One's childhood never escapes you when magic and a certain motherly princess enters the picture.

Written for kicks and Momlestia/Sweet Celestia practice. But mainly for kicks.

WARNING: Written on late-night crazy sauce.

Rated T for swearing, dark implications involving drug usage and childhood trauma.

(And on a personal note: Don't use drugs to escape your problems.)

A hidden museum rests in the Canterlot palace, by law open to the public, by practice closed to visitors. Within its walls lie treasures of opal and gemstones, salt and wood. Shelves filled with untouched scrolls line the walls.

It is here that Luna pays her respects to Equestria's fallen heroes. Why, then, is it against her sister's wishes?

Celestia and Luna have lived long and suffered greatly. Luna, still insecure in her newfound grace, is anxious to secure herself against any further suffering. She sees in Twilight Sparkle (and in many others) the roots of ten thousand tragedies. Celestia proposes a wager.

A very loose retelling of the Book of Job.

Celestia, Princess of the Sun and Princess of Equestria, has led a long life. She's made a lot of decisions, for good and for ill, and she's decided it's time to quit. Twilight Sparkle, her faithful student and fellow Princess, will assume the crown and rule Equestria in a month's time with the help of her friends. But before that can happen, Celestia has to host one last Grand Galloping Gala. She decided it would go out with a bang.

That was last night.

Today, the Princess awakens with a ring on her horn and a strange earth pony in her bathroom. She's hungover, and the pounding in her skull triggers some memories of events she pushed far out of her mind for many years. Because Princess Celestia wasn't always a Princess or even Celestia.

And her new husband won't stop running his mouth.

(Cover art by cadillac_dynamite.)

Princess.

Some hear the word and think of power. Others take it further. To move Sun, to create the cycle of day and night... surely that indicates something more. Something which can be called on. Pleaded with.

Celestia knows what ponies believe about her. She also knows there's no way to make them stop. Because there are times when the most powerful weapon against despair is faith...

...and the blade is always double-edged.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Twilight's just received her official government escort license, which allows her to legally take on passengers during a teleport. Unfortunately, the fee was hideously expensive -- enough to completely wipe out all her spare bits. And there's a major purchase coming up which she refuses to put off. So what better way to raise the money than by giving her freshly-approved skill a workout? After all, it's winter, it's cold, ponies will get home all the faster, and since Twilight knows what 'escort' means, so will everypony else.

It's probably best not to bet on that last part.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group -- but can be read as a stand-alone, and no knowledge of the other stories is required. New members and trope edits are welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Current cover art by Harwick: please contact him for commission rates. Original cover art by EquesTRON.

For a thousand years, there was just Celestia. Then Cadance appeared, Luna returned -- and now Twilight has ascended. There are ponies who are very curious about just what happened, why -- and how. Especially the how. Twilight herself is on that list, a freshly-minted princess with far more questions than answers, about to face a brand new one: what truly makes an alicorn?

And what happens if it goes wrong?

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Cover art by Harwick.

Twilight has something she needs to tell Princess Celestia--something that means a chance at getting everything she's ever wanted, or of losing everything she's ever had.

Something so terrifying that the only way she could say it was in a letter...and so wonderful that she had the courage to send it.

(Thanks to Cenit V for the cover!)

Twilight wakes in the middle of the night, haunted by a terrifying dream—one that's not so hard to see coming true. One that whispers of a grand destiny awaiting her as a reward for all her hard work, discipline, and noble sacrifice.

But what if she doesn't want a grand destiny?

Twilight's life has changed a bit over the years. She used to worry about it, but more often these days, she finds herself celebrating it.

The story was written for FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns contest for the Twilight portion of the Partiers group but didn't finish in the contest's Top Six. Happy squeaks of thanks to The Masked Ferret for spontaneously volunteering to edit and to Miss Cats for the cover image.