* Chapter Three - Part 10 *
Barely a single minute had passed until Twilight's gaze brightened and the young alicorn began to shift her focus back to Luna and Celestia. It was quite impressive she had worked it all through in her mind so fast. Given how much individual information there was for Twilight to consider, categorize and cross-reference. But neither Celestia or Luna would complain about the fact.
As Twilight faced the two elder alicorn's she smiled from ear to ear and nodded her head to them. "Yes! I think I've got it all figured the right way out. May I continue?” Twilight had now cocked her head questionly to one side, awaiting an answer from one or both of her peers.
Slowly both Luna and Celestia nodded in union, encouraging Twilight to please continue.
“Good! After all, the whole affair does make a lot of sense from my point of view. All those who deserve it and contribute to spread peace will be strengthened in their intentions, while all those opposed to us and who know only hatred will be massively obstructed in their efforts. As for the majority of those who are passive anyway, well they can just carry on as usual." Twilight broke into another wide grin as she continued to toss the thought back and forth in her head. "I must say an exceedingly sophisticated and well-coordinated system of powers that we have here. I'm not entirely sure that we didn't have something to do with it, if most likely without knowing but maybe one day we'll find out the right answer.”
Twilight scratched her chin in thought while she proceeded. “If the alicorn’s had a hoof in creating the mentioned network, our original spiritual selves form before the big bang knew and I´m rather confident we will one day retain said lost memories. But that´s impossible so far if I remember correctly? You´ve said our minds may be very strong and immortal but even they can´t contain and process that much of information?” Twilight held her head high, confident once more that she hadn't made a mess of things.
It was Luna to confirm Twilight, "As you have already correctly guessed, dearest. Even we are still far from regaining our former level of knowledge and understanding. We may already have a greater collective knowledge of reality and its function than the ponies will possibly ever acquire, but in contrast to what we once used to be, even that is paltry."
Twilight seemed to be satisfied and so both older alicorns merely nodded their heads in respect to the remaining part of their younger colleague's explanation as they themselves re-thought it. What Twilight mentioned corresponded to the truth, though all three already knew that, so it wasn't worth repeating it verbally. That was why Celestia after some seconds of silence spoke up again turning her muzzle to Twilight with her usual calm smile.
"Best we continue. There is something else of interest I would like to say regarding our general magical strength. At least if you would like to know –”, Celestia subsequently paused in amusement as Twilightˋs eyes began to sparkle even brighter than the stars that permanently streaked her flowing mane, living up to her surname. She had to admit, Twilight's mane was as impressive to look at as her sister's, and the constellations both alicorn mares carried in their hairy appendages gave them an aura truly worthy of an alicorn's legendary status. Only Twilight's surpassed her younger sister Luna's by an inch, as the young alicorn was, in fact, the mistress of the stars. Her mane permanently reflected the entire starry sky directly above her, changing with her every step and shift that transpired upon. Celestia was convinced that Twilight would discover even more abilities if she took a closer look at her mane. Maybe Twilight herself already knew about qualities that were unknown to Luna, Cadance and her so far. Yet it didn’t help to rack one's brains over it now and so she concentrated on what she had to say and raised her voice again. Picking up where she had left off.
“ – which I know you are certainly interested in as well," the snow-white princess smirked knowingly.
Twilight confirmed Celestia´s statement with a soft chuckle. "You just know me too well, Pri- Celestia." Twilight quickly hid her little slip behind her front hoof and then smiled again sheepishly at Celestia, her cheeks reddening. Celestia herself just winked motherly at Twilight and continued unhindered.
"Well then, first of all I would like to deeply apologize sincerely once again for the latest miscalculation we had made. The three of us never expected Tirek to level your library to the ground right at the beginning of your duel. Or anytime in your battle to be honest...”, Celestia voiced with a noticeable displease in her voice. “You can believe me with total certainty, that was not what was expected or planned by any of us. If we had known what the result of your powerful collision would be, we would not have allowed it to happen the way it did."
Twilight, however, to Celestia's utter bewilderment, may had a slightly downcast look on her face at the memory of the day that had turned her life upside down. She was, nevertheless, much more cheerful than Celestia would have imagined - not that she would complain about Twilight being cheerful, after all, she had always been very dear to her heart and Celestia wished the young alicorn to be always as upbeat as possible. Yet she herself had to watch her first house being destroyed by a catastrophe together with her sister several millennia ago. It had taken about two years for her to get over the loss entirely and even three weeks for it even feel to some extend less painful. That's why she looked over at Twilight, rather irritated. Twilight in turn, giggled softly with mirth and was only too happy to enlighten her and Luna.
"Don't get me wrong, of course the destruction of my old home, the golden Oak library, had hit me hard at first and I'm still mourning to some extent. But the worst is long behind me, the castle I received in return is just too vast, fantastic, luxurious beyond belief and in general," Twilight rolled her hoof in mid-air in search of words, " yes, just overwhelming. While I wouldn't necessarily say I don't mind that my library is no longer standing, it was as you said yourself for the most part 'only' a material loss. One that I have been given compensation for in every way.”
Twilight bowed her head a small distance in gratitude. “Thanks again for that, the royal upfitter you sent to assist me had some very good ideas indeed. Also the many books I got from you guys out of the Canterlot library and your old castle were given a special place in my libraries too. Of course, also don’t let me forget the lavish donations from our ponies towards me to stock my castle with beautiful furnishings. As well as from the crystal empire and the kingdoms Equestria has a peaceful alliance with."
Twilight stopped long enough to sip from her teacup and enjoy her next biscuit. "What really matters is that no one else was hurt in the attack. Because THAT would never have been excusable and honestly, Tirek was - pardon my choice of words - one huge ass, not to mention his physical size. My sympathy for him now being locked up in Tartarus forever is currently kind of very limited. There is no place in our peaceful kingdom - nor anywhere else on Equus - for someone with such a selfish goal regardless of any casualties.” Twilight´s gaze hardened, “Indeed, I would do it all over again without second thought."
Then her gaze grew softer as she added, "I will certainly try to talk to him in a couple of years, for everyone deserves a second chance – even him. Also as the alicorn of friendship, usually my success in befriending even the baddest guys is fairly guaranteed. Most times all the baddies need is a good friend to talk too and just listen. Nevertheless, I already doubt that by then Tirek will have changed, he´s something like a special case, that´s for sure.”
Twilight shrugged. “But you never know, maybe I'm completely wrong and he will finally accept my hoof of friendship when he realizes his actions were totally wrong", Twilight then sighed and took another biscuit within her magic grasp without further words. While she ate her cookie, her raspberry magic also reached out automatically and poured her a fresh cup of steaming tea.
"Truly a noble gesture. Especially considering he was so determined to trick you even after you accepted his proposed deal to exchange all the alicorn magic of Equestria for your best friends. Little did he realize that an alicorn has incredibly fast and accurate reflexes, allowing you to create a force field around both you and your friends before he even got to make his attack. The following slap in the face we felt even on the other side of Equestria in Tartarus and that was NO understatement," Luna quipped. But she was then briefly interrupted by a remark from Twilight.
"Yes, in all honesty I'm a very friendly soul, but those who think they can betray me like that and have shown no remorse before... Well, they need to get their comeuppance," Twilight said in deadpan voice, rolling her eyes in mock amusement.
Luna let it stand as a fact. "You're right, everyone deserves a second chance, no matter how bad they may be at first glance. That's what has always made Equestria the peaceful and serene country it is. After all, we alicorns have always been very skilled at weighing up situations like these.”
Luna’s gaze became more serious then. “However, I must warn you, even if you already stated it. I can say from my own experience that we don't always succeed, regrettably. Some just don't want to see that what they are doing is the wrong thing. They are simply far too set in their own minds and won’t care what others will say or think of their decisions. Nevertheless, it still doesn't hurt to at least try, for if we didn't, we would have lost before we even started," Luna supplemented Twilight's statement. The latter nodded wordlessly in agreement, as did her older sister Celestia.
Celestia retook the lead in speaking from her sister and picked up where the three had left off from Twilight's explanation for her laughter. "As I said, if we had known Tirek’s plan, we wouldn’t have carried out our plan as we did. For when you had fought Tirek, you know we had given you a large part - from your point of view at that time even all of our magic, over to you temporarily. As you have surely already figured out yourself, that was of course not the full truth. After all, you have experienced yourself first-hoof earlier today, that you possess considerably more magical strength than you were aware of at the time of your duel. The magic you already possessed even without our intervention would have been more than enough to take on several Tirek's at the same time.” Now Celestia’s face was crossed by a faint smile. “You could, to put it mildly, have one-hitted him out of the horseshoes if you had wanted to any time.”
Celestia’s ears slowly flattened against her skull as the pure-white alicorn took a deep breath for what came next. She was clearly uncomfortable telling Twilight her next confession as she sighed one last time. “But since we had trusted you with so much of our magic, your attacks were far more inefficient, if not partly useless, than they would have been without our help."
Celestia briefly stopped to take the last sip of tea from her cup, her magic filling it afterwards with new contents of their shared special tea. While Celestia set her cup back beside herself she watched Twilight's ears twitch in irritation and a bewildered look cross her face. Celestia felt rather sorry for her younger peer. Clearly, the young alicorn had not expected to hear something like that today – or matter of factly never. Before Twilight had a chance to say anything back to Celestia, however, the latter continued with her front hoof raised to stall any remark. "I know, I know! That sounds illogical as hell, Twilight, for hearing it without any further explanation it is. Why should we three offer you our magic to help, when it would make your entire battle with Tirek a lot more difficult than it would have been for you otherwise?"
Celestia briefly turned her head to Luna and regarded her sister with a questioning look. Yet the other mare shook her head and urged with her snout for Celestia to proceed herself. Turning back Celestia did exactly that.
"The answer, however, is quite simple, actually. Your emotional outburst earlier today, showed you just how immensely powerful you already are as the alicorn of magic. Also how vast an amount of energy you can actually already control when you put your mind to it. But still, you remain very young for an alicorn and therefore far more inexperienced with the potency of your true, full powers than we would be. The native knowledge how to control the full extend of your true domains you have as an alicorn will come with tapping into it more than once. So please, Twilight, don’t worry a bit about not having had it perfectly under control and the magic going astray. For the first try – well, it was remarkable and honestly more than either my sister or I had expected.”
“Mastering your own potential of magic is something you have already mastered years ago while you were my student. It was, after all, the main task I set myself while teaching you for I knew that one day you would become one of us. Us helping you control your developing powers was crucial for the future, not just for your´s or mine, but for all of Equestria. That even applies to your alicorn powers, ok well almost –”, Celestia giggled, “ – all except for your special abilities you have in your domains, for none of the three of us can help you with that one.”
Celestia’s smile for Twilight was motherly again and the younger mare gave it back quite the same. “But apart from that, you were in full control of your own abilities as Tirek showed his head and began his rampage and hunt for our ponies throughout Equestria. Yet then we came along and each lent you a part of our own special abilities, connecting you for a short amount of time with our own domains. Which in hindsight with what I said a minute ago, meant that even if you didn't consciously realize it, you were overwhelmed and our magic limited and hindered yours. Quite considerably in fact."
"But why would you do such a thing?," Twilight was still utterly lost to the sense such a deed made. “That doesn’t exactly sound like helping, rather like a nasty joke,” now there was a lightly displeased tone in Twilight’s voice and she Had narrowed her eyes. The lavender alicorn wanted answers, sooner than later. Why would they pretend to assist me with something that I could have easily accomplish under my own power, only to make it more difficult for her?
Celestia soothingly raised her hoof, seeing that Twilight was starting to get a little anxious again, but she couldn't be blamed either. For the second time today, she discovered that she had been deceived to some extent in her life by her mentor as well as the other princesses. Oh, if only that were all there was to it....
"No worries, I'll get to that one now.”
“Then please do!,” Twilight’s tone had changed to her normal friendly one again and didn’t carry the mild displeasure with it anymore now that Celestia so willingly agreed to clear the situation.
“You have to understand one thing, Twilight. If we hadn't restricted you from utilizing the full potential of your powers by lending you our magic, then you would have rendered Tirek unconscious as mentioned earlier with a single charge. We couldn't let that happen for the plan we had laid out and before you blame Luna or me, you are wrong. The basic idea was not ours and we even initially rejected it. You are very dear to all of us, and speaking only for myself for now, but deceiving you gave me pretty bad feelings of guilt every time I had to. You are like my very own daughter to me and your welfare is as precious to me as that of my little sister and the rest of my relatives. In fact, I would say I consider you close family and would do everything to protect you."
Celestia was cut off as her sister spread one of her wings, touching Twilight's own wing carefully at its base. Luna then began rubbing her prime feathers down in slow circles across the structure of her fellow alicorn´s wing, intending to ease Twilight´s mind and making her feel comfortable. The young alicorn´s body jerked shortly at the touch, not having expected such caring affection from the night-blue princess. But then Twilight relaxed her muscles and melted into the affection with a sigh. It was plainly obvious she really enjoyed the caress of the older princess now.
"The same holds true for me, my dear Twilight. I too see you as one I would be more than proud to share my very blood with." Luna's smile was genuine and warm and as the dark blue and lavender princess's eyes met, a single happy tear slowly began to shape itself on Twilight's right eye. Without batting an eyelid Luna brought up her second wing and wiped it away with the tip of it. Luna then gently stroked further along Twilight's cheek, face plastered with a relaxed, comforting expression as she brought her wings back to her side.
"Thank you! Both of you," was all Twilight could squeeze out between happy shallow breaths, before settling on just putting on her own most friendly little smile.
"There's really nothing you need to be thanking me for, dearest. It's nothing but the truth and naught else. Always know that whatever we do or have done happens for your own good. Errors can happen, but harming you would be the only one I couldn't forgive myself for." Luna lowered her gaze and head down in front of Twilight before looking back up after a second. Twilight's gaze lingered speechlessly on the older princess for a few more seconds, the young alicorn lost for words. Twilight then settled on just saying nothing as Luna already knew what she would have said and then slowly moved her head back to Celestia. As nice as the words of the two elder alicorn´s had been, Celestia had been interrupted in her explanation and Twilight was still eager to hear it all.
Celestia saw Twilight’s interested gaze, cleared her throat and proceeded. "I was just about to point out that before gathering our energies to unleash the entire power of the universe, you made us vow. A soul-vow, that we would not underestimate you and that it was necessary to do so in order to properly prepare us all for how truly potent your magic would unfold once again. We after all were aware that supreme control over all forms of magic was yours and that it was indeed your inherit natural talent. We had to promise to push your powers, but not to go too far, yes to even dampen them in case of emergency. At least for as long as it was necessary, till the first time you would seize full control over the magic of this reality again. After that, you have told us, it would become simpler and your consciousness would intuitively know how to cope with such power and responsibility without further jeopardizing the concept of existence in any way. I´m honest, we ourselves understood but half of all you told us then, but you were the alicorn of magic not we. You knew best how to control the art of sorcery and what needed to be done to have it in check."
Luna fluidly explained further to Twilight. "That oath made and kept in mind, we stuck to it and made sure we pushed your powers and magic as far as we could, but kept them from increasing to a dangerous level. So to come back to the matter, the idea of sharing our magic and sole battle with Tirek came from someone other than you might have guessed. Namely, from your old, long-time foal sitter."
"Cadance?" Twilight raised her eyebrows. Technically she should have expected it, for there was but one other alicorn beside Luna, Celestia and herself living in Equestria. Still it was a strange concept to grasp for her.
Luna nodded. "That's right, her! It was she who eventually reminded us of the soul-oath we had taken and convinced us that it would be the perfect chance for you to get a first feel for leading and guiding our little ponies in a crisis situation. Maybe also to finally unleash your full potential and take hold of magic as you said and were destined too.” Luna cast her eyes down in shame, her ears lowing halfway in discomfort. “I admit it was more than unfair to cause you such worry, considering that you must have been quite stressed. For you, the fate of Equestria was literally hanging in the balance and you were so convinced that you alone stood between the victory and defeat of everything you knew and held dear.”
Both Celestia’s and Luna’s eyes showed a spark of hope for Twilight to please believe their words. It was Celestia that continued then. “You have to understand, though. We simply had to know unadulterated how you would fare in such a dire situation. It was the only way for us to be able to support you as best we could afterwards."
Celestia’s gaze became very serious. “For years we’ve tried to discover the limitations of your magic and skills. While you were still a unicorn, it was relatively easy and almost flawless to foresee everything. However, ever since you ascended to an alicorn, even we could not predict what miracle you would perform next. Each alicorn is one of a kind, and as much as we may try to understand each other’s essence, the part of us that contains our natural talents is and will remain secret to the rest. Only you can truly understand how magic operates at the deepest possible level. That doesn’t mean that Luna, Cadance or I are lousy at it, but you are still the best of the four of us at it.”
"You may still not want to acknowledge it, but your magic is fearsomely powerful, even for an alicorn. Most of our powers are based on or enhanced by mana, which would allow you to be even more effective against your kind if you wanted to be. While magic is all around us in every creature and plant and allows our world to be as formidable as it is, you are the only one who can truly control all magic when you put your mind to it. But that doesn't preclude you from blocking everything from accessing its magic either." Luna then shook her head in defensiveness. "Not that I expect you would actually do it and turn against us or our subjects, but in theory that's the truth."
Twilight felt like retorting something to Luna and she had already opened her mouth to speak her mind, but then decided against it. As the alicorn of magic, she truly possessed the ability to command all magic, something she had discovered for herself today, and so she just nodded in agreement.
Cheerfully Celestia continued. "Anyway! You can be more than proud of the work you achieved in approximately two days, I might add. I don't recall any pony, whether a gifted, experienced farmer; a long-serving, skilled commander; or any pony on the road, that would have had anywhere near the success you have had. It is true that an alicorn makes an exceedingly well-developed, natural-born leader, but still. Your orders to the guards were clear, with little second thought, and the tasks you set up and gave to your friends were also specific and precise. Ponyville was evacuated far faster than Luna and I had bet."
"Hey, wait a minute! Luna, you never handed me my 1,000 bits for winning the bet. You didn't really think I'd forget about that. Did you?" Celestia had suddenly turned away from Twilight and glared now challengingly at her younger sister.
Luna's expression seemed momentarily annoyed before she spoke back to her sister. "Curse you! I was really hoping that you had either forgotten or dismissed it as irrelevant. But it should have been clear to me, after all, an alicorn never forgets. Still, I'm always a mare of my word..." Luna's horn flashed for half a second and a dull sound on wood accompanied by several metallic clangs was heard echoing from one of the adjoining rooms of Celestia's quarters.
Visibly pleased with herself, Celestia smirked lovely at her sister. At which she received another tongue-lashing from her sister before turning back to the youngest mare in the room. Twilight herself wisely abstained from the dispute. She didn't intend to have anything to do with it, nor did she wish to express her opinion aloud. Even though she mused to herself whether she ought to worry that Luna and Celestia were betting on how she would approach a problem.
"Now that that's settled, let's move on to the context," Celestia resumed after she had copied her sister.
"We've basically covered the issue with Tirek so far. As I said, we had decided that it was best, if a little unfair, that way. You still handled the situation like a well-rehearsed professional and can’t deny having gained further, valuable leadership knowledge and strengthened confidence of our ponies in you as their leader. With the exception of Tirek, no one has been harmed in the aftermath, but he alone is to blame for that. On top of that, I know you well enough to know that you are not truly mad at us. You know it was in good intentions. Even though I wouldn't blame you, it's your right," Celestia ultimately added at which Twilight herself spoke up. A smile on her muzzle.
"You know me indeed well, Celestia. The approach may have been questionable to some extent, more so morally, but not one of the three of you would truly mean me any harm. And like you said, the experience I've gained from it is and will be helpful to me. That I can’t deny."
Twilight’s eyes swept over the forms of both Celestia und Luna. "So if neither of you has anything further to add, I would now like to return to your book. It has not escaped my notice that after several pages of diagrams, drawings and calculations, another major entry has been written in it by you. And I don't assume that's just in there for fun." Twilight's ears were meanwhile perked to their utmost, her wings and the outermost ranks of feathers, spread considerably from her back in excitement. Even the corners of her mouth reached almost to her eyes - though only almost.
Enjoying the pleasing sight to her left briefly, Luna motioned for her pal to please carry on.
"Well then, go ahead. Stick your snout back in our book. Though we know what we had written back then, I wouldn't be averse to it if you'd be so kind as to read it to us anyway."
Twilight, of course, was amiable enough to read the entry further back in the book aloud to the two of them. Not to mention her being the alicorn of friendship and that her name literally contained "amicitia" as a synonym for friendship.
The lavender alicorn was about to lower her eyes on the book, but Luna's voice stopped her. "I'm really sorry Twilight, but before you start reading out loud to us, may I tell you a little tale?" Luna had leaned her head to the side questioningly, she would love to tell her story, but only if it didn't bother Twilight.
Twilight had no objections and expectantly flipped the book closed in front of her.
"Well then, you might already be familiar with it, it is after all the most famous goodnight story for foals and it naturally includes alicorn's. One very particular one, in fact, for that matter." At that Luna winked at Twilight and the younger mare smiled back in straightforward understanding.
"It is said that the stars in the sky are more than just brilliant points. They are said to be the sparkling segments in the magical mane of the Star Goddess. She is also said to let her hair drop from the sky over Equestria every night, like a warm blanket, keeping her ponies safe. Wishing that every being may feel her love, peace and affection and be welcomed by her friend the Goddess of Dreams. May the second one guide them all into the realm of slumber."
Twilight's eyes had grown dreamy in memory as Luna had spoken. She could still remember all the nights her mother had read her those very same bedtime tale as a young foal. Each time, Twilight had wished for the story to be real and that she perhaps could even meet one of these two goddesses. A completely crazy thought for the young unicorn foal at the time. Never imagining how much could have changed in just 15 years...
Snapping out of it, Twilight came back to her senses. "Yes, That's really a very lovely tale and I'm sure there's more than a little truth to it - I somehow have such a feeling," now Twi was winking and grinning over at Luna and Luna continued to smile as well.
"I thought you'd like it, but I don't want to further keep you from reading, only add to your well-being."
Twilight bowed her head in thanks to Luna and moved back to opening the book to her hooves with the force of her magic. Before she began to read the entry aloud to the two older alicorn's, however, she skimmed it quickly three times herself silently in her mind.
~~~ End of Chapter Three - Part 10 ~~~