Just after greeting the ponies from the Crystal Empire, Twilight and her five best friends in all of Equestria walked into a private part of the palace gardens. Usually, only the Princesses were allowed to enter these parts, but the others were more or less national heroes so none of the guards seemed to mind.
Twilight's mood wasn't the best, despite the recent progress everypony had made in repairing Canterlot. Even with all the help from outside, it would take weeks, if not months to rebuild the city. Though of course, it would all be meaningless if anything like this could just happen again.
Less than two hours. It had taken less than two hours to flatten nearly the entire capital of Equestria. And that was with four ruling princesses present. If the quakes would have hit Manehatten, for instance... the city might have been gone even before any help could arrive.
“So what are we gonna do now, Twilight? We can’t just sit here and let Sunset Shimmer take all the glory.”
“Really? That’s what’s bugging you out of everything, Rainbow Dash?”
“I still can’t get over seeing Canterlot in ruins. So much style and unique flair lost to some natural disaster, it’s dreadful.”
“I’m just glad nopony got hurt badly. Luckily all the animals got out of the city in time as well.”
“Girls, that’s beside the point now! It doesn’t matter how lucky we were if we can’t find out what caused this. We need to stop it from happening again.”
The five ponies fell silent and watched Twilight with concern when her frustration got the better of her. The young alicorn fell into a pacing trot they’d all seen from her multiple times whenever Twilight had been at the brink of panic
“Twi, you need to calm down.”
“How, Applejack? How can you expect me to calm down in a time like this? For all I know, I might have accidentally caused all of this. Princess Celeastia, Princess Luna, Cadance, even Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer, they know what to do, but I don’t. “
“Twilight, Darling. I want you to sit for a moment and listen to us.”
Twilight sighed but sat back on her haunches and turned her head to Rarity and her other friends as they stood around her in a half circle
“Did you know exactly what to do when Tirek started stealing everypony’s magic?”
Twilight frowned and was about to nod. Back then, Celestia told her what needed to be done. But did she really know exactly how to do it?
“I guess not.”
“And when Discord broke free of his statue, did you have all the answers right away?”
“Or when you accidentally switched our cutie marks around?”
“No… you know that.”
“We do, Sugarcube. But you tend to forget at times.”
Twilight took a deep breath, but whatever she thought she had to say just ended up in a long sigh as she sunk on the ground, her head coming to rest on her forelegs
“So, what you’re saying is...?”
“In the end, you always managed to save the day.”
“Because you always stay true to your heart in the end.”
“And because you don’t back away even if it gets hard.”
“Even if things get worse, you’ll always have friends to rely on.”
“Duh! Princess of Friendship, remember?”
All six of them giggled and when Twilight got on her hooves again, they shared a hug
“Thank you, girls. I needed that.”
“Anytime, Twi.”
“So, we just keep going for now? Helping where we can?”
Twilight nodded and took another deep breath
“I guess that means I’ll join in on the magic research with Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer. None of the other Princesses has spent as much time with the mirror portal as I have. Plus, it will let me keep an eye on Trixie as well.”
“What about her?”
“You don’t think she’ll do something bad, do you?”
Twilight shook her head, although with a frown
“No. At least, not intentionally. But I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
The four friends shared a worried glance but then nodded
“Okay Twi. But remember, she’s Starlight’s friend now.”
“And she’s been trying were hard to better herself.”
“She even stopped bragging all the time. And trust me, I know how hard that is.”
Twilight sighed again and her wings rustled on her flanks
“I know, I know. Princess Celestia said almost the same. But it feels to me she’s not taking this as serious as she should. She kept goofing around when I saw her earlier.”
“Maybe she just tried to cheer you all up?”
Five pairs of eyes turned to Pinkie Pie at that
“What? I’m just saying. Sunset wasn’t really in a good mood earlier, she really needed it. And Starlight’s panic attacks can be worse than yours, Twilight, and that’s saying something.”
The girls chuckled and Twilight blushed a little before she joined it
“Okay, I see your point. So I guess I should give her credit for that, right?”
“Just promise you’ll give her a chance to prove herself. Please?”
Twilight turned around and saw Starlight Glimmer standing a few feet away, her student clearly worried. When she didn’t say anything for a minute, Starlight took another step closer
“Please Twilight. I know you’ll never be as close to her as to the others. But I don’t want to have to choose between my teacher who took me into her home and my best friend in all of Equestria.”
Twilight was quick to pull Starlight into a firm hug at that
“I promise, Starlight. I’ll try my best to be open to what she has to say.”
Starlight nodded and returned the hug with a soft sigh
“I guess that’s as good as we’re going to get, right?”
Starlight searched and found her teachers eyes
“Please Twilight. She’s trying so hard. When we’re together, she’s putting so much effort into everything we do. As soon as you two are together, she hides behind her bragging and teasing and goes all ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ on you. But when Princess Luna asked for her help, I could tell she’s serious about this.”
Twilight couldn’t hold Starlight’s gaze, but she nodded
“I trust Princess Luna’s intuition. And I trust you, Starlight. If you say Trixie is ready for this mission, I’ll see past my own doubts and trust her as well.”
Starlight smiled and pressed in for another soft hug, one that Twilight only replied half-hearted.
She stayed behind when her friends left one after another, her eyes staring blankly ahead into the dark night, unseeing the beauty of the starry sky. Only when the sun started rising, Princess Twilight Sparkle got back on her hooves and headed to the throne room.