There was nothing but black abyss. It looked a lot like the waking dreams she had grown used to being with Celestia in.
But something was wrong.
There were dozens upon dozens-no, hundreds upon hundreds of little specks of light everywhere in the distance.
Twilight looked around and she realized something else far more important.
She wasn’t Twilight. That is, unless Twilight had mysteriously turned blue. That wasn’t it, though. She was suddenly bombarded with an immense wave of emotions. Loneliness, deprivation and hurt the most prominent among them. She was crying, but she had no idea why. She knew it had something to do with why these strangely familiar emotions were domination everything else.
How could she be this distressed? It’s like there was absolutely nothing she could do to make things better, there was nothing good for her. But that was impossible, she had Spike and Celestia.
Celestia... for some reason thinking that name sent her into a fit of sobbing.
Why did she feel like this? What happened? And most importantly, who was she? She was definitely not Twilight Sparkle
After a little bit of thinking, trying to remember who she was if not that little filly in Canterlot, she noticed more of her surroundings. There was a monotone plain of white under her. She looked up and saw a great sphere of green and blue.
...It was the planet. She looked down. and that was a very intimidating mare with a black coat and eyes filled with hate.
“It’s almost time.” She said, giddy with malicious intent.
---
“Twilight?!” She heard exclaimed softly as she was shaken awake. Her eyes fluttered open and she recognized two things. First, she was Twilight Sparkle again. Second, Celestia was staring at her with eyes full of worry.
There was a third thing that she noticed after those. There were tears steadily running down her face.
“Twilight?” Celestia asked, much less panicked, though the amount of worry on her face didn’t change.
“M-Mom?” She said. Without even letting Celestia speak further, she quickly bolted upright and clung to the alicorn.
“Talk to me, love, what’s wrong?” Celestia asked.
“I... I don’t... I had a dream, but it was so strange... I wasn’t even me, and all of my memories I had from here weren’t right and... and...” Twilight sputtered out and explained her dream. When she finished, Celestia looked horrified.
“That... Are you sure that’s what you saw? What you heard?” Celestia asked. Twilight nodded, confused by Celestia’s reaction. The Princess thought for a moment before picking the filly up and placing Twilight on her back. She quickly penned up a letter for Cadence, who was surprisingly still asleep in the other bed nearby, and left the tower.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” Twilight asked. She peeked at the tower’s clock before they left and it was about three in the morning. Celestia must have just gotten home and decided to check on her. Celestia didn’t answer her right away, and that was enough for Twilight to know that it wasn’t just a bad dream. The Alicorn looked to be deep in thought before she finally spoke.
“Twilight, I have never wanted to keep even a single secret from you... And I don’t want that to change, but I’m going to have to leave you in the dark with this. At least for right now... There are certain things in my past that haunt me even to this day. I’m exhausted right now, and I don’t think I could handle talking about it right now...” She explained. She thought for another moment before continuing.
“But... I also don’t want to ruin our little vacation I told you about... I promise I’ll tell you after that. I just really hate keeping things from you...” She continued. Twilight was starting to get confused now. Whatever it was, it was really causing Celestia distress.
“Don’t worry Mom, it’s alright. You don’t need to worry about keeping secrets from me, everypony is entitled to have them.” Twilight said, nuzzling into Celestia’s back. She couldn’t see it, but Celestia had the biggest grin on her face from that.
“I love you, so much.” Celestia said, looking back and nuzzling Twilight when she stopped to open the door to her chambers. Twilight just giggled and nuzzled back in response.
“The same to you. If you don’t mind me asking, though, why did you take me to your room?” Twilight asked.
“Oh a few reasons.” Celestia started as she entered and levitated the filly onto the bed. She proceeded to begin removing her regalia as a brush floated over and started going through her mane.
“The biggest one being I want a snuggle buddy. There are a few more, though. I have a few surprises for you. Most of them are souvenirs, but the main one is a really big surprise we need to be up early for and I’ll need you to wake me up. The surprise starts at ten, so we’ll need to get breakfast and leave by nine.” Celestia explained, joining Twilight on the bed and curling up around her. Twilight had no objection and got comfortable.
“Alright. You’ve got me excited for the surprises now, though! I’m not sure I can fall asleep.” Twilight said. A massive yawn a few seconds later betrayed that thought, though. Celestia giggled and nuzzled the filly.
“Good night, my little Sparkle. I love you.” Celestia said softly.
“Love you too...” She said, her voice trailing off. Within the next minute the filly was asleep again. Not one to be left behind, Celestia followed suit just as quickly.
---
Twilight was in a bit of a predicament. It was about 7:30, an hour and a half from when Celestia said they had to leave, and said Alicorn wasn’t stirring to her gentle nudges.
Right now she was debating whether she should just keep trying, or whether she should so something else...
You know what? It’s about time she started acting like Celestia’s daughter. And besides, it was her own fault for getting the filly so excited over the surprises. She looked at the pink maned princess and thought of something that wasn’t too much, but would still get the job done. Practically leaping onto her adoptive mother’s head, she giggled.
“Wake up! Wake up!” She exclaimed loudly, though not excessively so. Celestia slowly cracked her eyes open and looked sideways at the filly. A tired smile appeared on her face as she chuckled.
“I’m up, I’m up...” She mumbled. Twilight giggled again as she let the Princess get up. She did a few stretches, yawned wide and looked at the little filly practically bouncing with excitement.
“A bath, first. We’ll get to the surprises at breakfast.” Celestia said. Twilight nodded and turned to go to her own bathroom, but Celestia picked her up with her magic and turned towards her own.
“Not so fast, I haven’t been able to bathe you yet and it’s something I’ve wanted to do since we met.” She explained.
“What about Spike?” Twilight asked after a moment.
“He’ll be alright, I left a note with Cadence. She was supposed to stay another few days so now that I’m back so soon she has nothing to do. I think taking care of a little dragon for the morning won’t be too hard, right?” Celestia replied.
“I guess.” Twilight said. Anything else she wanted to say was lost as they entered Celestia’s private baths. They weren’t baths. They were waterfalls flowing into a miniature hotspring.
“Nice, isn’t it? One of the very few things I just couldn’t give up. Bathing in a waterfall is much more relaxing than a tub.” Celestia said. She walked towards one of the smaller ones and set Twilight down as she levitated a number of soaps and scents into the water.
“You take a dip in this one to get your coat all nice and soaped up, then we move into the bigger one to shampoo our manes and tails and then relax for a little while.” Celestia explained. Twilight noticed there were a few other smaller pools connected to the one Celestia was entering. Celestia seemed to notice her looking at them and smiled, gesturing for the filly to join her.
“This chamber hasn’t changed at all since it was first built nearly a thousand years ago. Back then, at least after that negative phase you saw, other ponies used to join me all the time. Mostly emissaries and ambassadors or captains, or even sometimes just a stranger that had traveled long and hard to get here. That stopped not too long ago.” She explained. When she was finished she took a breath and dipped under the water for a moment. Twilight followed her lead and they resurfaced at the same time.
“What happened to make it stop?” Twilight asked as they moved on to the larger pool, the humid heat of the room keeping them from getting cold during the transition.
“The nobles happened. Before them there was just a council and my role wasn’t so much a title and a public figure as a pony who went out and actually did things for her kingdom. You know how the nobles of today are, they’re not much different from two or three hundred years ago. While they don’t have the authority to bar anypony from using this place, they instil enough fear so that nopony asks or refuse if I offer. Normally something about not being worthy, usually.” Celestia answered. As Twilight sat down in a particularly comfortable spot, Celestia walked over to one of the large waterfalls and quickly put her head under it.
“Oh, that’s better... Nothing like a cold waterfall to wake you up.” Celestia said, shaking her head a bit as she pulled her head out and joined Twilight. “Now turn around and close your eyes.” She continued, levitating what looked like a porcelain bottle over. Twilight did as she told and soon found shampoo covered hooves going through her mane.
“If you don’t like them, why do you let them have so much power? Why do you let them change so much if what was there before was so much better?” Twilight asked, relaxing and nearly reclining into the alicorn behind her. Celestia giggled at that.
“Well, everypony craves progress. The council wasn’t enough to handle the growing population, to nobles were chosen to represent everypony else. They originally did exactly as the council did, but they all lived in canterlot instead of spread across Equestria. It was much more convenient to simply fetch the nobles instead of wait a week for all the council members to get here.” Celestia replied.
“Well what happened to them?” Twilight asked.
“Well, the power they held kind of went to their heads and before I realized what was happening they turned into what they are today. They’re not exactly power hungry, but... well... They tend to have a really bad holier-than-thou complex. And you’ve seen how they are. They’ll probably throw a fit when I announce your adoption and make it official, since you’re not from the higher circles of nobility. If I remember correctly, though, you do come from minor nobility.” Celestia answered.
“I do?” Twilight asked as Celestia finished shampooing and had her put her head under the waterfall for a bit to rinse off.
“You do, it’s an old bloodline but your parents were captains. I talked to Shining about it when I was in the Griffon country and your bloodline is an old one, from the first nobles. That’s why you're not egotistical snobs like most of them are.” Celestia explained. She looked down at Twilight, then sideways at her own mane and then back to Twilight.
“Hm... I’d say it’s my turn, but you’re not quite big enough to reach.” She chuckled, using her magic to start the shampooing process on herself.
“I can still nuzzle up to you.” Twilight stated and did just that. Celestia giggled and used her magic to alter the flow of part of the waterfall to rinse her mane instead of moving. When she was done with that she unfurled her wings and looked at them with a bit of distaste.
“Hm... you think you could help me with the lower feathers? It seems my rushed departure and arrival has left my wings in a bit of a sorry state.” Celestia offered. Twilight looked and saw that some of the feathers were crooked or bent, some of them even nearly falling out. She was confused as to what Celestia was asking, but then she started straightening and fixing and plucking the feathers.
Preening another’s wings was something you only did if you had absolute trust in them. THe wings, at least the undersides, were quite sensitive and one mistake like pulling out a healthy feather or biting the wrong place could cause serious harm.
Twilight looked down at the lower feathers and saw that none of them were loose, but quite a few were crooked and bent. Very cautiously, she leaned over and started straightening them out. It got easier over time as she moved on to the next one. After the fourth or fifth one she got a feel for how the feathers were supposed to be and the rest went much quicker. Every now and then Celestia would let out a sigh as Twilight unintentionally massaged a few knots of the wing’s muscles.
“You’re very good at that, I have to say. I can’t remember the last time I had help with that.” Celestia thanked her when they were done not much later.
“Well, I have read a few books...” Twilight admitted.
“Oh I think it might be the fact that it was you doing it. Thank you, Love.” Celestia said, nuzzling the unicorn. She got up then and gestured for Twilight to follow. They entered what looked like a little cave. It was cooler than the other room and not nearly as humid.
“Brace yourself.” Celestia warned before she used her magic to move a rather large chunk of earth from the wall. What used to be a little draft turned into a very powerful wind. The aerodynamics of the small cave created a sort of wind tunnel. Twilight couldn’t help but burst out laughing as their manes and tails were flung backwards.
“No matter how many times I do that, it’s still so amusing to see another pony’s first time.” Celestia said as she replaced the chunk of earth when they were dried off.
“How does that work?” Twilight ask as they made their way out of the room and out of the bathing room.
“There are a few strategically placed holes and tunnels on the other side of the mountain that Canterlot is built against. They speed up the winds that go through them and all come out here.” Celestia answered as they returned to her bedroom. She replaced her regalia and used her magic to carry a few wrapped packages with them as they left. It was about an hour until they needed to leave for the surprise, so they were heading to breakfast.
“If you haven’t guessed already, these are some of the souvenirs I brought with me. There are more, which are special gifts to you courtesy of the captain of the Griffon royal guard, but you won’t get those until you’re older. For now, though, have at it.” She said as they waited for their breakfast of massive waffles to arrive. She levitated the three packages in front of Twilight.
Twilight wasn’t dumb, they were books. That particular fact excited her to no end as she ripped the packaging open on all of them at once. There were three books. ‘Dictionary of Glyphs’, ‘Griffon Dictionary of Glyphs’ and ‘Griffon Magic’. She read the names out loud and Celestia seemed surprised by them.
“I didn’t know you could read Glyphs and Griffon...” Celestia said.
“Well, the royal library has the DIctionary of Glyphs, but now I have my own! And this one and the Dictionaries in other languages are all in a series so they teach you a little bit of them. I only know how to say the book titles, though. Thank you thank you thank you!” Twilight finished, pausing before the last part and nearly tackling Celestia with a hug.
“I knew you’d like them.” Celestia chuckled. “And now this.” She continued, levitating a small paper rectangle to Twilight. The filly took the thing in her own grasp and gasped when she saw what it was.
“A Wonderbolts ticket?!” She exclaimed.
“Yep, front row seat. Better, actually, you’re in the VIP box.” Celestia said.
“Wait, what about you? I wouldn’t want to go without you.” Twilight asked. Celestia grinned and gestured towards the ticket. There was a short description of the event.
“‘Celebrating peace with the Griffons, a public Wonderbolts performance congratulating Princess Celestia on her success.’” She read.
“Who do you think asked for the performance? I’ll be right next to you, I just don’t need a ticket.” Celestia giggled. Twilight grinned and made a happy little squeal. She had always wanted to see the Wonderbolts.