“Heard enough, sister?” Luna asked somewhat incongruously.
“More than I wanted to, but less than I am sure that I deserve,” came the soft reply from outside. “I have failed in such a basic way that I can only say that it is due to Twilight Sparkle that our kingdom even remains. I have failed as a monarch and as a teacher, and most importantly, as a friend.”
“No, Princess!” Twilight exclaimed, her head rising from between Luna’s and Cadence’s wings. “I’m the one who was wrong! I should have come privately to you with my suspicions, not exploded into the rehearsal!”
“When?” Celestia asked. “We had all been quite busy. When was it that you could have notified me?”
“I could have scribbled a note and had Spike send it, but I didn’t!”
“And I could have noticed that my niece was not acting like herself, rather than assume that it was stress. I could have listened to what my faithful student was saying, rather than follow the herd in thinking that you were being foalish. I could have trusted you as I have so many other times, rather than instantly assume you were wrong.”
“That’s the point I’m making, Princess,” Twilight said earnestly. “When the chips were down, you acted the way that your heart felt it must - I could not be trusted to be right about this. My previous actions clearly led you to believe that I was acting like a foal. That means that there is something wrong with me, Your Highness, and that is why I can no longer be your student. I am not deserving of that honor until I can be trusted.” Celestia’s wings drooped at Twilight’s comment.
A very male sob sounded outside the door. “I did this to her,” he said. “Some big brother I am. I hurt her worse than any of the bullies in her school. I’ll understand if you want to call it off, Cadence.”
Twilight actually broke free of Cadence and Luna’s wing embrace. “Don’t be an idiot, Shiney!" she said, stomping to the door. "The whole time we were escaping, she was worried for you. It was her feelings for you that saved Canterlot. All of Canterlot has a very real example of how much she loves you, and how much you love her - the two of you, alone, cleared the entire city of the changelings. Don’t you dare break it off with her because of me!”
He stepped forward, just inside the doorway, and bumped his head gently against hers. “But I hurt you so badly, Twiley. We all did. I said such awful things to you, because I was hurting. I should have known that you wouldn't have accused your foal-sitter without reason. That little rhyme - even horribly stressed, Cadence would have said something, but Chrysalis didn't even know it, and you tried to tell me that. Instead, I ignored you, because you're my little sister, and how could you know what you were talking about?" He snorted. "Amazing that my sister, who hadn't seen Cadence in years, could tell something was wrong, when I couldn't."
"You were too close to it, and she had a ready excuse - stress."
"Yet the stress of no one listening to you is not a good enough reason for your actions," Luna said. "Why is that?"
"Because they're totally different things!"
Luna looked at her for a long moment. "Yes, I can see. Shining Armor is allowed to have acted the way he did because of the stress of the situation, which was manufactured by Chrysalis to keep him from noticing. You, however, are wrong for having acted the way that thou didst due to the stress of the situation, which was taken advantage of by Chrysalis in hopes that none would pay heed to thy statements. Totally different situations." She had apparently used her years on the moon to sharpen her sarcasm to a fine edge.
"You see? You even make my point for me!" Twilight said, managing to miss the sarcasm. "Chrysalis was the reason that no one would listen to me!"
"How does that absolve us of our guilt in our words to you, my dear student?" Celestia asked softly.
"Chrysalis fooled everyone! You're apologizing to me for being taken in by someone whose entire existence revolves around that sort of masquerade! My crime was being a stupid little foal in how I tried to bring it to everyone's attention!"
"And now thou hast gone from being merely foalish to having committed a crime. Why dost thou so desire that we punish you?"
"Because I deserve it!" she cried. "I should have found some way to make everypony realize! Instead, I acted like a foal and my brother and my friends hate me and if Chrysalis hadn't been dumb enough to place me with Cadence then Equestria would have fallen and it would have been all my fault!" Luna was the one to enfold her within her wings this time, and let Twilight cry against her.
"Oh Twilight," Celestia said softly. "I have done so poorly by you in this. We owe you a debt and repay you by making you feel that there is something wrong with you. I am so sorry for that, my wonderful and dear student."
"But if you didn't listen to me, then there must have been -"
"No!" Celestia said. "There was naught wrong with you. It was myself, choosing not to notice the changes in my niece. I needed for you to be wrong about Cadence, because if you were wrong, then I wasn't for not noticing the changes in her. It was not a conscious decision, but it was there nonetheless."
"Y'r Highness?" Applejack asked, surprising Twilight. She had thought that only Celestia and her brother had come, but apparently the princess had brought all her friends as well. "May I add somethin'?" Celestia nodded, and Applejack turned to Twilight. "We all did wrong by you, sugarcube, and for that I am just so sorry. But ya talked about us not trustin' you, and that just ain't true. Problem is, we didn't keep trustin' you. We met your brother, and well, shoot, he's your best friend. Why shouldn't we listen to him?" She frowned. "Dang it, I just ain't good with words. I know what I want ta say, but it just ain't comin' out right."
Rarity stepped forward. "I think I know what you wish to say, darling. May I try?" Applejack nodded and stepped back, her annoyance at her inability to make her point clear on her face. Rarity spoke up in her posh tones. "I think what dear Applejack is attempting to say is that we immediately trusted your rugged and handsome brother - and may I add that Princess Cadence is a very lucky pony? - because you referred to him as your best friend. 'Big brother best friend forever', I think you said? If you considered him to be your best friend, then by all means, he must be the most trustworthy pony in all Equestria. None of us realized the way that awful Changeling Queen had her claws in him, so when he declared you to be wrong, then you simply had to be, because the person you trust most in the world said you were wrong." She bowed her head. "It does not, however, clear our guilt for not apologizing after you were proven to be right. That is clearly inexcusable, and I, for one, will be working to redeem myself for hurting you so terribly much."
"Wait," Twilight said, raising a hoof as she reluctantly pulled away from Luna's comforting embrace. "You're saying that the reaction I got from all of you was because you trusted my word about my brother? You'd never met him!"
"But you grew up with him and liked him enough to call him your friend!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, hovering about a foot off the ground. "Not everypony gets along that well with their brother or sister, so hay, if you liked him that much, then he must be cooler than the average pony! Maybe even as cool as me!" She punctuated the last statement by buffing her hoof on her chest. She deflated quickly though and settled to the ground, looking at the dirt. "But I'm supposed to be the Element of Loyalty. Some loyal pony, huh? Turn my back on you and don't apologize after you save our butts. Again."
Twilight looked around the assembled group, and her friends were all looking at the ground. To her shock, Pinkie's mane was dull and straight, and she'd taken on that greyish pink hue she'd had when she thought everyone had abandoned her. "I don't understand. You were all right. I was being a silly little foal. I should have found another way to expose her. Why can't you see that?"
"Hindsight is almost always perfect, Twilight," Luna said. "I still berate myself for things I could have done to avoid becoming Nightmare Moon, but then I realize that, at the time, I was within the situation and things were not as clear then as they are now." She brought her face in close. "Can you truly say that you would do things differently, if you were in the situation again, having only the information available to you at the time? Remember that so much of what you know now is what was learned because you were already being too effective for the Changeling Queen. Think upon it. Canst thou truly say that thy actions were wrong, knowing naught but what was before you?"
Twilight closed her eyes, and the assembled crowd grew even more silent. "No, I can't," she said softly, almost too quietly for even Luna to hear.
Luna raised the mare's head and looked into her eyes. "Then be proud that thy actions saved us all, dear Twilight. Worry not on 'might-have-beens', for their only purpose is to make thee doubt thyself. Thou art once again savior of Equestria, and shall be known as such."
"Please, no!” Twilight cried out, nearly panicking. “I didn't save everyone from Chrysalis, that was Shining Armor and Cadence. They should be known for it."
"But if you hadn't rescued me -" Cadence began.
"No. I'd really rather not be remembered for my part in this, to be honest. No matter what everypony seems to be saying, my behavior was shameful, and to hold me up as something to emulate? It sends the wrong message to other fillies. I don't want others thinking they can throw a temper tantrum and everything will all work out fine. It doesn't work that way."
Celestia smiled. "Twilight? Will you not rethink your decision about being my student? You continue to prove to me that you are a joy to mentor when you can come to such a mature realization."
"You'd still … even after that letter I sent? I tried to make it sound right, but really, in the long run, it was a whiny little -"
"Stop," Celestia said, raising a hoof to Twilight's mouth gently. "You said what you needed to say, and it showed me the depth of the hurt I caused you, my good and faithful student." She looked carefully at the lavender unicorn. "That is, if you will still have me as your teacher?"
Twilight couldn’t stop herself - she threw her forelegs around the princess and hugged her. “Yes! I quit because I thought I had let you down so badly!”
“And yet your actions continue to make me proud, my student.”
“It’s true,” Luna interrupted. “She brags to the leaders of other nations about you.” Celestia’s response was to go as pink in embarrassment as she had gone white in horror earlier.
“Really?” Twilight asked, her eyes going amazingly wide.
“Why not?” Applejack said. “You’re a pretty amazin’ pony, whether you admit it or not.” She looked over at the blue pegasus who had begun to hover again. “Might even be twenty percent cooler than Rainbow over there,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Hay!” Rainbow yelled. “Not possible … wait, this is Twilight we’re talking about.” She met the lavender unicorn’s eyes. “Probably the only one in all of Equestria who might be cooler than me. Maybe.” She looked around. “But none of you heard me say that.”
“So much for publishing it in the Ponyville Gazette,” Rarity said with a small smile.
“You wouldn’t!” Rainbow Dash. Her look seemed to give the impression that she knew what Rarity was doing, and was willing to play along.
“Of course not, Dash darling. If we did, then Ponyville would be overrun with ponies wanting to hang out with her, and we’d never see her anymore through all the throngs.” She turned to Twilight, her eyes shining, both with mirth and unshed tears.
Twilight shook her head. “I said it in the letter to Princess Celestia, but I will say it to you all now. Yes, it hurt, but I forgive you. I didn’t say it the right way, so it was very easy for you to think I was just being a spoiled little thing who was losing her exclusive access to her brother.”
“Speaking of said brother,” Shining Armor interjected, “I’m running into a bit of a problem. I kinda said some really stupidly hurtful things to my little sister, and now we can’t have a wedding because I chased away my Best Mare. Y’think you could help me out, little sis?”
“You really want me in your wedding party?” she asked in a voice just shy of tears.
He looked up and past her, and a moment later said, “There won’t be a wedding without you.”
Twilight scowled and spun to face Cadence. “Cadence, talk to him! Tell him he’s being an idiot!”
“I can’t. He asked me first, and I agree with him. It wouldn’t be right to hold the wedding without you there, so there won’t be one without you.” She smiled. “And I know it’s terribly unusual, and probably improper and no end of other unflattering adjectives to describe it, but if we can manage it, would you be my Mare of Honor as well? I can think of no one better.”
Twilight gulped. “Really?” she finally asked in a small voice.
“Really. I know you’ll stand with him, but I want you to know that we both want you there. No Twilight; no wedding.”
Twilight blinked a few times, her eyes dripping tears, before she grabbed her brother and her soon-to-be sister-in-law and hugged them tightly. “Yes!” she cried. “Thank you for forgiving me!”
“No, thank you for forgiving your idiot brother,” Shining Armor replied.
“Hey, no pony calls my brother an idiot except me,” she said with a happy sob. “Insult my BBBFF and face the wrath of Twilight Sparkle!”
“Ah’d listen if ah were you,” Applejack said with a smile. “She can get right scary when she’s protecting ponies she loves. Anyone in Ponyville can tell ya that.”