Celestia XVII: The Broken Princess

by brokenimage321


Pinkie Pie: Lesson One

Ooh! Ooh! My turn to tell the story now!! 

Let’s see… well, right now, we just finished talking to that Discord guy, so everyone’s going just a little crazy. Cece is trying to calm everyone down, and Princess Luna is freaking out of her foundering skull, and Twilight isn’t doing much better… Oh, and Blueblood just showed up, and he’s trying to help, but this looks like a problem that might be too big for even true love to solve…!

But yeah. We’re still all trying to figure out which end is up still, so there’s not a whole lot going on now that you need to know. Besides, Cece will probably tell you about the rest herself in just a minute.

So, I guess I have to tell a different story… but there’s just so many good ones! What about that time that Princess Luna came to Ponyville for Nightmare Night dressed up as Nightmare Moon herself, but turned out to be a big ol’ scaredy-pony who just wanted to go home? Or maybe that time Celestia got Rainbow hooked on reading Power Ponies, even though Twilight was, like, right there with her Daring Do’s the whole time? Or what about when we all tried to put on that Hearth’s Warming pageant, but it turned out Celestia couldn’t act to save her life and almost ruined everything? Or maybe, maybe, that time that Applejack ran off, and everyone thought that she was embarrassed to come home because she lost her rodeo, but it turned out she had a secret coltfriend that she didn’t want anyone to know about? Ooh! What about the time that Twilight found a spell that threatened to collapse the space-time continuum, so she and Cece had to go back in time and fight themselves from a mirror universe to keep all of Equestria from exploding in a sea of eldritch fire, and they messed it all up, but at the very last second, they—

Nah, you don’t want to hear that story. 

Oh! I know! Since everyone’s all freaking out right now, why don’t I tell you about another time everyone freaked out? Like that one time that Twilight freaked out super-bad over, like, nothing at all? That’s a fun one. 

So, it was just Twilight and me at first. But I promise it wasn’t my fault! See, while Twilight was shelving books for Mr. Goldleaf—you remember him? The old, mostly-deaf librarian that hired Twilight as Junior Librarian, in exchange for room and board upstairs?—anyway, she found a book on history she told me I should read. At first, I wasn’t super-excited—I don’t even like the past—but then she told me it was a history of parties!! So, of course I had to read that. And it was actually really cool! I thought the old-style Coronation ceremony was especially super-duperiffic, and told Twilight all about it—how, when you became Princess, you had to walk down the aisle and have everyone look at you, then they put the Peytral on you and watch you grow wings and/or horns (hey, I don’t judge), and then how you had to make a speech, and how everyone was watching you and judging you the whole time…

Well, right in the middle of my story, Twilight started breathing kinda funny. And then I asked her what was up, and she got all upset at me for some reason?

Actually—now that I think about it, that might have been at least a little bit my fault. 

But anyways. I wasn’t there for the whole thing, so, to make a long story short, Twilight, like, freaked out. But she didn’t let anyone know—she just bottled it up. And, if I’ve learned anything from baking, it’s that you need to be careful when you’re letting something rise. If you cover it too tight, it could explode, in a delicious-but-destructive mess...

Actually, that’s another story—you see, it was pretty funny, because—

Nah. Maybe another time. You want to hear the story about Twilight, after all. 

So anyways. That afternoon, Twilight freaked out at all of us, screaming about all the pressure, then ran and locked herself in her bedroom. And she didn’t want to come out, even when I promised we’d take her down to the bakery and let her pick out any cupcake she wanted! We probably would have left her in there for a while longer, but then she started screaming again (but to herself this time—thank goodness), and then she started throwing things, and—well, you get the idea. 

So it was time to call in the cavalry. And I had just the ticket. See, I knew that Twilight and Cece wrote each other a lot, and that they burned their letters to send them. I wasn’t a unicorn or anything, but I could tell that they weren’t using their horns to do it. Maybe it was something in the ink? But anyways, I was pretty sure that having a letter I could instantly send to the Princess at any time, any place would be pretty useful, so… I kinda stole one of Twilight’s letters. 

But only after she was done with it! I promise!!

But yeah, I totally stole it. And then stashed it someplace safe, just in case there was ever a Correspondence Emergency. And, oh boy, was this a Correspondence Emergency. 

So I found the letter where I’d stashed it under the floorboards, and a quill, and a book of matches that somepony had just left lying around in the bottom of their saddlebags, and wrote a quick note. And bam! Celestia showed up, just like that.

Wait, no—not just like that. She had to fly in from Canterlot, of course. But I’m sure she left right after getting my note!

But anyways, it look her, like, forty-five minutes to get here. I dunno, my Partytime watch wasn’t super-useful in this situation. And then she landed on the grass, her chest heaving, her mane a mess, and sweaty all over. 

“Where is she?” she asked me. 

“Still in her room,” I replied. 

Without another word, Celestia turned and walked inside the library. Applejack looked like she was mad at me, and she was just about to chew me out, but I spoke first. 

“What else were we gonna do?” I asked her, with a shrug.

Applejack thought for a minute, then shut her mouth. 

So we trotted inside after Cece. She was already most of the way up the stairs and everything. As we watched, she knocked at the door. 

“Twi?” she said quietly, “it’s me.”

Something behind the door shattered, and Twilight screamed out another couple swear words. Cece flinched, but didn’t say anything. Instead, she just turned the handle, pushed open the door, and stepped inside. 

Rarity said afterward that it was rude to eavesdrop. Fluttershy said it was especially rude to sneak right up to the door and put my ear against it. But I didn’t care—I wasn’t gonna miss out on what they said!

I won’t actually tell you what they said, though. I’m not that terrible a pony. Besides, a lot of it was private stuff—not for casual acquaintances, like yourself. No offense. 

So anyways. Cece talked to Twilight for, like, fifteen or twenty minutes, me listening really close, everyone else pretending they weren’t. And then the door opened, and Cece poked her head out. 

“You can come in,” she said. 

I didn’t even hesitate—just slipped right in and sat down.

Wow, Twilight,” I gasped, “you made a mess! Ow!!” I yelped. “Cece, why’d you kick me?”

But it was true: she had made a mess. Twilight loved to keep things organized—and with an apartment as small as hers, she kinda needed to. But now, she’d thrown things around, broken plates and mugs, torn up papers—the whole nine yards! Not to mention, she was a bit of a mess herself: her cheeks were still wet, and her makeup was a mess, and she looked really tired. Geez, I knew she was upset—but I didn’t know she was that upset…

So, not gonna lie? What happened next was pretty boring. Cece told us about how Twilight was under a lot of stress, and how we needed to recognize when she was having a hard time or something… but to be honest, I wasn’t listening. I mean, things seemed to have worked out alright in the end. Besides, as she was talking, I looked over at Rainbow, who rolled her eyes. I’m pretty sure she was thinking the same thing as I was—

Who are you to lecture us on how to treat Twilight, when you’ve barely seen her in months?

But I’m a good friend. Or, at least, I try to be. So I tried not to think that way. At least, not out loud.   

So yeah. Cece told us all to be nicer to Twilight, and let her know if there was any more trouble, and we promised to pay a little more attention to when she was having a hard time, and then Cece took us all out for cupcakes on the Royal expense account—which means I got a pretty hefty tip, on top of everything else. 

So that’s the story! 

Really! 

I mean, of course, there’s a little more to tell, but that’s enough to get the idea, at least.

For now, though I need to get to work. See, Twilight is getting all stressed again—though she has good reason for it, this time!—so now I have to go and hide all the breakables. Don’t want to have to clean up a mess of broken china while we’re already in the middle of saving the world! 

So, bye now! See you soon, hopefully, and enjoy the rest of the story! Oh, and I think Rarity’s up next. Say “hi” to her for me when you see her! :pinkiegasp::pinkiesmile::pinkiehappy::pinkiehappy: