Chapter 16
Beep. Beep. BeeSKREEE-
With a shriek and a puff of blue smoke, the cardiac monitor tethered to Twilight's forehoof breathed its last. She blinked and shook her head lethargically; she had just been looking at the monitor, hadn't she? Futilely, she waved her hooves at the squealing machine.
"No, no, stop!" she said urgently. Her hackles rose at the sound of the door opening behind her. She turned sheepishly as a doctor and a pair of nurses, all unicorns, bustled into her hospital room, followed closely by a worried-looking Princess Celestia, the alicorn's wings obviously tensed. She slumped back against her bed helplessly as two of the medical professionals began examining her, while a third traipsed across the room to investigate the failed piece of equipment.
"I'm really sorry," Twilight said, gesturing at the broken cardiac monitor. "I didn't mean-"
The doctor standing next to Twilight raised a hoof kindly. "It's alright, Miss Sparkle, it's not your fault." She looked past her patient at the stallion in nurse's whites who was investigating the machine. Twilight turned to see him shake his head ruefully.
"Looks like it just blew out, doctor," the nurse said.
The doctor shook her head, echoing the nurse. "These new machines..." She sighed and turned to address Twilight, a calm smile coming to her face. "In any case, Miss Sparkle, everything seems fine."
Twilight let out a deep breath and settled back against the firm pillow behind her. She watched as Celestia, too, visibly relaxed, her wings rustling as they folded back beside her body.
"I'm sorry we haven't yet been introduced. I'm Dr. Lancet. I've been overseeing your care since you were brought in." The aging medic offered a hoof, and Twilight reached out to gently rap it with her own.
"It's nice to meet you, doctor," Twilight said.
"You gave us quite a scare last night," Dr. Lancet continued in her measured fashion. Her horn glowed and a clipboard floated up from the end of Twilight's bed. The doctor's eyes flicked rapidly between the levitating notes and her purple patient. "Your injuries were extensive. You were very lucky that the princesses were able to stabilize you and start you on the mend, otherwise we might have been spending quite a bit of time together."
"How bad was it?"
"Well," the doctor said with a small chuckle. "Let's just say I don't recommend being struck by lightning too many more times. Even if all the cool fillies are doing it." She winked, drawing a giggle from Twilight.
"I'll be more careful next time," she said. Giggle or no, Twilight was cringing inwardly; Princess Celestia had been more blunt about what had happened and she felt slightly resentful of the coddling. On the other hand, it was likely that Dr. Lancet was simply relaying the version of events she had heard. Across the room, Princess Celestia's worry had completely abated and her expression was once more one of serenity, betraying no sign that anything the doctor was saying was unexpected.
Dr. Lancet chattered pleasantly and gently poked and prodded Twilight, and Twilight played her expected role by tuning the doctor out and dutifully nodding on occasion. After a few moments of this, the doctor withdrew, the two nurses already waiting behind her.
"It looks like you're in good shape, Miss Sparkle," Dr. Lancet said. "Princess Celestia tells us you'd like to get going as soon as possible, so unless you have any other questions I can go and prepare your discharge paperwork."
Twilight smiled, relieved. "Thank you, doctor. I'll be glad to get going back to Ponyville."
Dr. Lancet nodded back, smiling as well. "A nice town. One of my former interns is from Ponyville. Well, then, I'll see you in a few minutes and you can be on your way."
Dr. Lancet and the two nurses walked out, closing the door behind them. Celestia moved out of the way as they passed, then approached Twilight's bed.
"So," the alicorn said as she looked down at Twilight with a small smile. "What did you do to the machine?"
Twilight's heart skipped a beat. "What? So you..." She trailed off awkwardly.
Celestia knelt down next to the bed. "Would you like to tell me about it?" she asked in a pleasant, even tone, not unlike the doctor's.
Twilight hesitated. How could she explain what had been happening to her? Would Celestia be disappointed in her? "I'm not sure what to say," she said.
Celestia nodded silently. With no preamble, Celestia's horn glowed, and a glowing ball of pink energy formed between the alicorn and her student. It floated above the bed serenely, slowly rotating in the air.
"Twilight," Celestia said. "Look into the ball and tell me what you see."
Twilight looked into the glittering ball. It looked very little different than Celestia's familiar telekinetic aura, a transparent energy field the color of dawn. She could see the far wall of the room through it. Her horn tingled as she gazed at the magical construct. There was something in there. If she could just...
"Twilight, focus," Celestia's voice said. "Tell me what you see."
"I don't know," Twilight said, softly. "It's the same thing that was in the machine."
"Don't touch it, Twilight. Just tell me what it is."
What was it? She had felt the same thing in the fire. It was there, in the clouds. It was entrancing, magnetic. She wanted it.
"Power," Twilight finally said. "I think."
"What sort of power? What does it feel like?"
The longer Twilight stared into the ball, the clearer it became and the stronger the pull was. The power in the ball was warm, like a comfortable summer's day. Twilight could smell flowers and fresh grass, feel soft, warm ground beneath her hooves, hear birds chirping.
"Twilight?"
"It's summer," she replied, hazily.
"Look at me."
A moment passed before Twilight was able to tear herself away from the ball. She turned her head to look toward where the Princess' voice was coming from.
She saw the sun in all its blazing, merciless glory. Everything else was obliterated except for the furnace in front of her. Life. Death. Heat and light. The beginning of the world and its eventual end. The power of the storm was paltry compared to the mighty engine of the world that roiled and churned before her. Her mouth opened silently.
Twilight blinked. Celestia - just Celestia, Princess Celestia, her mentor - was smiling at her softly from the side of the bed. The room was just as it was before her surroundings had gone away. "You've been staring at me with your mouth open for the last few minutes," Celestia said.
Breathing deeply, Twilight shook her head. The ball of energy was long gone, not even a trace of the warm magic lingering in the air. "That long? It only seemed like a moment."
Celestia paced slowly around Twilight's hospital bed, her metal shoes clicking deliberately against the hard floor. She stopped and glanced out the window at the sunny day outside. The rays of the midday sun glimmered and sparkled brilliantly as they passed through the flowing strands of Celestia's mane.
"Tell me," she said. "Is there still a spare room in the library in Ponyville?"
Twilight adjusted herself uncomfortably. "Um, it's full of books right now, Princess," she said. "I suppose Spike and I could clean it out."
With a smile, Celestia turned back to Twilight and walked over to the bed. "Well, in that case, would you be up to some company for a few weeks?"
Twilight leaned up, blinking in confusion. "Company?"
The smile on Celestia's face was soft and reminded Twilight of the look she had worn the day Celestia had offered to take Twilight on as her student the first time. Twilight furrowed her brow as Celestia knelt down next to the bed.
"Once again, Twilight," she began, "you've shown me just how strong you really are, but you need to learn control all over again. You don't seem confident that you can do it on your own."
The fire, the storm, the cardiac machine. Twilight shook her head ruefully. "I'm not."
"I've been meaning to take some quiet time away from Canterlot. Would you like to take up lessons again with me for a few weeks?"
Once again, Twilight's mind went blank. "I... Lessons? Princess, are you talking about coming to Ponyville?"
"Just for a few weeks," Celestia replied. "We can spend some time working on your control over your new abilities." She smiled. "And it will be nice to be able to visit quietly with you for a while."
Twilight smiled involuntarily. "Thank you, princess," she said. "But don't you have work to do here?"
"Oh, Twilight, there's always work to do," Celestia replied fliply. She grinned. "But the nobles need to get used to the idea that Luna is on equal terms with me once again. A few weeks of everything being in the Night Court's hooves should work wonders."
Twilight giggled behind a hoof. "Alright, and what about 'quiet'? Every time you come to Ponyville everypony always fall all over themselves for you."
Celestia's horn glowed and the alicorn vanished. In a pink flash, she was replaced by the same white, blonde-maned pegasus Twilight had seen earlier.
"I don't think that will be a problem for Sunny Ray," the pegasus said with an expansive grin.
---
A small amount of paperwork later, Twilight and 'Sunny Ray' left the hospital, emerging into a bright, clear day. The streets of Canterlot had already largely returned to accommodating the usual traffic of strolling unicorns. The only trace of the havoc of the previous night was the damp grass underhoof and some large, strange gouges in the mountain face that loomed over the castle town. To the side of the wide, slate-paved path leading from the entrance of the hospital to the main street stood Twilight's friends and Princess Luna.
Twilight smiled at her friends, and was rewarded by being tackled to the ground by Pinkie Pie.
"Twilight!" Pinkie squealed, standing over the purple unicorn. "We were so worried! Are you alright?"
"I was better before you were standing on me, Pinkie."
In a pink blur, Pinkie was no longer standing over Twilight, had rejoined the group and was waving furiously. Twilight recovered her feet and she and the putative Sunny Ray approached.
"Good t' see ya on your hooves, Twi," Applejack said, tentatively. "You doin' okay? 'Specially after gettin' pounced by Pinkie?"
Twilight giggled. "I'm fine, everypony."
A rainbow-colored blur shot up from the group and swept around Twilight and Sunny Ray. It stopped, leaving Rainbow Dash hovering above the two. "So who's your friend?" Rainbow Dash asked.
A white streak shot up from the ground in front of Rainbow Dash, who wheeled back slightly as she was suddenly faced with a brightly grinning pegasus. "Hi, I'm Sunny Ray!" the white pegasus said effusively. "You're Rainbow Dash, right? Pleased to meet you!"
Luna snorted, and everypony, including the slightly confused Rainbow Dash, turned to face her. "Sister, please," she said in a low, bland voice. "I do not think it will hurt to let these ponies in on your disguise." Looks of confusion spread across the rest of the group.
"Princess Celestia?" Spike asked, poking a claw toward the hovering pegasus experimentally.
In response, Sunny Ray stuck out her tongue at Luna. "You're no fun," she said, her voice dropping an octave to Celestia's more usual register and losing its chirpy tone. "But I suppose you're right. Hello, everypony."
"Thy address earlier this morning has spread consternation among the nobles." Luna smirked. "There are already rumors spreading of what sort of nefariousness I shall be getting up to in thine absence."
Sunny Ray did a little pirouette in the air. "Well, good," she said, her voice returning to the high, lively tone she had affected earlier. "Then that's everything! It's going to be be fun to visit Ponyville for a while!"
"Princess, you're... joining us in Ponyville?" Rarity asked, her eye developing an interesting in twitch.
Twilight chuckled. "We'll explain on the way."
---
The sun shone brightly on Trixie's brand new wagon, glinting off the glossy red finish and yellow-gold trim. Trixie was harnessing herself in as Twilight and her friends approached from the the main road out of Canterlot.
Trixie tossed her mane imperiously as the group approached. "Well, what do you think of Trixie's new trailer? Princess Celestia herself arranged for it."
With a smile, Twilight approached, Fluttershy walking closely to her side as the others held back. "It's great, Trixie!" she said, brightly. "Um... I wanted to thank you for saving us last night."
Trixie's haughty expression faltered, and gradually shifted to an awkward smile. "It's," she began, then faltered. "It's nothing, I guess." She looked down at the dusty ground between herself and Twilight. "Thank you for stopping that dragon. I don't think anypony else could have done it."
Twilight giggled and waited for Trixie to raise her eyes. "It wasn't just me, Trixie. It was all of us. You included."
Silence passed between the two unicorns, Twilight smiling, Trixie staring at her hooves. A rustling of feathers drew the attention of both ponies, who glanced over at Fluttershy, her face partly hidden behind a mass of pink mane.
"Um," began Fluttershy, her wings jostling at her side. "If... If you ever need a place to stay in Ponyville, I have room at my cottage."
Twilight blinked at the unusually forward behavior. Did Fluttershy really just ask Trixie to come visit?
A slight tinge of red grew to Trixie's cheeks before she raised her head and tossed her mane once again, snorting loudly. "Trixie will think about it. Trixie does have a commitment to return to Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebration. Perhaps Trixie will visit Ponyville on the way through."
Twilight's blinked. "The Summer Sun Celebration?"
"Yes," Trixie said. Her voice was light and unconcerned. "Princess Celestia has invited Trixie to perform for the Summer Sun Celebration." A feral grin spread across the cyan unicorn's face. "She recognized Trixie's talent."
A giggle, and Twilight watched Trixie visibly deflate. "That's wonderful!" Twilight said earnestly. "So where are you going to go now?"
Another moment of silence passed between the two unicorns as the gentle breeze rustled their manes. "Actually, I'm heading back to Hoofington," Trixie finally said, her gaze drifting away from Twilight. She pushed a strand of mane back with a small telekinetic burst. "I-" Trixie hesitated. "I think I need to go visit my family for a while."
Twilight nodded. "I haven't really had a chance to visit with my parents while I've been in Canterlot. I guess I should do that."
"I met your parents earlier, when they were at the hospital," Trixie said, still looking down at the ground to the side of Twilight. "They seemed very nice. Your brother and Princess Cadence were there too but only briefly."
"Shiny!" Twilight smiled brightly and clapped her forehooves excitably. "Yay! I'm so glad you got a chance to meet him! Isn't he great?"
Trixie looked at Twilight with an unreadable expression, a loose strand of hair obscuring one eye. Eventually, she spoke.
"You call the captain of the city guard 'Shiny'?"
---
After a brief minute of conversation, Trixie began trotting away from Canterlot, her new wagon in tow, leaving Twilight and her friends next to the main road. They stayed a few minutes more, watching the last of the tents collapse, the last of the trailers load up. A mighty golden dragon rose from a camp some distance away and flew off to the west over the ravine Canterlot overlooked, the sun glittering from his scales; Twilight could just make out a small green egg with red speckles clutched in the dragon's claws.
The sun was setting as decisions were being made where to go. No conversation was needed; the entire group turned to Twilight, expectantly.
"Princess," Twilight said hesitantly. "Would it be alright if I sent you and the rest on ahead?"
A little white blur shot over to Twilight. "We certainly could go on ahead," Sunny Ray said, her still-unfamiliar high voice at odds, to Twilight's ear, with Celestia's words. "Do you have business left in Canterlot, Twilight?"
"Well-" Twilight lowered her head. "I really should visit my parents. I think I owe them that much."
Celestia smiled. Even on Sunny Ray's face, it was Celestia's smile, soft and kind, though the poofy blonde mane somewhat ruined the effect. "Of course." She rose into the air. "Well, come on, everypony. It's getting late!"
A pink aura surrounded the group. Twilight noted a sympathetic nod from Rarity a moment before they all vanished, leaving Twilight standing alone. She watched the last of the tents collapsing a moment more before she turned and began walking the familiar path back to Canterlot's gate.
---
Rap rap rap
"Velvet," a muffled male voice called out from inside the small, single-story home. "Could you get that?"
"Coming!" came a sing-song female voice.
The house was just as Twilight remembered it. Small. Cozy. The lawn was neatly trimmed, the small food garden of daisies and dandelions that she had planted as a filly was still there and obviously well-tended. The walls had seen a new coat of paint since the last time Twilight had been home but it was still the little blue-and-white house she remembered from her foalhood.
Twilight fidgeted. It had been so long since she'd been home. She hadn't even spoken to her parents at Shining Armor's wedding. What was she going to say?
The door creaked open to reveal a slightly aging grey unicorn with a white and purple main. "What ca-" she began, then stopped.
The two stared at each other for a long moment before Twilight finally broke the silence.
"Hi, mom."
"Twilight," her mother responded, softly. "Dear," she called out more loudly. "It's Twilight."
Twilight Velvet was joined almost instantly by her husband, a darker-blue unicorn with a grey-streaked mane. "I... Hello, Twilight," he said, hesitantly. "It's good to see you."
"Hi, dad. It's good to see you too." Twilight replied. "Um... Can I come in?"
Twilight found herself swept up in her parents' forehooves.
Maybe what she was going to say didn't matter. Tears formed at the corners of Twilight's eyes; going home could wait at least a little while longer.
The three ponies walked inside the little house and closed the door behind them as the last rays of the day's sun faded over Canterlot.
Stats
Page generated in 0.033 seconds
Total duration
1,041 users online
2,159,475 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Fantastic story, t'was a joy to read it
I sense potential for a Trixie Story about her second visit to Ponyville on the way to Canterlot.
I have to say, I love the way you write Trixie. Instead of making her "misunderstood" or someone chaotic, you stuck her personality. Even though she still has an air of arrogance about her, I can still feel her growth as a character from this chapter.
I'm serious, I really hope you write another Trixie story again soon.
Would Celestia be disappointed in her? I'm not sure what to say," she said.
Forgot you're opening quotation mark.
yay update and 3 at them!!!
UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that was awesome. Maybe too much epic/philosophical some time, as in the beginning and the end of the world, otherwise the epic's scenes were quite nice; the battles were so great !!!
A lot of elements were added to the world and even though I didn't like some of it, it was pretty well done.
Anyway, nice pace, nice story. Good job
Great story, loved it, especially the tournament fights.
Nice chapter, though i'm saddened that this story is about to end
one small thing:
Luna smirked. "There are already rumors spreading of what sort of nefariousness I shall be getting up to in thy absence."
should be "thine"
2.bp.blogspot.com/_uuCqsyqQObY/S8EgZhNIkfI/AAAAAAAAA_c/mUNwkAQiwTw/s400/beeeeeecat.jpg
no sign than anything - that
Would Celestia be disappointed in her? I'm not sure what to say," she said. - missing an opening quotation mark. Presumably before I'm.
Celestia's familiar telekinetic aura, a transparent energy field - ok, this is picky. But I feel like you either need a semi colon or something like "it was" before you start after the comma
room through it, the be. - presumably "bed"
recovered her feet - footing. Or hoofing if you're going for ponification
And there's something that sneaks into your writing at the end that made it more.... awkward. For me at least.
However, I'm glad this is over. I can REALLY start recommending it now that the story has wrapped up. I didn't really want people getting into a story that had everything except for the last chapter written, if you know what I mean.
679852
Ponies have feet, they just end in hooves instead of toe nails.
Ahahahaha! "Shiny" XD I know sibs have pet names for each other but Shiny?! I wish I could see the look on his face when he finds out Twi calls him that!
<3 Trixie
when the twilight and the other left canterlot and teleported back to ponyvile was princess celestia or "sunny ray" with them?
676302 DAMN YOU!!! im readin this at 1:10am and you make me laugh my ass off
You know what I haven't seen yet? A fic were twilight has painted runes on her body that has something to do with her magic.
Body Runes are cool.
-Delta-
'Twilight recovered her feet and she and the nonce Sunny Ray approached.'
...
...er... might wanna change that.
So, um... Don't get SUPER-excited; the rewritten ending doesn't drastically change anything, but I think this is a better way to approach the strain I wanted between Twilight and her parents.
Also, this was a good excuse to fix the problem 923232 pointed out. Learn new meanings of words every day, you do. Yikes.
679852
Oh, and I think I cleaned all that up too. Is this ending a bit less awkward?
939837 Ya, ending looks good. Looking forward to what you do with the story after
"You call the captain of the city guard 'Shiny'?"
Oh, the LULs that were had!
You could make a romantic sequal out of this where Celestia and Twilight live together :0
939837
I was expecting super saiyan Twilight with some epic battle.
I love this story. Still. Anyway, I was idly browsing through my D&D manuals and it occurred to me that this could totally be a solo Paragon campaign. You have the NPC adventuring party, the rival, the mentor, the village of adventure and the Cup as the theme of the current campaign, with Amarok as the Really Ultimate Boss. Then noticing they're quite close to lvl. 20, bam! You introduce a threat so they can level up and gain an Epic destiny. Twi's player scraped past the willpower check, defeated the dragon (the DM decided to be nice and gave them the full 55,000XP for defeating an Ancient Green Dragon) and chose Archmage. It's even thematically appropriate:
I'd love to see (or write) a continuation along those lines, because it's a shame those levels she took in Sorcerer are messing up her control...
2376001
About that.
So what's the great lesson learned in this story? I sorta just felt like 'things happened.' Twilight going to visit her parents has what to do with anything in this story? How does it relate to her defeating a dragon queen who was broken and embittered by a thousand years of fear? What does any of this have to do with this strange power Twilight inexplicably has and which was never explained? Why hasn't anyone related the fact that Najstariot essentially fell to the same kind of thing Nightmare Moon did when everything she was doing was designed to prevent that from happening? You've got a dozen (at least) little plot threads waving all over the place and in desperate need of a single endpoint that doesn't seem to exist.
If you'd combined your epic fights with a more flowing, connected storyline I'd have been much more impressed with this.
5106286 That I can agree with. Though its not quite over yet. If there's a single unifying theme throughout all of this its forgiveness I think, but thats still kinda weak. During the last duel Twilight's magic was described as the way the princesses use magic, so I think we've got a case of alicorn Twilight.
(referring to how her powers haven't been explained.)
It doesn't matter if you can bend the ebb and flow of the infinite cosmos to your will with the wave of a hand (or horn), the power of a parents' comfort and love is stronger.
This is my third time reading it, the last time was almost a year ago, and for some reason, it seems different than from when I read it before. That being said it feels like you were setting it up to have a sequel, the reason it felt like this is how much it seemed you implied that Twilight had the power of an alicorn, ie. using magic without spells like the princesses and the dragon queen referring to twilight possessing the power of a god. It almost looks like you were planning for a sequel where Twilight ascends. Also, I feel it may have been a bad idea to mention Shining and Cadence in this and just let this be an AU where they didn't exist. It's obvious this was written before they were introduced and had not been intended for them to be part of it, I just felt it would have been better to keep them out, but that's just me. With all that said I still very much enjoyed this story.
I really enjoy this story, but it just doesn't make sense to me that Twilight's parents weren't around during the tournament or at least present during the Awards ceremony.