Twilight Sparkle sighed as she heard the knock on her door. She had seen the chariot arriving and had started her way downstairs. “Come in, Princess.”
“Thank you, Twilight,” Cadence said brightly. “Luna is with me. May she enter as well?”
While startled, Twilight was still a gracious host. “By all means. Enter, both of you.” She looked out the door toward the chariot. “Where’s Princess Celestia?”
“We felt it was best if we talked to you first,” Cadence said. “If you return to Canterlot, she will want to speak to you, after a very large apology.”
“Apology? For what? I’m the one at fault!” Twilight exclaimed.
“How do you come to that conclusion?” Luna asked her. She stepped forward.
“Dad always said to ignore anyone who called you a foal, because they were usually jealous. But if everyone is calling you foalish, you might want to take a good look at yourself. The eight closest to me all considered me a silly little thing for what happened. It hurts that no one apologized, but they don’t need to, because I was clearly in the wrong on how I handled it.” She sighed. “That reminds me. When you return to Canterlot, could you take this letter to Princess Celestia? She’ll need to see it before she decides to apologize to me.”
“I hope you didn’t say anything you can’t take back,” Cadence said.
“Might we be permitted to read it?” Luna asked softly. “No offense will be taken if you say no.”
“You probably should read it, if only to make sure that I wrote it properly - that I don’t say something that offends when I never intended to.”
Dear Princess Celestia,
This is probably the hardest letter I have ever written to you, and I will explain why shortly.
I’ve been doing some soul searching, Princess, and I do not like what I have found. I am on the cusp of adulthood, but am clearly still a silly little foal in the eyes of everyone who matters to me. If not, I would not have gotten the reaction from everyone that I got.
You told me that I had much to think about when you left the rehearsal with everypony else. The only other pony to say anything to me was my brother, who ‘fired’ me as his Best Mare, and even told me not to come to the wedding, albeit it with a somewhat more polite phrasing. I still consider him to be my Big Brother, Best Friend, Forever, even though his words hurt. They needed to, though, because someone does not grow if they never feel pain. It hurt greatly, but my crime was great.
It is also why I left Canterlot. When I left, the repairs to the city were nearly done, and the preparations for the new wedding were about to start. I would so love to be there to give my obsessive list-making talents a work-out; to make sure that my brother and my foal-sitter get the absolutely amazing wedding that they truly deserve. But I can’t face it, Princess. If I weren’t such a silly foal, I’d be able to be there beside my brother when he marries the most amazing pony it has ever been my pleasure to know who isn’t you. If I’d been wrong, I would have hurt them both beyond measure, and that is an unforgivable crime to me. So, being a silly filly, I decided to run away, only this time I ran away to my new home.
That brings me to the difficult part of this letter. I did as you said, and gave my actions much thought. A decision will need to be made, since you sent me here, and it was implied that my position here in the Ponyville library is due to being your student.
As I have said, I am a foal - everypony’s actions toward me show that, and I would be even more of one were I to ignore what so many have told me by their actions. I DO NOT BLAME ANY OF YOU. In fact, if any feel that they need it, I forgive them all, even though they don’t need forgiveness. I needed to know this about myself. But part of the problem with learning to grow is that it is difficult to change if an effort isn’t made toward it. Staying in a familiar routine makes it all too easy to fall back into the foalish attitudes that plague me now.
Our relationship is a friendly one, and I pray that it will always be so, but it is still much like that of master to apprentice. I had thought that I had perhaps graduated from apprentice to journeypony, but I see now that I have not. But the lack of trust you showed in my actions shows that there is a flaw in our relationship, one that I MUST find and repair within myself before I can hope to properly apprentice with someone. In that vein, I must regretfully sunder our relationship of teacher and student, My Princess.
Do not think that I do this in anger or foalishness, My Princess. Know that I do this because I need to learn to become somepony that you can be proud to teach. Somepony that you can be proud to admit to knowing. I do this because I know now that I still have so very much to learn, and that if things stay as they currently are, I will fall back into the patterns that allowed everypony to think the worst of me.
Everypony thought the worst of me for a reason, Princess, so I need to find that reason and deal with it. I cannot in good conscience remain your student while so great a flaw resides within me.
Please think fondly of me in the future, my good and gracious teacher. Perhaps someday I shall be worthy of being your student once again.
Your ALWAYS faithful ex-student,
Twilight Sparkle
Luna sat heavily on the floor, as if someone had kicked her back legs out from beneath her, while the noise Cadence made sounded as an Ursa Major had just attempted the Haymlich Maneuver on her. “I think Aunt Celestia needs to see this right now, Luna.”
“I agree,” she said. “Perhaps she will see how badly she failed.” There was a flare and the scroll was gone.
“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked with some anger. “How did she fail?”
Luna managed to speak first. “Of all involved, only one pony does not need to give you an apology, and that is Cadence. All others, including myself, owe you a debt of gratitude and thanks, and we have repaid it by ignoring the fact that you were correct.”
“You weren’t even around for the problem, Princess!” Twilight said. “You had other duties! Why would you need to apologize?”
“Because I was there afterward, and didst see -” She stopped and sighed before looking skyward. “I will learn to speak as a normal pony,” she murmured.
“It is normal, Your Highness. It’s just not modern. And you don’t need to apologize to me for something you had no idea about.”
“But I did,” she said slowly. “When the situation was explained to me, I noted the reactions of those around you, and began to suspect. I said nothing until your letter of today.”
“I Pinkie Pie Promised twice in one paragraph, right?” Twilight asked. When she received an answering nod, she said, “I’m kinda glad that was the one that got read. There was an enchantment on it to display an entirely different letter if the sun managed to go down before the letter was opened. More precisely, the other letter would have been displayed after eight hours of being ignored by Princess Celestia. Suffice it to say that I would have known by the end of the day tomorrow whether or not she had read the letter, and if the other letter had come up, I would not have been here by the time that the Princess arrived in Ponyville.” She blushed. “And trust me, she would have, if only to either give me a very public spanking or perhaps a very public hanging. It was a dark and bitter thing.” She drooped. “No, I would have been here. I wasn’t lying in my signature. Even if she had ignored my original letter, I’d remain faithful to her.”
“Even with your anger, you still allowed for a positive outcome,” Luna allowed.
“I had to. The Princess has never been mean that I know of. But if she had been in the presence of the letter and never bothered to open it, then it would have shown that what she truly thought of me after the rehearsal - that I was not worthy of her time at all. That would have damaged the relationship past the breaking point, and that other letter would pretty much have ensured that it stayed broken. While I wasn’t abusive, I was angry, and let it pour onto the parchment.” She shook her head. “But that’s not important. What is important is that I can’t stay her student. My actions were foalish in the extreme, and even the youngest among us thought that - Spike. I haven’t received apologies because everypony was right about me. I was being petulant and acting like someone still in magical kindergarten, so they treated me that way.”
“No, they were all in shock,” Cadence said. “Shining Armor nearly skidded into Celestia’s chambers in a panic when he realized that you were gone.” She nuzzled the lavender pony. “He loves you deeply, and knows that what he said was wrong. He said so to me.”
“It is true, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “It was said before the three princesses.” She paused. “That sounds as if it should be a musical group of some sort. Perhaps with Twilight Sparkle as our … what do they call it? A ‘front pony’? ‘Twilight Sparkle and the Three Princesses’. We could tour Equestria."
Twilight blinked for a moment, and then giggled softly, looking down as she did, so she missed the significant look that Luna gave Cadence, and the answering nod. “I think you three have other duties. Besides, my singing tends toward more spontaneity.” She sighed. “But I can’t see why anypony should need to apologize. I have a problem that I need to deal with.” She began to walk back and forth somewhat nervously. “Apologize for what? Being right? I went about it all wrong. If I hadn’t been a foalish little filly, perhaps they could have trusted me.” Her next laugh, devoid of any humor, was more of a bark than her usual whinny. “And then, after Cadence was freed, I was given an important task and ran away from it rather than complete it, because I wanted to feel sorry for myself, thereby proving once again that I can’t be trusted when it comes to something important.”
“I see it differently,” Luna replied. “I see a pony who was faced with the daunting task of fixing something that never should have needed fixing, had ponies been willing to listen to one who knew. I see a pony in such pain whilst everypony else tries to ignore that their actions nearly destroyed Canterlot and Equestria and that those actions could have been avoided had they but listened to one pony’s voice. I see a pony berating herself because none who should be apologizing to her will apologize, lest they acknowledge how badly they have hurt her.” She walked closer and lifted Twilight’s head so that she could look in her eyes. “I see a pony whom I know that I can trust with my very soul, for I met her when she saved mine,” she finished softly. “I apologize to you for not saying anything, for I might have been able to be a voice of reason and helped prevent the pain you now feel.”
“I won’t apologize,” Cadence said. “I was rather indisposed at the time,” she said, her eyes sparkling slightly.
Twilight blinked at her, and then nickered slightly before falling fully into giggles. The giggles turn into full laughter, which turned hysterical. Without a thought, both princesses stepped forward and enfolded Twilight with their wings just as the laughter turned to sobs. They held the grieving unicorn pony close and let her cry herself out.