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// chapter eleven: The trial of Celestia part 2 
// Story: Stop Patronizing the Sun! 
// by Foal Star 
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Princess Celestia led Twilight through the palace showing her other rooms and secret areas that she’s discovered over the years. The two seemed to have lost the rest of her friends along the way as they went off on their own; Rarity wanted to check out the royal dressing room, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie set off to go prank some royal guards, Fluttershy and Applejack set off to the royal garden. Twilight continued to follow Celestia to her room; there, the little alicorn princess was relieved too that her servants had restored it to how it was before Discord transformed it, no foalish clothes, no plush carpet, no dolls, or silly canopy bed everything seemed to be as it should be. She laid on her giant normal adult sized bed which was giving her even more motivation that she'll be back to normal soon.

Twilight smiled down at the little filly and asked, "guess you can't wait to turn back to normal?"

"Seriously! I just want to lay in my own bed again and then wake up tomorrow and think of all this as nothing more than a bad dream!" Celestia exclaimed loudly, being quite ready to end this humiliating nightmare.

Twilight sat beside her Celestia snickered as she laid her head on Twilight's lap as the violet unicorn cooed softly, "I'm sure that you will be, and I'll be here when you're an adult; again."

"Right…I said this before while on the train here…I will miss you." The princess of the sun whispered meekly, hugging Twilight as she nuzzled the little filly and whispered back. "I'll miss you too."

The two then jumped up off the bed, and Celestia was the first to notice the rest of Twilight's friends were gone and asked, "where did your friends go?"

"Oh, I don't know, probably trying to hide or got distracted; I'll go round them up." Twilight growled as she looked around the room, then threw a hoof and replied, "come on, let's go find them, and then we'll see if Quill Feather is ready for us.

"Yeah, we should rip the band-aid off as they say," Celestia grumbled, trotting out of her room and following Twilight in search of her friends. Once they rounded the rest of the group up, they all slowly came upon the statue of Discord. They all looked at each other nervously as they were still unsure of her plan. 

But Twilight turned to face them to give a speech, "alright! There is no backing out now! We release Discord and standby; if he tries to harm Celestia or do anything that we deem as a threat, we'll freeze him back into stone on the spot."

Her friends all reluctantly nodded keeping their objections to themselves the violet unicorn then turned to Celestia and asked, "Are you ready for this?"

The white-coated alicorn bent her head down as she readied herself; she knew that this all could end in disaster not just for her but for all of Equestria. But she had to at least try to turn back to normal, and she couldn't let fear control her. The little filly stomped a hoof on the ground and replied with confidence. "Yeah, I am."

Twilight then took out her element, as did her friends the following suit; they then all closed their eyes, and the mares started to levitate. Suddenly, a burst of light hit the statue containing Discord and began to crack, and pieces started falling off. Celestia stood there with her heart pounding in her chest, watching as the statue eventually shattered into a million pieces and sending a cloud of dust everywhere. As the dust settled, Celestia looked up to see Discord rear his head as he was laughing; the lord of chaos looked down at the ponies that freed him and exclaimed, "You actually did it, you idiots actually freed me!?"

"Back off!" Twilight shouted in a threatening tone; she glared at Discord as she continued with her threat. "If you so much as lift a finger, we're going to turn you back to stone!"

Celestia stood firm as well as she braced herself for whatever tricks Discord had up his sleeve. In response, the draquenous threw his arms across his chest and scoffed. "Wow, you all must be desperate if you freed me to turn little Celestia back to normal! Maybe I should make her younger instead?"

At that moment, the mane six all were about to use their elements again, but Celestia held a hoof up and shouted, "stop! He's not going to do anything!"

Twilight then held a hoof up, and her friends stood down. The little alicorn filly turned back to face her former friend as thoughts swirled in her mind. She was still angry at the lord of chaos. Still, she had to keep her emotions in check, and she needed to be level-headed and replied, "no, you're not Discord; I realized you may have tried to humiliate me in your own way. But I know you too well…after seeing some old memories, I realized you're just lonely, and you need a friend. I can be that friend, but it's up to you to take my hoof."

Discord laughed maniacally, then looked down at the young filly and roared, "this is your plan! You thought that dredging up the past was going to work!"

Twilight and her friends started to tense up, and the princess knew that at any moment, they were going to turn Discord back to stone, and her only chance to turn back to normal would be gone. She looked up at her former friend and continued, "Yeah, I do...right now, we can turn you back to stone at any time; the only reason Twilight and her friends haven't is because of me. I'm going to give you a chance to fix what you did because I believe that deep down, you're good. If you do this, not only will you be free, I want to try to rekindle the friendship we had so long ago."

Discord didn't laugh or mock her this time; he instead just scoffed, "did you think I cursed you the way I did just so I can turn you back the second you asked?"

Celestia looked right into Discord's eyes; she had to reveal what she saw and try to make him remember the past like she did and continued, "I think you changed me into a filly because you wondered if I would remember that we were friends once. I went into my subconscious and saw it for myself… I've been so busy performing my  royal duties that I forgot what friendship meant for myself and forgot what we had all that time ago."

Discord looked down at her, and he was just stunned. He even maybe looked a little guilty as he whispered, "wow... you've never really changed?"

"Nope, and I promise that I'll never give up on you again! The princess proclaimed, raising a hoof at the draquenous. 
Discord tapped a claw to his chin as he pondered out loud, "Hmmm, depends...are you going to turn me to stone right after?"

Twilight gritted her teeth and growled, "if you-

"No!" Celestia shouted, turning back to her student than turning to face Discord. "That's the deal; you turn me back into an adult, you're free to go."

Discord eyed her and then turned to Twilight's friends."  I'm not sure if I can trust them; they all look like they're going to kill me at the first chance they get."

"They won't do anything if you don't try to make Equestria into your playground. As long as you behave yourself there not going to do anything." Celestia responded adamantly.

Discord looked down at the little alicorn and snickered, "so is this where you plead for me to turn you back then? Or are you going to throw a tantrum first?"

The alicorn princess rolled her eyes; of course, Discord would make a joke at a time like this and shook her head as she replied, "seriously, Discord? No, I'm not going to throw a tantrum."

"Oh, come on, give me a cute "pretty please" first?" The lord of chaos cooed jokingly.

The little filly smirked, giving in this time as she put on a cute pout and looked up and replied in a whiny tone, "please turn me back to a big pony Discord!?

Celestia stood there, cheek burning as the draquenous burst into laughter as the mane six behind her snickered. As Discord got control of himself, he looked over at the little filly with a smile. Celestia knew that she finally hit something in him, rekindling that lost friendship they had so long ago. She could only hoped that this wasn't a bluff as he raised a claw, then snapped.

Tendrils of magic suddenly began to wrap around Celestia, making her ever grow slowly, turning back into an adult. She groaned as the mare could feel her body lengthen, she could feel her mane and tail grow out, her bones and muscles rearranging themselves. Not long after the tendrils disappeared, she was now standing in the middle of her garden as everypony around her was cheering. However, the cheering turned to loud gasps! This princess was now worried as she exclaimed. "What...what did Discord do!?"

She looked over her body, trying to see what was wrong with it; she was tall again, she could see her long wispy mane and tail, she felt her face with a hoof and felt her long muzzle thick cheekbones. Everything seemed to be fine, but then the princess took a long look around her rump and then gasped and saw that her cutie mark was still missing! She was a blank flank! The princess cried out, "what the buck! Why didn't my cutie mark come back!?"

Everypony was stunned in silence as she then turned a stone gaze right back to Discord, who squeaked as he held up his claws and exclaimed, "I didn't do it! I swear!"

"Like I'm going to believe that!? Seriously give me my cutie mark back!" Celestia roared.

Discord was sweating bullets as he held his claws and snapped them again. She turned back to see a silly cartoonish smiling sun appeared on her rump, then it slowly faded. He tried again, this time her actual cutie mark appeared, but that just slowly disappeared as well. Celestia saw it was no use; no spell can just make a cutie mark appear. She just shook her head and grumbled, "No, that won't work...I...I somehow lost my sense of purpose…"

Celestia looked downward, confused and unsure of how this happened? Did something change inside her when she was a foal? Did she do something wrong? All these doubts and troubled thoughts swirled inside the princess. It wasn't until she noticed the long awkward silence did she look up and saw that Twilight and her friends were looking defeated...even Discord was  twiddling his thumbs and looking bummed out! Now she just felt terrible; she didn't want Twilight and her friends to think they failed. She at least was back to her proper age, and on top of that, she made progress in reforming Discord and said, "Girls, it's alright; I'll find my cutie mark again, I'm sure of it. I'm at least an adult again, and that's what's important. I can perform my royal duties, cutie mark or no cutie mark."

The mane six perked up at Celestia's words. She turned her attention once again to Discord with a glare. Despite the fact it wasn't his fault her cutie mark was gone, there was one other thing she wanted back to. "You did return my intelligence to that of an adult, right?"

"Yes, yes, any alterations to your body have been turned back to how they were before I cursed you." Discord scoffed then asked, "now am I free to go?" 

The princess of the sun eyed her friend and responded, "yes, you're free to leave, however you know Twilight and her friends will be keeping an eye on you." 

"Fine then, come along then new friends. We need to decide who I'm going to bunk with!" The lord of chaos chirped as he gathered the mane six into his claws and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Celestia shook her head, guess even Discord read her mind and recognized that she needed some time to herself. She slowly trotted off, heading towards her room, wondering what she should do next? And how she was going to explain to her subjects that she just let the lord of chaos loose?