Chapter 16
As Twilight and Lyra trotted down the dirt road leading past Sweet Apple Acres, Lyra shot Twilight an unhappy look and asked, “Was it really necessary to pull me out of the hospital by my tail?”
Twilight gave Lyra a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I just...well, um, wanted to get started as soon as possible?” she finished lamely.
Lyra wasn’t convinced, as she continued her withering stare. “Something tells me that you’re not being entirely truthful with me here,” she replied.
Now Twilight began to sweat. “No! I-I mean, n-no of course not, don’t be silly! Why would I lie to you about something? I mean, we’re friends after all right?”
Lyra came to an abrupt halt and said, “Okay, several things, first,” she tapped the ground her hoof for emphasis, “if we really are friends, then I feel that you shouldn’t be keeping whatever it is that is bothering you from me, and that you should be able to trust that I will listen to and help you. Second, you’re terrible at lying, and I would recommend not trying your hoof at poker.”
Twilight bit her bottom lip, the tension ratcheting ever higher until finally she couldn’t take it anymore and exclaimed, “Okay fine! I admit it! This past week has been really busy, what with Allen showing up and dealing with Discord, and I got distracted and forgot to write Princess Celestia a reportaboutwhatIlearnedaboutfriendshipandI don’thavealotoftimelefttowriteonetoherbeforetheendofthedayandifIdon’t, I’ll be tardy!” she finished in a big rush, her sudden rant leaving her breathless as she fought to draw air into her lungs.
Lyra just stood there staring at Twilight, a confused expression on her face. “What?” she finally said after several seconds of silence, interposed by the sound of Twilight’s labored breathing.
Finally having caught her breath, Twilight looked up at Lyra, an incredulous look on her face. “What do you mean ‘what’? I just told you! Weren’t you paying attention?!”
Lyra slowly nodded. “Yeeees, but you kinda started freaking out and sped up at the end there, and it’s kind of hard to follow what you’re saying when you do that.”
Twilight felt her cheeks flush red in embarrassment. Seeing her friend’s distress, Lyra moved to the side of the road and patted a spot next to her and said, “Alright, get your flank over here and tell me what’s bothering you...slowly this time please.”
“But!”
“No buts! Either you tell me what’s going on or I’m going to go get Nurse Redheart to sedate you. You’re kind of starting to scare me right now Twilight, and I don’t want to see you get hurt, so the sooner you tell me what’s going on, the sooner we can get things done, okay?”
Twilight nervously trotted in place, unsure of what to do. Her head jerking back and forth as she watched the sun slowly moving closer to the western horizon. Finally, she realized that Lyra wasn’t going to budge, and it was best to just try and get this out of the way as quickly as possible, lest she fail in her mission.
Heaving a sigh, she quickly trotted over and told Lyra everything.
~oOo~
“Spike!” yelled Twilight as she tore through the lower level of the library in her quest for her saddlebags and supplies.
“What is it Twi?” asked the purple-scaled drake from his corner of the library distractedly, where he was currently engaged in reading the latest Power Ponies comic.
“Allen’s in the hospital and I need your help to pack my bags so that Lyra and I can go see him!” replied Twilight as she frantically tore through the various piles of papers and research material that she and Lyra had collected over the course of their current study session.
Spike lazily pointed to a nearby pair of hooks on the wall next to the door that lead down to Twilight’s underground laboratory. “Your bags are on the hook where you girls left them, and your extra set of quills and ink are in the top left drawer of your writing desk, extra parchment is in the center one.”
“Thank you, Spike!” exclaimed Twilight gratefully as she quickly gathered the necessary supplies, “do you kno-” she began, but Spike cut her off with another pointed claw towards a stack of books, already anticipating what she wanted.
“Mythology of Humans is in the first pile next to the end table, the third book from the top.”
Twilight quickly collected the tome, and carefully slipped it into her saddlebags. Shoot Spike, a happy smile she quickly trotted over and levitating him up in her magic gave him and hug and said, “What would I ever do without you, Spike?”
“Probably forgot to take care of yourself, and stay a shut-in for the rest of your life,” he replied sarcastically.
Twilight gave him an unamused look. “Haha, very funny, Spike. I’ll have you know that I’m doing a lot better about taking care of myself since I came to Ponyville,” she said, a faux haughty look on her face.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, real improvements being made Twilight, I only had to carry you to bed three times this week instead of every night.”
Twilight rolled her eyes in response and made to head out, having decided to leave Spike and his snark to themselves. However, as she was trotting away, Spike suddenly asked, “Oh, I almost forgot! Did you get a chance to write a friendship report for me to send to Princess Celestia for this week? Cause you haven’t given it to me yet, and it’s been a week since your last one. I know you’ve been really busy lately, so it wouldn’t surprise me if you forgot to give it to me.”
Twilight froze. Turning slowly, she fixed Spike with a blank look on her face and calmly asked, “What did you say, Spike?”
Spike, having gone back to his comic didn’t see Twilight’s expression at first. “I just asked if you had a friendship report for me to send to Princess Celestia is all. I know how you get when you’re busy, so I just wanted to see if you had one for me to send is all, if you don’t, that’s fine too, I’m just making sure.”
Twilight blinked once, twice, three times, before her brain finally caught up. Snatching Spike up again she brought him up so that they were snout to snout and she asked in a tone of voice that said, ‘I’m just seconds away from snapping, so please tell me what I want to hear,’ “What do you mean that it’s been a week since my last friendship report?!”
“Just what I said, you haven’t sent Princess Celestia a report in a week. If you want, I can send her a letter telling her you’ve been too busy with Allen and the fallout over Discord to write one this week. I’m sure she’ll understand,” he said with a shrug.
Twilight was suddenly hyperventilating now. “No, nononononono, that won’t work, Spike! Princess Celestia expects a friendship report every single week! Not every ten days, not every other week. Every. Single. Week. If I don’t find a friendship problem to fix and write about in the next,” she jerked her gaze away from Spike to the nearby wall clock, it’s hands read just after one in the afternoon, “eight hours, then I’ll be tardy!” she finished, her voice having taken on a whine.
Spike pushed himself away from Twilight and brushing himself off began, “Twilight, I’m sure-”
“And if I’m tardy, then Princess Celestia will not think I’m taking my studies seriously, and then she’ll give me a surprise test, and since I haven’t been studying, I’ll fail and she’ll send me back to...Magic Kindergarten!” exclaimed Twilight, now in full-blown panic mode.
Seeing his adoptive sister breaking down in front of him, Spike did the only thing he could think of, he slapped her.
*Smack!*
“Twilight, snap out of it! Princess Celestia isn’t gonna send you back to Magic Kindergarten, you’re overreacting, again!”
Twilight brought a hoof gingerly to her suddenly smarting check and quietly said to herself, having tuned Spike out, “You’re right, she won’t send me back to Magic Kindergarten if I can find and fix a friendship problem before sundown today! I know what to do, thanks, Spike!” she exclaimed as she grabbed Lyra’s saddlebags from the hook where they were hanging and rushed to the front door, leaving Spike alone with a foreboding feeling in his gut.
“This won’t end well.”
~oOo~
“And that’s it,” finished Twilight a slightly less distressed look on her face.
Lyra just sat there and stared at her companion. Oh boy, she’s on the edge of a breakdown, I can feel it. Okay, Lyra, you can do this, all you have to do is keep her calm and figure out some kind of simple friendship problem that you guys can quickly fix. That way she can get her report done before sundown, which is in, she glanced up at the sun and grimaced, six hours give or take. No pressure.
Outwardly she sighed and giving Twilight a confident smile said, “Alright, well I’m not sure what kind of friendship reports you have done so far Twilight, but maybe we can use our experience of helping Allen as one?”
Lyra’s suggestion seemed to perk Twilight up a bit. “Y-yeah, that's what I was thinking when we left the hospital earlier too.”
“I’m sensing a but somewhere,” replied Lyra.
“Well, I think I already learned that lesson when the girls and I helped Applejack during apple bucking season last year, and then there was also Winter-Wrap up, and maybe-”
“Okay, okay, I get it, you’ve learned the value of helping friends in need. Maybe we can find something else out of this to write to Princess Celestia between now and then.”
“But what if we don’t? What if we can’t find anything meaningful to write to the princess?” she asked, a shudder running down her spine at the thought of failing Princess Celestia.
Lyra placed a comforting hoof on her friend's withers and said, “Then we don’t find anything, and that’s it.”
Twilight whipped her head around to face Lyra, a panicked look in her eyes. “What do you mean that’s it? If we don't find something, we’ll have failed!”
Lyra nodded. “Yep, you’ll have missed a deadline and failed. But you want to know something Twilight?”
“What?” she asked, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.
“Sometimes ponies fail, that’s life, and that’s alright.”
“No, it’s not! Failure is, is a terrible thing! If I fail-”
“Then you learn from it,” cut in Lyra when she saw Twilight getting ready to wind herself up again. “Twilight, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve failed at things over the years. I mean just the other day I got a test back from one of my classes and the professor gave me a D- for it. But I’m still here, and Equestria is still standing, does it hurt to fail, yes, but sometimes we learn more from failing than we do from succeeding. It’s like one of my professors said, ‘If you fail at something, then it was just your First Attempt In Learning’,” she said, having dropped the pitch of her voice to make it sound deeper in an attempt to mimic her professor's speech pattern.
She saw Twilight’s lips twitch in an attempt at a smile, but the smile died stillborn on her lips as she went back to worrying. Sighing, Lyra said softly, “Look, do you think that Princess Celestia hasn’t failed at something herself before in her long life?”
“No, of course, no-” began Twilight hotly.
“Nightmare Moon,” cut in Lyra, a serious expression on her face.
Twilight gaped at Lyra, her mental cogs having jammed at the mention of Princess Luna’s alter ego.
Seeing that she had the advantage, Lyra pressed on. “Think about it Twilight, how did Nightmare Moon come about? Princess Luna became jealous of her sister and Princess Celestia either didn’t notice or didn’t care enough to help her sister before it was too late and so Princess Luna was consumed by her jealousy and anger and became Nightmare Moon. As such, Princess Celestia had to banish her to the moon for a thousand years. Now I don’t know about you, but if I had to do that to my sister, and there are some days where Strumming really makes me wish I could,” replied Lyra, an annoyed look on her face at remembering the times when her sister could be quite trying on her patience. However, she shook her head and got back on track, “but in all seriousness, if I had to do that, I’d feel like the biggest failure in Equestria. You don’t think that hasn’t weighed on Princess Celestia’s mind for over a thousand years? And that’s not counting the day to day stuff that comes with ruling a nation. Equestria has gone to war on a couple of occasions, and I’m sure Princess Celestia has felt like those times were failures too.”
By this point, Twilight had brought her tail around to her front and was holding and stroking it like a young foal would their blanket when they were upset.
“So with all of that being said, do you really think Princess Celestia is that petty that she would send one of her best students back to Magic Kindergarten over a missed ‘friendship report’? Especially considering the circumstances that have happened over the past week or two, I mean really?”
“Well...when you put it that way,” said Twilight quietly as she continued to idly pet her tail.
Lyra sighed and moved forward to give her friend a hug. “Listen Twilight, I’m sure that you could easily send Princess Celestia a letter asking her for an extension on turning in your report, and she would probably be fine with it. Besides,” she said, letting go of Twilight and placing her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders and looking her in the eyes, “if Princess Celestia is really that petty and sends you back to Magic Kindergarten, you won’t be alone.”
“What?”
“I mean, that I’d come with you,” replied Lyra.
“Really, you’d come with me?” asked Twilight, flabbergasted that Lyra would be willing to sacrifice her entire scholarly career for her.
Lyra gave a firm nod. “Yep, in a heartbeat. You’re my friend, and that is what friends do for each other when times get hard. They are there, ready to help support you, and they stay with you, no matter what.”
Twilight felt more tears welling up at the corners of her eyes, and she all but flung herself at Lyra, wrapping the mint green unicorn in the mother of all bear hugs. “Thank you,” she said, as she buried her face in Lyra’s shoulder.
Lyra smiled. “Hey, it’s what a good friend would do.”
“Indeed it is,” came a sudden and unexpected voice from behind.
The two unicorns, startled at the sudden intrusion into their friendship moment, collectively yelped and spun around on the spot to see none other than Princess Celestia herself standing before them. Both of them sat there on the side of the road, gobsmacked at the sudden appearance of the princess of all ponies. However, after a moment they promptly prostrated themselves in front of her.
“Princess Celestia!” exclaimed Twilight, “What are you doing here?!”
Celestia chuckled and calmly said, “Rise my little ponies, there is no need to bow. This is a personal visit. Twilight,” she said as she strode forward and lowered her head so as to not look down on her student, “Spike sent me a letter telling me about your...concerns regarding your delayed friendship report today.”
“Princess I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t realize that it was due today an-” began Twilight, however, a gold-clad hoof gently placed to her lips silenced the panicking mare.
Giving Twilight a motherly smile, Celestia said, “My most faithful student, you have nothing to worry about. I am not angry or disappointed in you for not sending me a friendship report, even though,” she glanced up at the sky to gauge the position of her sun before saying, “you still have some time to do one if you want, as we have around five and a half hours till it’s time for me to put the sun to bed.”
Placing a wing across Twilight’s back, much like a mother hen would her chicks, and continued with a gentle smile, “However, if you do not have a new lesson about friendship that you learned to share with me, that is alright too. When I sent you to Ponyville to learn about friendship, I did not do so because I expected you to report to me every week as you do with your other subjects. Unlike them, friendship isn’t something that has easy to recognize lesson plans or examples. Often times we find ourselves learning something new by accident in our day to day lives. I wanted you to come to Ponyville and study the magic of friendship because I saw you isolating yourself from others using books and your studies as an excuse. Studying and learning are wonderful things to do, but many of life’s greatest lessons cannot be found within the pages of some dusty old book.”
Twilight stared down at her hooves, tears beginning to fall, and quietly said in a voice that nearly broke the older mares heart. “I just wanted to be a good student.”
Feeling a tear forming, Celestia hastily leaned down and wrapped her student in a proper hug and huskily said as she fought back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, “You are a good student, Twilight,” pulling back and giving her student a sad smile, she continued, “it’s just that sometimes I worry that you become so focused on one thing that you shut out everything else around you, and that is not healthy. Ponies are not meant to spend their days alone reading books. I have seen what can happen when a pony isolates themselves like that, and it is never good. So, please do not think that I am disappointed in you, I am not, I am happy that you have been able to make a friend who is willing to stand by your side and comfort you in your hour of trial. Hold on to those kinds of friends Twilight, for they are more precious than all the wealth of the world.”
Twilight fixed Celestia with a determined look and nodded, her tears having stopped. “I will princess, I promise!”
Celestia returned Twilight’s look with a happy smile, glad to see that her student was doing better. “I am glad to hear that,” glancing over at Lyra, she said, a mischievous look on her face, “Especially when they are willing to go back to Magic Kindergarten with you, in case their friend's teacher is ‘that petty’.”
Both Lyra and Twilight blushed at her quip. Chuckling at their embarrassment, Celestia let go of Twilight and said in a thoughtful tone, “You know Twilight, I think that this would make a wonderful friendship lesson to write about.”
Twilight’s face lit up with a smile and she immediately grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment and began muttering to herself as she wrote. Letting her student write her letter in peace for a moment, Celestia turned her attention to Lyra and said, “Thank you Ms. Heartstrings for being there for Twilight, I know that she has a propensity to let little things get to her, I’m glad to see that she has a friend who is willing to help her through those moments as you did.”
Feeling embarrassed at the princess’s praise, Lyra kicked a loose pebble with her hoof and replied, “I just did what anypony would do.”
Glancing over her shoulder and seeing her student was fully engrossed in her essay, Celestia leaned down so that she was next to Lyra, she quietly said, “Not everypony, I’m afraid. When Twilight first became my student she had difficulty interacting with the other students at the school. It is a sad fact of life that foals can be quite cruel to each other, and she had trouble making friends. As such, she quickly turned to reading books as a way to cope with the stress, of course, that created its own set of problems.”
Lyra gave Celestia an incredulous look. “Seriously? She didn’t have any friends besides the girls and me?”
“Are you referring to her Ponyville friends? I thought she didn’t meet them until she came here last year,” asked Celestia.
Lyra shook her head. “No, back in Canterlot. Twilight would sometimes hang out with myself and four other mares, Lemon Hearts, Minuette, Twinkle Shine and Moon Dancer. In fact, we were going to have a party for Moon Dancer the day Twilight left Canterlot,” her ears fell at the memory, “Moon Dancer didn’t take it well.”
Both mares glanced back to see Twilight was still writing, oblivious to the world around her. Celestia suppressed a grimace at the thought that she had inadvertently caused Twilight to miss her friend’s party. Though from the sounds of it, Twilight at the time hadn’t thought of them as friends, acquaintances, maybe, but not friends, at least not like her and her Ponyville friends were now.
Turning to look at Lyra, she said, “Perhaps it is not too late to amend that particular broken fence?”
Lyra gave the princess an unsure look, and replied hesitantly, “I don’t know, after Twilight missed her party, Moon Dancer turned into a complete recluse. Every time the girls and I would try and cheer her up, she’d just ignore us or push us away. I’m not sure if she’d be interested in talking with Twilight either.”
Celestia sighed, disappointed that she had inadvertently caused a potential friendship to wither away before it could properly take root. It was possible that her student could patch things up with this Moon Dancer, but it would be difficult for Twilight.
Twilight has overcome difficult challenges before, she freed my sister from her madness when I could not, and she and her friends sealed Discord in stone again. Shooting a covert glance at the mint green mare beside her, she felt a flitter of hope in her heart. And with her newly kindled friendship with Lyra and support from her friends here in Ponyville, I have faith that she could do the same with this Moon Dancer.
Giving a subtle nod, Celestia turned her attention back to Lyra and quietly said, “Ms. Heartstrings-”
“You can call me Lyra, Your Highness, when you or somepony else calls me that, I think they’re talking to my mother,” she said, a cheeky grin on her face.
Returning the grin with one of her own, Celestia responded, “Very well then, Lyra, I was about to ask you if you would help Twilight with repairing her relationship with Moon Dancer when things are not quite so...busy, as they are now. I know that if Twilight realized that she had caused your friend to become so withdrawn because she thought Twilight did not care about her, that it would cause her great distress.”
Glancing between Twilight and Celestia, Lyra gave the elder princess a confident smile and said, “Don’t worry, princess, Lyra Heartstrings is on the case!” she finished with a mock salute, and Celestia chuckled at her antics.
Opening her mouth to respond she was cut off by the sudden appearance of a rolled scroll held aloft in a field of magic in front of her face and Twilight all but shouting, “Done!”
Looking down at her student, Celestia saw that Twilight had a look of giddy anticipation plastered on her face, though Celestia could see that there was a hint of nervousness lurking beneath the surface. No doubt due to Twilight hoping to please her mentor by showing off her abilities in learning about friendship.
Taking the scroll with her magic, Celestia quickly opened it and read through it. When she was finished, she rolled it back up and sent it away in a burst of magic to her office back in Canterlot. Turning to regard Twilight, she gave her student a bright smile and said, “Well done my faithful student, you did a wonderful job, and I am very proud of you.” If Twilight’s smile had gotten any brighter, she could have used it in place of a lighthouse to guide ships at night. “However,” her smile dimmed a bit, “please do not feel as though I expect a report every week from now on, Twilight. Your letters have been a wonderful way for me to see you grow into a bright, caring, young mare and as such, I want you to only send me a letter when you have learned something new about friendship.”
Nodding her head vigorously, Twilight replied, “Of course, Princess Celestia!”
Celestia smiled. “Thank you, Twilight, I look forward to your next letter. To be honest, when I received Spike’s letter earlier I thought that you might try and create a friendship problem to solve!” she said as she chuckled at the thought.
Twilight joined her mentor in laughter, though hers was a bit more forced. “Yeah, create a friendship problem. As if I’d ever do something like that! Ehehe...”
Bringing her laughter under control, Celestia turned to regard the two ponies with a curious expression. “Well, now that we have that particular issue out of the way, I must confess, I am curious as to why you two are all the way out here if you were trying to find a friendship problem to fix.”
Twilight, glad for the change in topic latched onto it like a drowning sailor would a life preserver. “We came out here because Allen is sick and he needed help taking care of his animals while he’s in the hospital.”
Celestia’s expression morphed from curiosity to worry, and she asked, “What happened? Is he going to be alright?”
Lyra stepped forward and replied, “We’re not sure, Nurse Redheart said that he had a bad reaction to one of the vaccines that she gave him earlier. Thankfully he had his reaction while he was still at the hospital and they were able to get him treatment quickly, and when we were there, he seemed to be doing better, but, Dr. Stable wanted to keep him overnight in case there were any further complications.”
Celestia nodded, a serious look on her face. “I see, I am glad that he is doing better, and even though I have limited medical knowledge, I believe that keeping him overnight was the right call,” glancing up from the conversation, she looked back towards Ponyville and said, “I think I might pay him a visit before I return to Canterlot for the evening. However, I am quite curious to see this fabled farm of his. I’ve read Blueblood’s reports, however reading about something and seeing it for oneself are two completely different things. Would it be alright if I came along with you two?” she asked politely.
Twilight immediately replied with excitement at being able to spend more time with her mentor, “Of course princess, we’d be happy to have you come with us!”
“Is that alright with you, Lyra?”
Lyra smiled up at her princess and replied happily, “I’d be honored, Your Highness.”
Giving a happy nod, Celestia replied, “Then it’s settled, off we go!” and with that she, Lyra and Twilight set off for Allen’s farm.
It didn’t take long for the apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres to turn to rolling grassland on one side and fenced in pasture on the other. As the group trotted along, Celestia could just begin to make out the roofs of buildings on the horizon up ahead of them. As they got closer, she could see a gravel roadway connect with the dirt trail up ahead along with a beat-up mailbox to one side. As they passed it, Celestia took a moment to casually look it and the nearby fence over.
Hmm, they seem a bit worn. The fence looks like it hasn’t been painted in years, and this poor mailbox looks like somepony hit it with a bat at some point. I wonder if the rest of his farm looks as run down? Looking forward, she could now see both the barns and the house come into view, and her suspicions were confirmed when she saw their state.
Like the fence and mailbox, the various buildings on Allen’s property were all in need of some TLC, with paint peeling from the walls, rust forming on the metal roofs, weeds growing in the sidewalks and the flowerbeds and the yard poorly trimmed, it gave the farm a depressed looking atmosphere. As if the farm realized that it wasn’t long for this world, and had simply given up on taking care of itself.
Following both Lyra and Twilight, who were busily discussing various things related to Allen and his culture, Celestia contented herself with quietly observing as she trotted along. She quickly noticed that they were headed for the nearest barn. Looking it over, she saw that it had probably been the pride of the farm, with its high gambrel roof and stout wooden walls. However, those days were long gone, she noticed that the roof was sagging slightly in several spots, and the previously white metal roof was rusting in places, giving it a look of having open sores. It’s formally bright red paint and white trim having faded and flaked off in many areas, leaving the dull weathered wood exposed to the elements. Some of the wooden planks had even fallen off, leaving gaping holes in the side walls, looking like a pony with a missing tooth in their smile.
It pained her heart to see Allen’s farm like this. His family must have been going through some difficult times for his farm to become this rundown.
Seeing that they had arrived at a small side door, Celestia gave her head a shake to clear her thoughts and bring her back to the real world. Ducking her head slightly, so as not to bump her horn, she carefully stepped through the doorway into the gloomy interior. Lyra, having already been inside before, quickly located the nearby light switch and flipped it on, bathing the interior in a warm glow as the incandescent lights blazed to life.
Immediately, every animal inside began bellowing for food, thinking that Allen was finally there to feed them. However, the barn soon fell relatively silent as the animals realized that Allen wasn’t there, but the strange looking horse like creatures from before.
“Okay, that’s freaky,” said Lyra as Allen’s animals just continued to stare at them, blank expressions on their faces.
“Ehehe, yeah, we...should probably get started, the sooner we start the sooner we’re done,” agreed Twilight as she quickly brought out the list and glanced at the first item. “Okay, the first thing is to make sure everyone has water.”
Lyra nodded and began checking each stall for a water bucket. Celestia meanwhile contented herself with watching Lyra and Twilight work. However, her curiosity quickly overcame her and she decided to poke around while they were otherwise occupied.
Trotting away from the two unicorns, who were currently busy working on filling up a large water trough from the barns hydrant. Celestia poked her head into a nearby room and took a look around. The various saddles and tack strewn around the room at first glance, made her think that she had mistakenly walked into an adult toy shop in the seedier part of Canterlot. Either that or a farm supply shop in a small rural town, she sometimes found herself confused by her little ponies and their...interests. Shaking her head of the thought, she backed out of the room and continued looking around.
As she walked along she heard a soft nicker to her left. Glancing that way she felt herself pause as she spotted a large equine in a nearby stall. It reminded her of a Saddle Arabian in its physical build, though it’s facial movements were less flexible, and overall it seemed less graceful then they were.
Trotting closer, she carefully extended a gold-clad hoof towards the large equine, and it responded by leaning forward and sniffing her hoof.
This must be that equine that Allen was riding the day he ran into Lt. Palisade’s attempted ambush. Glancing down to her right, Celestia noticed a metal plaque with writing on it. Leaning down to get a better look she read what was written on it.
Reuben. Hmm, that must be their name. Turning her attention back to Reuben, Celestia continued studying them. Reminds me of those old fossils of our ancestors in the Canterlot Natural History Museum. To think that this is what ponies could have looked like if things had been different in our world. Though, it’s not every day that I run across someone who is taller than me. She thought to herself with a giggle.
Stepping closer, Celestia let Reuben lean in closer and sniff her again, the short hairs on their muzzle tickling her slightly. However, after a couple of sniffs, Reuben seemed to lose interest and turned to regard the other two visitors further away.
Seeing that she would get no further interaction from him, Celestia left Reuben behind, electing to trot further into the interior of the barn. Normally she wouldn’t be this adventurous, but after reading about the many adventures that her student had gotten up to over the past year, Celestia found herself wanting to explore more and sit less.
Oh it feels so good to get out of that stuffy castle and just wander a bit. She thought pleasantly to herself as she poked her head into various nooks and crannies, the thrill of discovering new things slowly building up within her as she continued. However, a sound quickly put a damper on her sudden adventurous spirit, one that she hadn’t heard in years, and had hoped to never hear again.
The clucking of chickens.
As soon as she heard that first cluck, Princess Celestia, raiser of the sun, ruler of Equestria and a thousand and one other titles, stopped where she was, turned on her hooves and without a backward glance quickly noped out of there.
On second thought, being in a stuffy castle doesn’t sound so bad right now. She thought to herself as she beat a hasty, but not too hasty, retreat, appearances had to be maintained after all.
Quickly, but not too quickly, she passed her two unicorn companions as she headed for the exit.
“Princess,” called Twilight when she saw her teacher was about to leave, “where are you going?”
Coming to a halt, Celestia turned around, and with what she hoped was a calm smile replied, “Oh, I’m afraid that I need to leave, Twilight, something has...come up, yes, something has come up back in Canterlot, and I’m afraid I must go. I hope you understand.”
“Of course, princess!” replied Twilight, as she quickly trotted over to give her mentor a goodbye hug. Celestia, with a warm smile, bent down to return it, however, she froze when she spotted the first chicken come around the corner. An almost pained look came over her face, and she felt her muscles tense as her body went into fight or flight mode. Twilight, having let go of her end of the hug, either didn’t or pretended not to notice her mentor's sudden anxious expression as the flock of chickens came steadily closer.
“Well, I suppose I should be going now,” said Celestia quickly as she backed carefully away from the flock of slowly approaching chickens.
Both Twilight and Lyra gave Celestia a courteous bow of the heads in goodbye. “Goodbye, Princess Celestia, thank you for coming with us, we were happy to have you with-” the sudden flash and sound of teleportation magic cut Twilight off as Celestia vanished in a shower of golden sparks.
“Huh, that was kinda weird,” remarked Lyra.
Turning to her friend, Twilight cocked her head and asked, “What do you mean?”
Pointing a hoof at the spot where the princess had stood just seconds ago, Lyra replied, “Well, didn’t she seem kind of nervous at the end there? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Princess Celestia nervous before.”
Twilight pursed her lips together in a thoughtful expression as she replayed that last minute of conversation with Celestia in her mind. “Yeah, she did seem kind of upset by something, probably something to do with having to return to Canterlot so quickly. I hope everything is going to be fine.”
“I’m sure it’ll all work out, it usually does,” replied Lyra, unconcerned as the sound of clucking grew noticeable and she looked down to see a rather large group of chickens milling about their hooves, pecking at the ground in their eternal search for seeds.
~oOo~
Meanwhile in Canterlot.
“Seriously, Tia, We’ve been gone for a thousand years, and you are still terrified of chickens?” asked Luna, an irritated and tired expression on her face as she found herself suddenly sharing her bed with her older sister after said sister teleported into her room, and woke her from her sleep.
Celestia replied from under the covers where she cowered shaking like a leaf in the wind, “Well excuse me for being afraid of something that was responsible for a very traumatic incident during my foalhood!”
Rolling her eyes, Luna sighed to herself and laying a gentle hoof on the lump that was her sister she said, “Forgive Us, sister we shouldn’t have snapped at thee, We are simply stressed from Our re-adjustment to modern life.”
“Apology accepted,” sniffled Celestia as ancient memories came unbidden to her mind, memories full of sharp beaks, talons, and that infernal clucking.
As she continued to comfort her sister, Luna felt her own memories turn to the distant past as well. Well, at least the foals who put you in that situation all those years ago dear sister are naught but dust on the wind, and thou remainest, and so long as thou continueth to fear, We shall stand firm in our duty to chase those fears away. Whether they be in the waking world or the realm of dreams.
And so the Princess of the Night stayed up into the early hours of the evening in an effort to comfort her troubled sister.
~oOo~
Back near Ponyville, nearly an hour later after Celestia left, two tired and slightly dirty unicorns could be seen trotting back into town.
Turning to Lyra, Twilight said, “Thanks Lyra, for everything today, I’m not sure what would have happened if you hadn’t been there for me.”
Lyra simply smiled. “You’d probably have had a major freakout and used a spell to brainwash the entire town into liking an old doll of yours, thus starting a riot.”
“Oh hardy har har,” replied Twilight, an unamused expression on her face.
Lyra just chuckled. “But in all seriousness, you’re welcome, Twilight, that’s what friends are for.”
Twilight returned Lyra’s chuckle with one of her own before suddenly grabbing her friend in a surprise hug. Returning the hug, the two mares sat there on the side of the road for a few moments as they basked in the happy glow of their increased friendship. However, like all good things, the hug ended and the two continued on their way.
As they walked, Lyra turned to Twilight and asked, “I wonder how Allen’s tests went?”
Twilight bit her lip and replied, “I don’t know, but I hope they didn’t find anything wrong, and that it was just a case of a bad reaction to the medicine, I mean, it does happen from time to time, and Allen isn’t a pony, so there is a higher chance that he could be more sensitive to certain things.”
“True, and I’m sure he’s fine, I mean, if they did find anything massively wrong with him, they’d have probably sent somepony to find us about now.”
Twilight smiled and opened her mouth to respond when the sound of somepony calling their names cut her off. Turning to look down the road, they both saw one of the hospital staff running towards them, a concerned look on their face.
Shooting Lyra an ‘are you serious’ look, Twilight sighed as Lyra simply facehoofed and said, “Me and my big mouth.”
~oOo~
Meanwhile, at the hospital, two ponies stood around a bed with one human laying in said bed a look of disbelief on his face as he tried to process what they had just told him was wrong.
Finally, his brain caught up and he blurted out, “My what is too small?!”