• Published 23rd Dec 2011
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Not My Destiny - Smayds



Twilight refuses to accept her ancient alicorn heritage

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Chapter 04: Her Majesty

Not My Destiny
by Smayds

Chapter 4 - Her Majesty

Twilight Sparkle stood on the ground in front of the barn at Sweet Apple Acres. It worked. She'd done it.

Then she heard the thuds.

Five disheveled ponies were picking themselves up off the ground, while Spike, standing, fought to contain his laughter. Applejack actually looked like she might be sick. "Woah, Nellie," she said, standing on unsteady hooves. "Mah stomach must still be back at the library!"

"I didn't like that," Fluttershy said in a very small voice. "Oh, I really didn't like that."

"Really? I LOVED IT!" Dash exclaimed, doing a backflip. "Twilight, that felt like I was going about a million miles an hour!"

"Right, so I can levitate things safely. At last." She stifled a small sigh, thinking about her ruined furniture. "And I can teleport. And I can teleport really far. And I can teleport lots of other ponies with me," Twilight finished. "I don't think I'm too much of a danger to be out and about any more. Just one more test!"

Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something - and then promptly fell over on the wooden floor of the library. "Wait, Twilight, I think I'll just... walk back. Oh."

Everypony else had arrived standing, this time. Applejack still looked a bit sick. Dash was in the air when they had left the farm, and hadn't actually re-landed yet. Pinkie Pie was crosseyed.

"Oooh, Twilight! That really is the funniest feeling!" Her eyes slid back into focus. "What next?" Pinkie, in particular, had been having the most fun out of all of them. A true party pony at heart, having hundreds of magical spells and tricks being tested around her was like letting a foal loose in a candy store. Or even, like letting Pinkie herself loose in a candy store.

"Like I said, just one more test. I need to see just... how far my magic can go." She trotted up the winding staircase to the highest balcony, and magicked open the doors.

Nice to be able to do that again without turning the doors into splinters.

Her friends emerged onto the balcony behind her, some, like Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, looking eager and excited. Applejack looked wary. Fluttershy looked downright terrified. Pinkie bounced over to her and gave her an enormous hug. The terror in Fluttershy's eyes seemed to get worse.

"Now don't you worry, Fluttershy! We're doing this to help Twilight! Our best friend! She's so scared about what's happened to her that if she even thinks about it, for just ONE MEASLY SECOND, she goes all scaredy-shakey and squeezes herself into a ball! So let's just keep helping to distract her!"

Thanks a bunch, Pinkie. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

"Right. So. You know that, before Celestia and Luna, Unicorn ponies raised the sun and moon every day. And it would take hundreds and hundreds of them working together to do it?"

"We were all in that holiday pageant, Twilight," Rarity offered. "You think you..." What she was saying hit her. "You're going to try to move the SUN?! What if something goes wrong?!"

"I'm not going to try to move the sun. I'm going to try to touch it."

"Oh, no no no!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Twilight, you'll burn yourself!"

"Touch it TELEKINETICALLY, Pinkie." Pinkie's blank expressions were never the same twice. "Like, with my MAGIC."

"Ohhhhhhhhh. Okie-dokie!" she grinned, then bounced up to the railing to watch the show.

"Are you shure, Twi? I mean, ya really wanna go pokin' the sun with yer mind, like?"

"Why not, Applejack? Celestia does it every day. And ordinary unicorns used to do it once. But a single unicorn can't possibly reach the sun on their own."

"Biggest test possible, huh? Well it IS you, sugarcube." All the same, Applejack still stepped back a pace or two.

"Right." Twilight looked directly into the sun. The automatic reaction to squint... wasn't there?

I'm staring directly into the afternoon sun with my eyes wide open and I can see it perfectly and quickly before I lose my nerve...

Igniting her horn, Twilight reached out.

And out.

It's SO far away!

...Oh.

Well, that feels... creepy.

She knew that the thing she was touching with her magic was impossibly remote, impossibly hot, and impossibly... enormous. She could feel how to grab it, how to fling it around the sky, how easy it would be to...

Better not. Want to get Celestia's attention, not the attention of all of Equestria. This is the creepiest thing I've ever done.

"Now that is CREEPY," said Rainbow Dash.

"How do you know what it feels like?" Twilight asked in alarm, looking around. "Dash... Why are you so small?"

"Uh, no, I mean you, Twilight..."

She was looking down at all of her friends. She glanced down at the balcony. Still standing on it. So she hadn't started floating, or anything like that.

"Twilight, you're... so big! A-and your mane!" squeaked Fluttershy, clearly terrified.

A wisp of indigo smoke drifted over one of Twilight's eyes.

"Oh my, darling! You look... You look amazing!" Rarity cried. "You look like Princess Celestia!"

Twilight craned her neck around and looked at her tail. Behind two enormous upraised wings, a tight, toned waist and shimmering flanks, a sparkling sheen of violet hues that seemed to waft there instead of hair. And she was looking at her tail down a...

...a long lavender muzzle...

Twilight released her hold on the sun in shock. The world seemed to get bigger - all of her friends shot up in height. The wood under her hooves got closer. Unruly purple hair flumped down over her right eye.

Well, this is sure starting to add up to that thing that I don't want to think about because if I think about it then I start shaking and... Stop it. Stop it. Calm. Cool. Collected.

"Okay," Twilight said, turning to face her friends. The looks on their faces were almost as creepy as the feeling of holding the sun with her mind. "I know what I'm going to do. Somehow, something to do with... with whatever happened to me last night, something's letting me seem to cope with crisis. And I'm getting better and better at it every time I start to get all... Well. You know I've never been very good at that before," she admitted, somewhat sheepishly.

"Sugarcube, when everythin's goin' peachy, yer jus' peachy yerself. But we ALL know that when our good friend Twilight starts gettin' all flustered-like, we all gotta step up to the plate," Applejack said firmly. "Same as you'd do fer any'o us."

"Yes, I know, I know, and I think having you here with me today is what's making me cope! I... I'm terrified." Twilight looked at her front hooves. "I really do think that I'm an alicorn. There's no doubt, really. Not any more. Not after... after that..." She looked up at her friends, couldn't hold their gaze. "I think that I'm going to have to go and help rule Equestria," she told the floor.

Pinkie Pie let out a sob. Twilight looked up. The bubbly pink earth pony had sat down, legs akimbo, and was openly weeping. "N-n-nuh-not going to let that happen."

Oh, Pinkie...

Twilight walked to her happiest, saddest friend and pulled her into a hug. Then more tears came, from Twilight, from Applejack and Rarity holding each other and bawling, soft sobs from Fluttershy, choked whimpers from Rainbow Dash who'd grabbed hold of Twilight and Pinkie, then they were all holding each other, sobbing, shaking. Muffled words and bits of phrases came through the sobs to Twilight's ears.

"Yer not g-goin'."

"We, we love y-y-you, T-t-t-t..."

"I CAN'T LOSE A FRIEND! I CAN'T! I CAAAAAN'T!"

Everypony was so surprised, they stopped crying. As the others backed up, Twilight lifted a choking, gasping Pinkie Pie off the floor where she had just thrown herself, and into another hug.

What is this?

Twilight knew that Pinkie was pretty insecure about herself, and the outer veneer of joy and happiness was paper-thin. She valued her friends more than anything, because... Because...

Because she didn't have friends as a filly either. Just like me. And now she does, and she's... She's scared to death that she'll lose them...

Well. Maybe now I can do something about that.

Twilight looked into Pinkie's swimming eyes. Pinkie must have seen something on Twilight's face, because she stopped sobbing and sat back, gazing at her. As the tears dripped off the end of Pinkie's muzzle, Twilight spoke, first to Pinkie, then looking around at the rest of her very best friends.

"But if I really am a princess, then I can do pretty much what I like, right? And if that means that what I want to do is to stay RIGHT HERE" - she stomped a hoof on each syllable - "then that's what I'm going to do. Even if it means telling Celestia that... that she can take her lessons and rules and everything else and just shove them! Because I am NOT leaving my friends!"

The joy on Pinkie Pie's face told her that she'd made the right decision, whatever were to come from it.


"Now, are ya sure? Ah mean, REALLY sure about this?" a very flustered Applejack was saying.

"Really, really sure. I've been practicing, haven't I? Nothing bad happened when we went to your farm, did it?"

"'Ceptin' we all fell over. Now that's all fine an' dandy, sugarcube, but Canterlot is one heck of a lot further away than Sweet Apple Acres!"

"It's not the distance. I could only teleport a hundred feet or so before. Now I could... I could probably teleport to the moon." Twilight shook off the feelings that last thought gave her.

"Ah'm not sayin' Ah won't do it. I'd do anythin' fer you, Twilight, you know Ah will. But is burstin' in on the princess really such a good idea?"

"Probably not. But this is pretty serious."

"It's an awesome idea, Twilight! I mean, she won't really be angry at us, right?" Dash asked. Twilight could tell that she was much more worried about this trip than her demeanour showed.

"No idea. Only way to do it, though. So, are we ready?"

"Oh my goodness, no!" Rarity trilled, trotting forward with a hairbrush. "We're going to see the princess! And your mane looks like an absolute disaster area!"

"Hey, nothing touching my horn, remember!"

"But Twilight!" Pinkie sang out, bouncing right up to her. "You can turn it off now, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. But nopony touch it. I'll try to turn it all-the-way off, then somepony tap it with something," Twilight said, gesturing around at the various torn cushion covers and smashed wood from her earlier experiments with lifting the furniture. She concentrated.

Wow, this is hard.

"Anything?" she asked, eyes screwed shut. She felt something tap the tip of her horn.

"Well, I'm not smacking into any more bookcases!" Pinkie giggled.

Twilight opened her eyes and saw a grinning Pinkie Pie with a hooftip to her horn. "Pinkie!" Twilight gasped, stepping back from her quickly. The million little pinpricks of light reignited and danced around her horn.

"Well, those little sparkly things all went out, so I figured, why not!" Pinkie picked the hairbrush up in her mouth.

"Oh, really, dear, you should let me..." Rarity trailed off as Pinkie started to brush the crazy tangles out of Twilight's mane.

"PINKIE!" Twilight yelled, quickly closing her eyes and concentrating. The little motes of light winked out. "Tell me when you're finished. This is really hard!"

"Mmmkie-dmmkie-lmmkie!" Pinkie mumbled cheerfully around the hairbrush.

Okay. I think I can hold it.

"Spike?"

"Twilight?"

"Take a letter."

"With pleasure!" Spike whipped out a quill and scroll.



Dear Princess Celestia,


I must speak with both yourself and Princess Luna urgently.

My friends and I will be in your chambers in thirty seconds.


Your very, very worried student,

Twilight Sparkle.


Pinkie stepped back to admire her handiwork, just as a burst of green fire and smoke slipped out of one of the many smashed windows. "There! Now you don't look so frizzy-wizzy-headed!"

"Well, that should get her attention." Rarity sounded skeptical.

"But Twilight's mane looks just the same as always! Why would that attract attention?" Pinkie was the very picture of bewilderment.

"The letter, dear."

"Oh! Silly me!"

"Rarity, I don't have a choice!" Twilight's mane looked like it was about to snap back into scrunchy tangles of its own volition. "I'm going slowly crazy here, in fact I don't really know why I haven't completely snapped a hundred times today, I have to concentrate like mad to stop magic leaking out of me, I have wings - WINGS! - and I need answers before I completely lose it. Ready?"

Everypony looked worried.

"Ready?"

"We're ready, Twilight. We'll do whatever we have to do," Fluttershy said. "Even that... teleport thing again." She closed her eyes and shook with terror.

"Yeah! We'll back you up!" Rainbow Dash vowed.

"Anything for a friend, dear," Rarity managed to say without a waver in her voice.

"Let's do this, Twi," Applejack said, a look of determination spreading across her face.

Pinkie Pie just nodded. There was more determination on her round pink face than Twilight could ever have believed her capable of.

"Alright," Twilight breathed, "just a little bit... That's about right... Now focus, Celestia's big chamber, tallest tower..."

Glowing red energy, shot through with winking motes of light, appeared around the six ponies and one dragon.


The scroll arrived in a burst of green fire. Celestia looked up in surprise, snagging it out of the air with her magic.

"...Urgently... thirty seconds... worried? Twilight!"

She walked to the door of her private chambers, pushed it open with her magic, and poked her head through, her multicoloured pastel mane floating through after her. "Guards," she called to the two pegasi in ornamental armour outside the door, "Is Twilight Sparkle in the castle?"

"Not that I know of, your Highness," one answered.

"I know not, your Highness," chorused the other.

Celestia frowned. "Very well. If she or her friends arrive, see them in at once. Please send for my sister, I wish to speak with her in my chambers."

"Yes, your Highness," this time in unison. One pegasus lifted off and streaked down the corridor, to deliver the summons to Luna.

Closing the door, Celestia was just about to reach for a scroll to send a letter back through Spike, when, with a blinding flash of deep red light, six ponies and one baby dragon exploded into being in the centre of the large round room.

"Twilight Sparkle!" said Celestia, shocked. "You teleported here from Ponyville? With your friends? Nopony is that powerful!"

The others were all down on bended knee, looking at their own front hooves. Twilight and Spike remained standing. "Princess," Twilight began.

"Not to mention, teleporting into a chamber protected by ancient magic against just such an intrusion!" A look of beaming admiration was spreading across her face. "My most wonderful, talented student! Once again, you prove my faith in you in the most unexpected -"

Twilight unfolded her wings and raised them above her head.

Celestia sat down on her haunches so fast, it happened in a blur. "Oh, my," the princess whispered.

It must be the day for it. Very slowly, Celestia's beautiful magenta eyes rolled straight back into her head, and she toppled to the side.

Pandemonium. Twilight reached her first, Fluttershy close on her hooves.

"Princess! Princess Celestia! I think she fainted!" Twilight gasped. "We should get some guards, or..."

The chamber doors opened, and a midnight-blue alicorn trotted into the room, an irritated look on her face as if she wanted to complain about something.

The look evaporated as she caught sight of her sister, lying awkwardly on the stone floor, surrounded by unfamiliar ponies.

The seconds stretched by. Rainbow Dash coughed. Princess Luna blinked at Twilight's wings.

As Twilight felt her body smash through the thick stone wall of the tower, the entire chamber exploded in a deafening concussion of deepest midnight.