't solve the problem at all.
7390325 that's perfect
7390325
My Dearest Twilight,
I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your field trip with Luna. I thought you might enjoy the history of the place, even if the lesson of the door was a bit simple. Know that I do like hearing from you, though my sister wasn't wrong in saying that I wouldn't mind hearing more about your life and less about you triple-checking that your very good solution was acceptable to me.
As for the ancient Unicornian sewer system, I'm afraid that most of the books describing it have since been destroyed at the behest of Earth Ponies. You see, they didn't use water for their sewage; instead, like all else in the city, they used magic to rid themselves of their refuse. Unfortunately, they did not really care where it went, and so when they teleported it away, it often reappeared at the same elevation as their city before raining onto the towns below.
Hence the colloquial expression, shitstorm, as well as the ban on teleporting sewage of any kind.
Your friend,
Celestia
P.S. As for the request with the moon - my sister says that if you want to see her every night, you only need to ask.
And send flowers.
7390357
I'm glad you liked the scenery!
I'm sorry if the lesson wasn't quite what you were hoping for, but she was trying to get Twilight to understand that they were all ponies, and that Celestia was no more special than Twilight. You're probably right that "except in experience" would still bother Twilight to some extent, as Twilight is rather insecure about herself.
7390368
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned too much information about pre-celestian methods of magic excrement expedition. Yuck! I do thoroughly enjoy history and appreciate the trip for having the opportunity. However, if your sister does not want to become history, it would be better to let me enjoy a trip to study these ruins rather than work me up in thinking that I am undergoing a major trial that my future as a leader depends on. This could have been a really pleasant friendship retreat. I didn't sleep for three days before this. When I get to sleep we are going to come to words.
I am glad to hear that you enjoy reading my letters, but I assure you that you shouldn't flatter yourself too much. I'm not "Triple Checking", it's called peer review and it's standard in the academic world. Maybe somepony else needed this field trip more than I did.
Your Faithful Student,
Incredibly Sassy Twilight Sparkle
PS: As per request, I have enclosed a bouquet of flowers to be sent to your sister as a token of friendship and respect.
pre05.deviantart.net/83cd/th/pre/i/2012/082/d/0/poison_joke_by_3luk-d4tp27r.png
(Tell me if this is getting annoying. I'm having fun with this.)
7390386
That's more what I was going for with my earlier comment. Luna has reasoned from her observations that Twilight sees herself as less than equal to the Sisters in terms of rank and ability and status. From Twilight's letters and requests for Celestia's advice I read her as drawing on Celestia's experience and wisdom. She strikes me as the sort of over-thorough, detail-oriented pony who'd consult every resource when dealing with a problem, and one of those resources is the experience of ponies who've been there. She just got a reminder of this when her instinct told her to keep Starlight away from Trixie but Celestia's method - letting her student make their own friends and not micromanaging them - proved correct.
Not to mention, Luna seems the sort of pony who might chafe a bit at Twilight's continued idolization of Celestia - after all, couldn't Twilight have written her all those times instead? With that in mind it's possible to read this story as "Luna is a tiny bit jealous of Twilight putting Celestia on a pedestal and tries to knock her sister down a peg or two in Twilight's eyes." That's not my first inclination for a reading here, but it's at least a possible one.
If anything I think an encounter like Luna put Twilight through in this story would be a good jumping-off point for the two of them to have some deeper conversations both about how to approach rulership and about each other. Perhaps they share some (current or former) insecurities?
7390615
Certainly possible! I actually have another story that has long, long been on the backburner about Twilight triggering Luna's insecurities and having to try and make up for it, but I never finished it. I need to work on that.
But you're right that the two of them do have being insecure in common as a character trait, and really, both are fairly similar characters in some respect. I have to admit the friendship between Luna and Twilight has always felt underexplored to me. Clearly, I need to read (and write) more fanfics about those two.
7390053
I'm sure that'd make a lot of people in this community very happy, sadly!
7390615
To be fair, I think she actually should be lesser. Heroes are meant to be champions, not rulers who decide the fates of millions, gamble with the heavens, and do whatever two-faced task is required to save the lives and livelihoods of their people - even if it didn't meet said populace's small-minded approval. With equal authority to Celestia and Luna, what happens if she makes a decision on her own that seems like the moral thing to do and yet was the wrong thing to do as a ruler? Hope that the outcome isn't THAT bad?
She's got a long way to go before she even understands politics. She's still not even that great of a friend yet so how can she understand the hearts and minds of millions of strangers who look up to her for protection and guidance? She should spend at least the first century or two as an apprentice to the crown, or a junior princess. Learning everything she can about how to do this right, being guided by Celestia and Luna until she's ready to join them in the big chairs.
The one thing I think that might have made the ending a bit better would have been having Luna guide Twilight to making the realization of the lesson herself, I guess, as opposed to her basically spelling it out for her when she fails to grasp it? But that's kind of a small nitpick, really, for a good story.
This is so good ! * slow clapping*
7391221
It isn't an unreasonable point of view, though I'm not actually sure how old Luna herself is linearly; she spent a thousand years trapped on the Moon as Nightmare Moon, we have little idea of how long she has actually been a "normal pony" (as normal as an immortal alicorn with a starry mane which flows on ethereal wind can be, anyway). How long did she and Celestia rule over Equestria together back in the day?
Though I do want to write a story about Cadance and Twilight forcing Luna and Celestia to go on vacation. I mean, how hard could it be to run Equestria?
7391240
Fair enough.
I'm glad you liked the story anyway, though!
Incidentally, I like your avatar. It is very iconic.
7391326
Thanks! I'm happy to hear you thought it was worthwhile.
7391350
Personally (grain of salt), I always reasoned at least a few thousand years if we're talking 'normal/canon' Celestia and Luna. At least three thousand, give or take. If we're talking a Godlestia story, then obviously since the beginning. But it seems to make the most sense chronologically. I mean, not everything could happen exactly a thousand years ago, right? With the exception of recent seasons, it's seemed that pony civilization and technology advances at a slower pace, giving at least some milestone for consideration.
I know someone's going to see this and start quoting the Journal or whatsit, but I don't consider that or the comics canon since... well it's just not in the show, which is the original source material. I'd rather try to work backwards through what we do know of the timeline and pony culture/civilization, make inferences, and postulate based on plausibility with a model of how human civilizations developed for a touch of realism.
Missing dot in description after "forebears".
And in hindsight it was so obvious.
Nice one
7390007 A little verbal bit I seem to have absorbed from Cordial Nova, actually...
The pun ending...
Twilight stepped forward, to run into an ordinary pane of silvered glass. As she recovered Luna threw a theatrical flash-bang. Coughing Twilight exclaimed, "Do you mean to tell me that power is nothing but smoke and mirrors?"
7391350
I don't know how much weight it held now, but according to Lauren Faust Luna turned into NMM at very young age. And considering that she also say that Luna still growing I think that Night Princess more or less a teenager.
At the same time... Lots of things changed after Lauren left the show so maybe this is already wrong.
7391683 That's all a bit wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, isn't it? Only thing I can come up with is that agewise, Celestia > Luna >> Cadance > Twilight... But pinning those down? Tricky. Or nigh unto impossible, even at that.
A nice story about having confidence in yourself. The thing necessary to take change rather than letting other lead you.
I just want to say...
...that something hilarious happens when you switch this two words here.
Just a funny thing my brain did when it went off the rails, so to speak.
This
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/mlpfanart/images/4/4e/Lyra_and_Bon_Bon_eating_their_tails.gif/revision/latest?cb=20121219172749
and then,
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/12/12/180611__safe_oc_twilight+sparkle_shipping_animated_lesbian_tongue+out_love+heart_kissing_canon+x+oc.gif
~Leonzilla XD
7391683 Yep, one of those things is that the show writer's used to pay attention to preestablished lore.
Well. Um, everything I was going to say has pretty much been said. And better than I can on a phone.
7391754
Well, I just using Lauren answers from her Deviant account. Like this. But considering that A) Lauren leave a show for quote some time and B) It's a source outside of the show... people could easily dismiss it.
But in the same time it's work wonderful with my headcanon :) (I always get a rather... immature vibes from Luna).
7391821 Aye, she does carry herself, well, rather like I see a fair number of folks in their mid-late 20s do: mature enough to know that they've got more of a clue than those rubes over there, but not enough to realize that they don't quite have it figured out either. Her somewhat imperious demeanor can be chalked up, in part, to that sort of feeling that power must be exercised or lost.
Of course, then she goes and does this, and shows that she does have a clue after all :)
Actually, I rather like the different interpretations of power and authority that the four princesses offer, both in canon and in fanon. (Celestia the wise and learned, yet secretly emotional; Luna the imperious and reserved, yet impetuous and genuinely concerned for her subjects; Cadance, silk hiding iron; and Twilight, competent but not confident.)
7390151
7391453
Fixed, thanks!
7391513
I'm glad you liked it! I do like me some foreshadowing; it is always fun to set stuff up hidden in plain sight before the story trips over it.
7391620
Glad you approved, even if you did see it coming.
7391630
Oh, you!
I giggled.
7391683
My personal headcanon is that she's about the same age as Cadance linearly, but it varies from story to story depending on the needs of the story. She didn't seem very mature in Luna Eclipsed, though.
7391779
I'm glad you appreciated the thrust of the piece. That's always nice to hear.
For all that I enjoy tossing around headcanon about how Equestria works, the details of Twilight's role and what purpose she should come to serve in the greater scheme of things has never interested me too much. Probably because, from my perspective, Luna and Celestia filled the same protector role in centuries past, and eventually circumstances led to them being the ones who had to rule, which motivated them towards diplomacy in lieu of super-friendship lasers.
Good story, of course. I just don't have much to add to the beautifully complex debate of princesshood in the comments.
7391815
That's alright. I appreciate the comment nevertheless. Thank you for reading!
7392208
Well, as we all know, the word "friendship" in Equestrian means both "magical laser beams" and "true companion".
They leave the option open to other countries about which way to take it.
Thanks!
I'm reminded of the scene in Peaceful Warrior where the local sage takes the protagonist on an hours long hike to the middle of nowhere to look at a wholly inconspicuous rock. The lessons there and here are different, but the "why couldn't we have done this at home" vibe is well echoed.
Good stuff.