//------------------------------// // Celestia's close friendship // Story: The Chef's Life // by vincent789 //------------------------------// Twilight had fallen in a deep sleep. Her lack of a nightmare put her in a deep one. Celestia however wide awake, she was watching Twilight carefully. She knew that Twilight was making up for her exhaustion of the last two years. It did bother her though. So she was pacing in her room. Celestia had looked at the clock several times and saw that she had totally missed all of her appointments and day court. She knew the her secretary was going to probably be very angry. However that didn't matter to Celestia. Right now she was wondering if Twilight was going to need therapy care for her trauma. Celestia then heard the guards knock on her door. "You highness? I got a message from your sister for you." The guard stated. "Do tell then." Celestia said curiously. "Well. She said that she was going to talk to Blueblood for a bit and also wanted to mention that she wanted to meet Twilight, quite badly." The guard said nervously. "Understood. Please send a message to her, saying that she can talk to her whenever Twilight was ready to meet her. Meaning that it is in Twilight's control. Not mine." Celestia stated. "Very well. I will send that message." The guard stated before looking back out into the stairway. He closed the door behind him. Celestia looks at Twilight. She went to hug Twilight, before she too fell asleep once more. Twilight was suddenly dreaming, besides her nightmares. In the dreams, "Where am I?" Twilight asks as she is walking around in a still scene from the disaster she caused. "You are at the place you killed me." A young unicorn stated. "I am so sorry. I couldn't-" Twilight started only to get cut off the by the unicorn. "Twilight Sparkle. That is your name, correct?" The unicorn asked, causing her to be joined by thousands of other ponies. "It is." Twilight simply answered. "You improved our homes after our death did you not?" An differed pony asked. "I did, but at what cost." Twilight said as she laid on the ground. "Twilight do you regret it?" The original unicorn asked. "I do. I have been haunted by it for years. I have tried to restore that which I did wrong but the memory won't ever go away." Twilight said, saddened by the event. The unicorn among the others smiled, "Do you know who I am?" she asked. "I do not. I do know who I am. I am your murderer." Twilight said depressed. "Twilight look at us. Do we look hateful? Spiteful?" She asked serious. "No. You look at peace. Smiling and at peace." Twilight said. "Then you are not lying. We know you have a heart of gold. The elements may have rejected you. But we haven't." They said together. "Twilight, today was the day 7 years ago. That the disaster took place. You haven't forgotten, we haven't forgotten. Yet we ask you, do you find it in your heart to forgive yourself?" They asked. "No." Twilight said stating it matter of fact. "Do you trust us?" They asked. "Yes." Twilight said, she had a feeling what was going to happen. "Then forgive yourself. We command it. This is our last wish from us to you. Will you bring our wish to fruition?" They asked. Twilight's eyes became filled with tears, "Are you requesting me to forgive myself?" She asked. "We do. Twilight, the elements of harmony are just stones. An icon. But you are your own pony. We ask you to let us move on. We can only do that if you forgive yourself." They said with an sad smile. Twilight's eyes harden. She takes in a big gasp of air before exhaling deeply. "I understand. The past is in the past. The future a mystery. But the present is a gift.* I will do my hardest to forgive myself." She said to them and to herself. "Thank you." They said as a bright light appeared over them, before slowly disappearing with an smile on each and everyone's faces. Suddenly outside the castle. The church that Twilight had set up began to ring even though it had no church bell. Every citizen and slum dweller looked at the clock. A bright light had appeared above it. Celestia and Luna both saw the light. They looked confused at it. Then the ball of white light suddenly turned into a ring of white light. It turned slightly yellow, before blasting off into the sky. The light had removed all the clouds and the blue sky. Showing off the empty night sky. It blasted off into the night sky and then it hit something. It slowly turned into a star before staying there permanently. After it was all set and done. The bell stopped ringing, disappearing the bell once more. Not a few moments later, the blue sky reappeared and the clouds return back to their position. Leaving everyone confused. Well mostly everyone. Those that had lost ponies during the disaster were crying. Something told them that their beloved ones had moved on to the second life. After a bit of confusion, Celestia flew back into her room to find a wide awake and partly crying Twilight on her bed. "That light was the victims moving on to the next life." Twilight said, the strain of crying under her breath, Celestia looked wide at Twilight, before smiling genuinely. "Did you allow them to?" She asked. "Only after they made me promise to forgive myself." Twilight said, after she shed a tear or two. "I see. I see. Then I forgive you too." Celestia said. "You already have." Twilight said after her body and eyes showed no sign of exhaustion. "I know. Now why don't you go home and tell your parents where you were. They might have been getting a little worried." Celestia offered. "Crap! I totally forgot. I got to go." Twilight said as she casually just cursed. "Also Luna wants to meet you." Celestia quickly said, before Twilight had the chance to leave. "Tell her that I am not ready yet." Twilight quickly said and before Celestia could respond, Twilight had already left. Twilight ran top speed towards home. Something that before taking those fitness classes would take atleast an hour only took Twilight now five minutes. It was very fast. Most guards only saw a purple blur move past them. If they were even able to see Twilight to begin with. Twilight arrived back at home. She knocked and heard a whole bunch of loud noises of ponies scrambling to get to the door. This caused Twilight to smile. The door opens to reveal a very annoyed Night and Velvet. Twilight realized nearly immediately that she was in trouble. "Where were you, young lady?!" Night said angrily. "Uh. At the castle with Celestia?" Twilight offered. Velvet and Night both immediately calmed down. "Next time warn us that you are going to the castle!" Velvet said somewhat annoyed. "I wasn't thinking straight. Sorry." Twilight said drooping. Night got closer and pushed Twilight's head up with his hoof. "You were just worrying us. But it would seem that, that visit has recovered your mind, hasn't it?" Night asked. "It has." Twilight said with confidence. "Good because tomorrow we are going to the castle with you. Royal asked us to allow him to borrow you. We said yes on the account that we are allowed to watch." Velvet said with an smile. "Am I cooking for the ponies in the staff cafeteria? Like I did at the start of my desire to be a chef?" Twilight asked. "You are. Royal wanted you to choose the menu for that day. He wasn't sure what he wanted to make, so he is giving you the chance to show how much you have changed." Night said. "Is that so? Then we are going for master rank delicious sandwiches." Twilight said with an smirk. "Royal had a feeling you would," Shining said with an groan. "Good! Every chef has to start somewhere." Twilight said. "I had hoped that you would make your famous Carpaccio salad." Shining complained. Twilight looked at him with a smile, until she made a connection in her mind. 'What about Carpaccio BLT sandwiches?' Twilight thought to herself. "Oh well. You can't get everything." Shining said saddened. Twilight looks once more at Shining before walking to her own room. Despite it all, she still needed some proper sleep. So she decided to sleep without even eating dinner. Much to the chagrin of her mother Velvet, without Twilight at the dinner table she had made way too much. After another nice sleep, Twilight woke up early that morning. She was exhausted from the amount of sleeping she has performed in the last few days. Which caused her to wake up early. After a nice stretch, Twilight walked to the bathroom to get ready for the day. As the walked down the hallway, Twilight noticed that Shining's armor and swords were missing. This caused Twilight to raise her eyebrow, it was unusual to say the least. Ignoring her internal confusion, Twilight entered the bathroom and cleaned herself up. Afterwards she entered her good old living room. She looked at the clock, its 7 O'clock. This had become Twilight's sleeping patron for the last few years. Thanks to the schooling she received. After entering the living room and getting a blast of nostalgia. She entered the kitchen, only to find an annoyed letter. Dear Twilight, Next time eat your dinner so we could have told you! Anyways we wanted to tell you that your father has to go back to Manehattan to deal with a astrological problem. And your mother has to go to Ponyville thanks to the discovery of some old not yet identified dragon bones. Meanwhile Shining got a call in middle of dinner to deal with some scum that roam the streets. So be careful! Yours truly, Mom and dad. Twilight sighed, she is once again totally alone. And although she was used to it by now. She didn't like it. So she decided to quickly eat a slice of bread with some jam on it. Before running out to meet Royal at the castle. After a quick run that only took like 5 minutes, instead of 30 minutes. Twilight had arrived in front of the castle, she approached the two guards that were guarding the front door. "Halt! State your name and reason to enter this early!" The guard on the left stated. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, I have an appointment with Royal Chef." Twilight stated. "That sound about right. Come in lady Sparkle." The guard on the right said. Twilight nodded before passing them and heading towards the kitchen. Twilight opens the door to find a disgruntled Royal standing just inside. "Hey Royal!" Twilight cheerfully shouted. "Twilight, good to see you. I am glad you accepted..." Royal said, he looked annoyed at the sous chef several times while saying that. "So why the annoyance?" Twilight asked curiously. "Well I had planned to make some sandwiches with you, with permission of the princess. But the remainder of the kitchen are scumbags and prevented me from using the kitchen." Royal said. "You were going to let some nobody use our kitchen. I think not!" The sous chef said. "Don't think you can use sass on me, sous chef. I outrank you!" Royal shouted. "Be that as it may. I won't let her use it." The sous chef said. He spoke the word "Her" with poison. Twilight quickly recognized this as another textbook example of discrimination. "Even if I have a master degree in cooking?" Twilight innocently offered. Royal looked at Twilight, shocked. He did not expect Twilight to have obtained master degree. "Do you have master degree experience? Young lady?" The sous chef smirked. "Hmpf." Twilight simply said. "That is what I thought." The sous chef said. "Princess Celestia will hear of this. And of your discrimination!" Royal said while growling the last tit-bit. "I like to see you try." The sous chef said. Twilight and Royal both leave the kitchen annoyed. "Royal you better come back. You still have to work on your dish." The sous chef shouted. "Go fuck yourself." Royal swore before leaving and annoyed sous chef to his work. Twilight looked ahead. She knew that this was common. Especially to female chefs. As the population of chefs mostly consists over male chefs and earth ponies at that. Twilight could feel that this discrimination was also pointed at the fact that she was a unicorn, but decided to ignore that. "Sorry about that, Twi. I didn't know that my fellow chefs were so discriminating." Royal apologized. "It's alright. This is more common than you think." Twilight said with an sad smile. "Your right. I should have just rented out the entire kitchen. Not like this though." Royal said somewhat annoyed at the fact that she was right. Twilight put her hoof on Royal's back, while shaking her head. "No. Instead why don't we go and meet Celestia while we are here." Twilight offered, while Royal looked sad at her. "Sure." Royal said before making their way to Celestia's tower. After a quiet walk, Twilight and Royal arrived at Celestia's bedroom. Twilight approached the guards. They look at her and Royal before shaking their heads. "Only Twilight is allowed passed this point." They said. "Can't you make an exception?" Twilight asked. "It depends. What is your reason for seeing her?" The guards asked. "Royal had gotten permission for me to cook alongside him in the canteen's kitchen. But due to some unwanted attention, he can't. We wanted to ask Celestia for help." Twilight explained. "I see. You have permission then." The guards said, before slowly opening the door to Celestia's bedroom. Which revealed an happy and curious looking Celestia. As soon as they both walked in. Twilight gave Celestia a quick hug, before starting their conversation. "I take it that you heard that." Royal said first. "I did. What is the cause that prevent her from helping you?" Celestia asked. "Discrimination against female chefs." Twilight said quickly. "And the sous chef thinking that he outranks me." Royal added. Celestia's eyes turns shocked at Twilight. And surprised at Royal. She then turns around to look through her window towards the horizon. "And here I had hoped that the discrimination towards female chefs were gone. I guess not." Celestia said. Just then Luna decided to teleport into Celestia's bedroom. Celestia and Royal look surprised at Luna. Twilight meanwhile looked away in surprise instead. Luna looks at everypony, but at Twilight specifically. "I have an proposal." She said. "What is it?" Celestia asked somewhat annoyed. "Why don't you show the world that you are the best chef?" Luna asked Twilight. "No, instead I should show that female chefs are equal if not better then male chefs. No offence." Twilight said looking at Royal. "None taken." he quickly added. "That is unreasonable." Luna said. "Even if that is the case. I will try anyways." Twilight said determined. Luna showed a soft smile at Twilight. Twilight didn't see it as she was looking away. Celestia and Royal on the other hoof did. They looked surprised at Luna's motherly smile. "Very well. I wish you the best of luck then. This will be a difficult journey." Luna said with an smile. "Thank you Luna. I pray that your reintegration into Equestrian society goes well." Twilight said. Luna than gave Twilight a surprise hug before teleporting out. Leaving a stunned Twilight in her wake. "That is the first time in a long time that I saw that smile." Celestia said with a smile of her own. "What do you mean?" Royal asked. "Her smile meant that she knew that Twilight will succeed. And her hug suggested that she considered Twilight a dear friend." Celestia explained while looking at a still stunned Twilight. "I- What?" Twilight meanwhile looked totally confused. Royal smirked as he got closer, "This meant that that you aren't alone." he said. "Moon Nightmare also had to deal with this problem?" Twilight asked suddenly. "More than you will ever know." Celestia confirmed, "In her case, the status royalty got in the way of things." "Then let's fix it!" Twilight shouted determined. "Yeah!" Celestia and Royal shouted.