//------------------------------// // π // Story: The Tragic Story of Twilight Sparkle, or Twilight // by A Fistful of Apples //------------------------------// π Celestial Matters Twilight sat, rifling through papers, bundling them into packets for easy reference. Apple Bloom walked over and dropped a stack of mail down in front of Twilight, who began refilling through that too. Ponies now tended to send in copies of their own academic papers for review. Most of it was wrong, or misguided. Sometimes though, it was correct. Twilight was hoping to publish a list of "correct" papers. Just so other academics wouldn't be misled by ponies who got things wrong. It would also mean less work for her. Every time a pony discovered something correct on their own, that was one less thing Twilight had to spend time on. "Fluttershy's outside," said Apple Bloom. "She wants to see you. I told her today's not a good day, but now she's just standin' out there lookin' creepy." "She'll be standing out there a while then," said Twilight, as she absentmindedly read through her mail. "Go tell her we'll be leaving for Canterlot soon and we'll be gone all day. We're teleporting there, so she won't be seeing us." Apple Bloom nodded and trotted downstairs to relay the message. "Spike!" called Twilight. It took only a moment for his head to pop in from another room. "Yeah?" he asked. The edge of a broom handle could also be seen. "Forget the cleaning, it's almost time." She got up from her spot, carrying with her her newly made packets. Six of them. "Here," she said, giving them to Spike who dropped the broom and dustpan he was holding. "Hold on to those while I finish reading these letters." Her focus wandering to her future presentation, she dumped the unneeded letters into a nearby trashcan. Things claiming she won prizes, or ponies telling her their life story and about what an inspiration she was. That might have interested her before. Now it just cluttered up her mailbox. A few were academic papers, and she sorted those into two piles. One was where the correct papers went, and was on the right. The other was wrong, and on the left. Today, they were all wrong and so went into the appropriate pile. Apple Bloom returned just as Twilight finished with her mail. "She gone?" asked Twilight. "Yeah." "Spike!" Twilight called again before realising he was right next to her already. He nearly jumped and dropped the packets he was holding in surprise. "Sorry," said Twilight. "Hand those back to me." He did so, and as she grabbed them telekinetically, she also grabbed the copy of her presentation and her identification card. "Alright, I think everything's in order. I'm teleporting us outside the castle. From there we'll go straight to the University. We should arrive with enough time to get everything situated." Both Spike and Apple Bloom nodded, and an instant later Twilight teleported them all to Canterlot. Twilight led the way, carrying her own things, her assistants trailing behind. Spike seemed diligent and eager to please, but Apple Bloom looked like somebody has put a bee in her hypothetical bonnet. Twilight assumed she didn't think the city was orderly enough and was running through ways she wanted to fix it. "Apple Bloom!" shouted Twilight, snapping her tail to get the mare's attention. Her head turned quickly to look at Twilight, her eyes focusing, and her expression changed. She nodded, almost imperceptibly, and they continued walking. As they walked, ponies stopped to stare or point and murmur. That happened when she was a young filly, newly marked as Princess Celestia's personal student. Like all unimportant gossip, that ended after only a few weeks. It was strange to see it happen all over again, even stranger to know that it was unlikely to end as quickly as before. As Twilight predicted, they arrived on campus with plenty of time to spare. Canterlot University. She'd re-visited this place only recently for matters completely unrelated to giving a lecture to visiting scientists and dignitaries. And while she wasn't sure she liked her current business there, it was certainly preferable to what she had to do last time. Now, instead of mostly students, the campus was swarming with guards. Not just Canterlot guards either, but foreign guards were on patrol, probably at the insistence of whatever politicians or dignitaries were visiting. Ostensibly this was a science lecture. But Twilight wasn't naive enough to miss the political interest. As they neared the entrance to the Physics department, two guards in shining gold armour held out their hooves in disinterest, clearly having done this many times during the day. "Identification?" one asked, the one on the left. He was slightly bigger than the other. Twilight didn't miss a beat, and held out her identification card in front of his eyes. He scanned it quickly, looked at her, looked back at it, then looked at Spike and Apple Bloom, both of which should have been identified on the same card as her assistants. He nodded, and his horn glowed as he opened the door for them. A few ponies inside stopped and stood out of their way, clearly recognising them as important. Others seemed too busy to bother noticing who they were, and still others were headed to the same place Twilight was, shying behind her and her assistants as they followed them to the main auditorium. When they arrived, Twilight didn't go through the main entrance, which was currently also flanked by guards. Instead she kept moving, until she found the side entrance which would lead to a smaller waiting room, connected to the back of the Auditorium. Again, guards were in the way, so she flashed her identification. They simply nodded and opened the door for her. The room wasn't empty. Heads turned, eyes widened. There were three of them, two mares and a stallion. Two, the mares, were clearly students, the stallion presumably University faculty. All three were sitting down, but stood up almost as soon as Twilight shut the door behind her. "Miss Sparkle!" said the stallion. He was lanky, not particularly old, perhaps middle aged, with a grey coat and a black mane and tail. "I am Professor Secanter, I teach... math, here at the University. These are my aides, Honeydew and Cinnamon Swirl." The two bowed slightly, which Twilight figured meant these ponies didn't know what they were doing. "Great," said Twilight, unsure of what else to say. "You are here because...?" "I was told to wait here with you in case you needed anything. Coffee, water, paper, whatever. Or if you needed help finding some place." "I'm familiar with the University," said Twilight. "I used to go here, you know. Not too long ago." His ears folded back. "Of course," he said. "I'm sorry, I was just told to help make you comfortable in any way I could." "There is nothing we need," said Twilight. "We're only...." She paused, confirming with Mephistopheles. "Thirty minutes early. There's not much you could provide. If you'd really like to help, you can leave and only come back when it's time for the lecture to start. I'd like some time to clear my head." She didn't really. She just didn't want to be pandered to by this pony who clearly was out of his element. Probably he was told to do this because some head of faculty somewhere had thought Twilight needed to be pampered or something, and so some low-level professor had been picked to bother her. "If that's what you want," said Professor Secanter. "It is." He nodded his head, leaving through the other door, followed by his aides. "That was awkward," said Spike. "Yeah, well...." said Twilight, unsure how to finish that sentence. Best not to think about it. "I wish you didn't send them away so soon," said Apple Bloom. "I'm thirsty." "Sorry," said Twilight, not feeling very sorry. "I could call him back?" She regretted her words almost as soon as she said them, because of what followed. "Yeah, please," said Apple Bloom. Twilight inwardly sighed, and slowly opened the door to the auditorium, hoping he was just outside. He wasn't and she didn't think it was a good idea to step out just yet. Ponies in the auditorium could probably see her if she did so, and she didn't want to look like an idiot bumbling around trying to find someone. She closed the door and looked at Apple Bloom. "He's not there." "Can you go look for him?" "No. You can wait until after the lecture. You'll be fine." Apple Bloom pouted, slumping back against the wall. Twilight was almost pleased with that. It showed a level of childishness that reminded Twilight of what Apple Bloom used to be like. And while she kind of liked Apple Bloom better this way, she knew the mare's own family probably didn't. Putting that out of her mind, Twilight tried to focus on the upcoming lecture. She'd never given a lecture like this before. But she'd given speeches. She'd been in charge. She'd taught classes. This probably wasn't too different. A knock came from the door, and a moment later it opened to reveal Professor Secanter. "Everything's ready," he said. "It's time." "Already?" asked Twilight. It didn't seem as if that much time had passed. "Well, alright then. Come on you two." She divided the packets into two smaller bundles and handed one to Spike and the other to Apple Bloom, walking into the Auditorium with her own notes floating in front of her as she made her way towards the podium. There was a projector. She didn't have any slides for it. She didn't tell them she needed one, but they brought one anyway. Maybe she should have made sure she didn't need anything before she told Professor Secanter she didn't need anything. She realised she was nervous. She'd never seen so many different species all in one place. Horses, Gryphons, Kirin and Longma, Hippogriffs and even a dragon in the back, albeit, one from the far east, in the Heavenly Kingdom. A few of these were dressed in elaborate clothes and flanked by guards, and so were probably not academics and were just here because Princess Celestia thought this would help them understand that Equestria wasn't preparing for war or anything terrible like that. She saw a few familiar faces. Winter Carroll was there. Of course he'd be. Ditzy Doo and Sweetie Belle were there. Twilight had invited them both. There was no chatter among them. Everyone was silent. Spike and Apple Bloom kept to Twilight's right and left respectively. She nodded at them, and they each moved forward and began passing out the packets to members of the audience, skipping over guards and prioritising academics. "These are my assistants," said Twilight. "If everyone will take a packet from them we can begin shortly. Inside you will find an outline of everything I will be talking about today, as well as more detailed explanations, as I will not have time to go over everything in great detail." She cleared her throat, trying to calm herself and prevent the nervousness from entering her voice. Now she wished she had some slides to show. Spike and Apple Bloom were running out of packets, and there were still dozens of people who didn't have them. Twilight took a step forward, and wordlessly enveloped one packet from Apple Bloom and one from Spike in magic. A moment and a bright flash later, both packets were duplicated, ending with twelve extras for each of her assistants. Apple Bloom was unconcerned, but it surprised Spike and he gave a quiet yelp as it happened. None in the audience was startled, though judging from a few faces, some were impressed at the feat of magic. When everyone had a packet, Twilight waited for Apple Bloom and Spike to return to her side, then took a few deep calming breaths. "Let's begin," she said, unsure of exactly how to start. "If each of you will open your packets, you can follow along and see the relevant diagrams I'll be mentioning. I have the same ones here." She held out her own notes. She realised she was treating this as a school lecture, to students. She just gave these people handouts. She cleared her throat again. "In order to understand the project to land on the moon, we must first understand the heavens," she said, looking down at her notes, trying to remind herself what she'd wanted to say. "And to understand that, we must first understand their motion." She moved closer to the podium, speaking directly into the microphone. "All terrestrial motion is bound by straight lines. Things go straight up, they go straight down, unless some outside force moves them otherwise. Celestial motion on the other hoof, is uniformly circular baring the Sun and Moon, and always counter-clockwise. So far, we have not deviated significantly from the standard historical model. "Previously it has always been thought that certain planets such as mars, simply slow down and switch directions, inexplicably. It was known the planet's luminosity appeared to change as well, and so attempts, however unsatisfactory, were made to link the two together. "As you can see in the appropriate diagram, the truth of Mars's motion is uniformly circular. It never slows down, it never changes directions. Instead, it rotates on a separate sphere, its epicycle, and that epicycle rotates along the larger sphere around the Earth, it's deferent. All Celestia Bodies except for the Moon and Sun are situated this way. Now that we know this we can accurately predict and explain the motions of the planets, without assuming that anything about them is changing without reason. "Now the sun." She paused for a moment, feeling thirsty. There was a glass of water on the podium, and she took a drink. "Is the most important. Forget for a moment that the Sun is controlled through magic. That was not always so, as some of you may be aware. What is natural for the Sun is the same as the other bodies. Uniform Circular Motion. Assuming that it moves naturally and uniformly, one will find that all other bodies are naturally set up to move in relation to it. The Moon, again, ignoring its current state, is naturally positioned directly opposite the Sun. Mercury and Venus I've labelled as "inferior" planets, referring to the fact that their epicycles always line up exactly with the Sun's position, situated directly under it while the planets move as they do uniformly. All other planets are thus labelled "superior." Their epicycles move freely at their own speeds, but a line drawn from the Sun to the Earth will always be parallel to a line drawn from a superior planet, to the centre of its epicycle. Using all this we can now explain and predict why Mercury and Venus are always seen in close proximity to the sun, why the Moon must set before the Sun rises, and how the brightening and darkening of the Superior planets relate to the Sun's position. "These positions are not coincidence. The motions of all the celestial bodies, and their positions in relation to the Earth are connected, their movements resonating with each other in a stable harmonic pattern. Small changes are acceptable and can be fixed. Say, the Sun which is not made to rise at the proper time will naturally speed up when it is finally made to move, so it can fit with the rest of the heavens. "You will find in your packets a recent paper, written by local Mathematician Winter Carroll entitled Notes on Celestial Harmonics, which lays out a more thorough description of the mathematics of celestial motion, correctly pointing out that the distances between any given Deferent and the Earth corresponds musically to a perfect fifth, and in fact all-together the universe forms a scale, starting with F at the moon and going upwards. This more or less describes the underlying logic of the system and why it is patterned the way it is, as well as why the planets move in relation to each other. One can abstractly think of the universe as a symphony, all instruments compelling each other to play properly so the whole can be mathematically proper. You will find in your packets the underlining equations which describe exactly why the pattern we have is most preferable given the variables our universe has, and using it, one may predict what will happen if one of those variables were to change or what things would be like if one or more of them were different at creation. "Now to the moon landing as it pertains to dealing with the heavens. The current plan involves keeping the Moon stationary for three days, long enough for the landing to take place and the carving to be completed. Likewise the Sun will be kept stationary at the other side of Earth. The increase in heat there will not be significant, and this will prevent any excessive 'tension' in the heavens. As we can't stop the motions of the rest of the planets, everyone should expect that once the Sun and Moon are allowed to move again, they will move at a rate significantly higher than before, until they 'catch up' to their natural positions. Which means shorter days and nights for roughly six days. So long as everyone accounts for the days and nights passing via the planets that aren't the Sun or Moon, everybody should stay in sync and we won't have any calendar problems. "The next issue is how to get up there, and who's going. The ship was designed by a team in Maressachusetts, of which my assistant Apple Bloom here assisted as a consultant. The distance between the Moon and the Earth is about two-hundred and forty thousand miles, a more specific number in your packet. The ship is designed to move upwards in a straight line at around three-hundred and forty miles per hour and will reach the Moon's Deferent in about thirty days. It will carry no food, but has enough water for ten ponies, or ten pony-like creatures, as well as cutting and drilling tools and climbing gear for everyone aboard. It is cone shaped, and reinforced at the top, with hooks designed to grab on to the moon to prevent it from falling. It will crash into a dense section of the moon, hook itself in place, and from there the ponies will carve out five blocks and sculpt them into tear-drop shaped sleds, the specifications of which have been worked out to provide a safe trip back down to Earth for two ponies each. The entire trip up there and back down will take around three months. Five members of the team have already been chosen from Equestria. The other five positions, it has been determined, will be filled by others of foreign nations, to be chosen by international committee. When everyone returns with the blocks of Lunar Matter, two of them will be divided into five equal pieces and given to participating countries for study. The rest will remain in Equestria. "At this point I will accept questions. Just remember that I am primarily a scientist and have no knowledge of the political nature of this project." Twilight looked at the audience. A few of them murmured to each other. A few faces seemed bored. Others had their heads buried in their packet, eyes drifting from side to side as they read. Still, others raised their hooves, or whatever equivalent appendage they had, indicating they had questions to go along with them. Twilight picked the dragon in the back as her first question. She'd never seen one like him before. "Yes," he began, in heavily accented Equestrian. His scales were blue, and he was curled up tightly to fit in the room behind everyone else. "Why use the Moon pieces to return to Earth? Why not design the ship to come back down with them?" Twilight was thankful for the easy question. "Several return strategies were considered, and that was one of them. I personally advised against that particular one. Remember that Lunar Matter will want to move in circles. If left free, such large pieces of the Lunar Matter will crash into the walls and ceilings of the ship and rip it apart. If tied down, there's a significant chance they will destabilise the ships path downward, again ripping it apart. It is possible to manipulate the Xi lines that Lunar Matter follow and keep it still in respect to the Ship's downward motion, but exactly what manipulation is needed would take a significant amount of time to calculate, and it would take longer to build a machine to do so after the calculations are done. Fundamentally it would be driving the Lunar Matter down anyway, only it would be driving it inside of another object which also must be driven. Not to mention the added expense for this machine." "How do you know the exact behaviour of Lunar Matter without studying it already?" he asked, not waiting to be called for another question. Twilight smiled at him. "I'm afraid others have questions." The dragon smiled, and Twilight wasn't sure if he meant to seem menacing or if he was being pleasant. She didn't care enough to ask. "Yes?" asked Twilight, pointing at one of the Longma. "If no other country accepts the wisdom of this project, will Equestria continue with it anyway?" His accent marked him as being from Harmony, an island nation to the east of the Heavenly Kingdom. This lecture had really pulled all kinds in from all over. "I remind you I don't know about the politics. If I were to guess, I'd say probably, since Equestria controls both Sun and Moon. Though it might change the plan. I don't know. Don't hold me or Equestria to that. If you want a definitive answer, I'd suggest asking Princess Celestia." That was the wrong thing to say, for as soon as she was done speaking the audience erupted into offended shouts. "Equestria would move with this plan even if the rest of the world was against her?" Twilight heard someone say, probably from the Continent. "Keeping the Sun and Moon in place affects all of us!" said another. Twilight saw Professor Secanter step forward, saying something, though he was too low to be heard over the shouts of the audience. Twilight was oddly more calm now than she was before. Her horn glowed as she magically enhanced her voice, ignoring the microphone just in front of her. She stepped to the side so her full frame was visible to everyone. "Enough!" she shouted, loud enough to overwhelm the audience. They stopped shouting, though they looked ready to begin again at the slightest provocation. Spike tapped her on the side and leaned over. "I think we should leave," he whispered in her ear. Twilight sighed. "My assistant thinks we should leave," said Twilight, voice still magnified. "I'm inclined to agree. Unless you all remember to keep your questions in the realm of science. Leave your politics out of it." There was some grumbling, but that seemed to calm things down. Twilight could see Professor Secanter wiping his brow with a handkerchief, his aides carrying worried expressions. A hand tentatively raised, a female gryphon. Twilight nodded in her direction, not bothering to get back behind the podium. "It says here that there will be no need for food as everyone will be provided with your survival pills for the trip." "That's correct," said Twilight, sure of where this was going and so continuing without waiting for her to finish her question. "I, or possibly my assistant Apple Bloom, will be designing survival pills for whatever species happen to be joining the project." "Are these designs conditional to participation?" came a voice from the crowd. "New designs will be made for export in due time, so no," said Twilight, annoyed. "Please do not shout over each other," she added. These adults had less self control than Twilight's students. "Next question?" Twilight nodded a raised hoof, a horse. "I notice not only do you imbed the Celestial Bodies in spheres of crystal, but you claim there exist these spheres in other spheres. Sometimes these spheres have no planets in them. Why are they there? Have you observed them?" Twilight shook her head. "Celestial Crystal is too... perfect, to observe naturally through telescopes, no matter how advanced. Too smooth and regular. Should we ever damage the crystal, perhaps attempting to reach something further out than the moon, we'd probably be able to see the cracks." "So how do you know they're there?" he asked again "Why are they there? And how do they rotate in each other without breaking? Mars for example, has four spheres without planets rotating around the epicycle. How are they spheres and not shards of broken crystal?" "That's two more questions, but I'll answer. First, I know they're there because the models predict them, given the variables our universe ended up with." That wasn't true, she knew they were there for other reasons, but the model did predict them. It was an accurate model, after all. "Your packet should explain it. The initial conditions are also why they're there. As to why they haven't crashed into each other, this is getting slightly off topic and is a matter of Atomic Physics. Simply put, Celestial Crystal treats itself as intangible. Two pieces of Celestial Crystal will move through each other, and so the spheres will never collide. And before anyone asks, it's different for the planets. However, the motion of the spheres and planets are regular, so upon creation when the spheres were being formed, holes for the planets were created in the crystal as the proto-planets moved through it." Another hoof went up. A Kirin. Female. Her purple scales shone brightly, their shade reminding Twilight of her own colouring. Twilight nodded to her. "Can you explain this creation in more detail?" "It's again slightly off topic, but I suppose," said Twilight. "Initially, everything was fire, or perhaps I should say, like fire, the initial substance being something that doesn't exist anymore. The Universe was very small, compressed, and hot. This is an unstable configuration, and so it expanded, cooled, that initial substance turning into other primary substances in stable ratios as the Xi lines lowered in frequency. There is more or less an equal distribution of Terrestrial and Celestial matter in the Universe. The Terrestrial moved inward. The Celestial spun around as the universe expanded. Things were still very hot, an awful lot of energy was still compacted in a small area. Therefore at the time, almost everything was liquid, including the Celestial Crystal, which formed spheres at various points as the Universe expanded. The Celestial Bodies being liquid, except for the Sun, Neptune, and Uranus, arranged themselves in a stable environment along their spheres and formed spheres themselves. It took a very long time before everything cooled, but one may think of it as glassworking. The Liquid planets were passing through the liquid Crystal, not mixing, and as the Crystal cooled and became solid it did so with holes already in it, where the planets passed through before. The Sun, Neptune and Uranus did the same thing, only later since they are made of Celestial Fire, Celestial Water, and Celestial Lightning, respectively and so wouldn't have formed at the same time as the others. Does that answer your question?" There was a tiny nod from the Kirin. Apple Bloom cleared her throat suddenly. She looked at Twilight, and gestured for her to come closer. "We have one minute until the lecture's over," she said. Twilight nodded, knowing that Apple Bloom would at best, leave, if they tried to stay over schedule. "Alright," said Twilight, turning back to the crowd. "One final question?" Twilight looked out for anyone who seemed like they might have an interesting question, and saw that Ditzy Doo had her hoof up, smiling, but unassuming, like she wasn't expecting to be picked over anypony else. Twilight smiled, and chose her for the final question. Ditzy Doo looked surprised, but her surprise turned to obvious elation as she began to speak, Sweetie Belle waving next to her in childish excitement. Twilight saw Apple Bloom tentatively wave back, as if she wasn't sure if she was supposed to. Twilight just waited patiently for the question. "I noticed there seems to be a... symmetry, to these equations, and the equations governing atomic structures. Can you explain that?" Twilight smiled a bit more brightly. She didn't think anypony would notice, because she didn't think anypony would know enough about Atomic Theory. "There's not much to explain," said Twilight. "Fundamentally the same equations govern everything, on the macro scale, and the atomic scale. It would be odd, wouldn't you agree, for the math governing motion and arrangement to be different just because we're talking about smaller things sometimes, right?" Ditzy Doo's eyes widened in recognition. Currently Twilight hadn't published any unified mathematics for all of reality. She wrote on Celestial Motion and Atomic Theory as separate subjects, and so made different assumptions for them in order to simplify matters. But reality was unified, and a sufficiently clever pony could probably take what was already written on the subjects and figure out how it all fit together. Twilight hoped it'd be Ditzy to do that. "Alright everyone, that was the last question," said Twilight. "Thank you for coming." There were some last minute questions shouted out at Twilight, but she ignored them, instead turning around and heading for the door to the small back room. Professor Secanter and his aides followed just behind. When the door closed behind them all, Twilight could still hear the faint shouts of questions. She exhaled, both to relieve stress and in annoyance. "Can I get that drink now?" asked Apple Bloom. Twilight looked at her, and then at Spike, then up at Professor Secanter. She really didn't want to stick around and possibly run into anyone from the audience who might demand more of her time. "How about instead, we all go out and do something fun?" she asked. "This is Canterlot, I know a lot of great places." "But I'm thirsty now," said Apple Bloom, stomping her hoof on the ground. "There are water fountains in the university, you can drink from one of those." Twilight was so glad that Apple Bloom didn't have a problem with that. As they turned to leave, Professor Secanter offered to get her a drink, but Twilight explained that wouldn't be necessary. She didn't say goodbye to him as she led her assistants out the door and quickly made for the exit, stopping only so Apple Bloom could spend nearly a full minute drinking from a fountain. With that done, they made their way outside, some of the guards nodding her in acknowledgement as they went. "Is there anything in particular either of you would like to do? See a film? Go to the park? There's a Wonderbolts show today...." They were in Canterlot, and Twilight had set the entire day aside for being there so they might as well try to have some fun. "Why don't we visit the Princess?" asked Spike. "It's been a long time since you've sent her a letter, and even longer since you saw her last." Twilight stopped walking suddenly, causing Apple Bloom to bump into her. She didn't even think of that. It had been... how long, since Twilight had just been able to visit with Celestia? Probably not since... at least the Grand Galloping Gala, if you even counted that. "Do you think we could?" asked Twilight, without moving. "Wouldn't she be busy?" "Don't you know?" asked Apple Bloom, and Twilight wondered if she asked that because she assumed she was in contact with the Princess, or because she had correctly guessed Mephistopheles's presence. She decided to ask Mephistopheles. "She's still trying to figure it out," he said. "She hasn't come to a conclusion yet." While she was at it, she asked about Celestia. "She's busy." "I'm pretty sure she's busy," said Twilight out loud. She began walking again, leading the way to nowhere in particular. "You won't know until you ask," said Apple Bloom. Twilight didn't need to confirm that this was another test. "I suppose we could try," she admitted, not pleased. She wanted to see Celestia. But she didn't want to do so because Apple Bloom had manoeuvred her into it. Twilight switched directions and began leading them back towards Canterlot Castle. When they arrived back at the gates they were received with a nod and a small smile by the guards. As they got closer to the Castle itself a few guards whose names Twilight had forgotten said their hellos, and finally reaching the entrance, Twilight was stopped. "Hey, Twilight," said the guard. Again Twilight didn't recognise the pony and couldn't tell the name. "Haven't seen you in a while. Court's not in session now though, so I can't really let you in unless you have business." Twilight smiled, trying to appear friendly. "Actually, it's been quite a while since I visited outside of business. I was wondering if Princess Celestia might see me. You think you could ask her?" She battered her eyes slightly as she leaned herself a bit closer to him. "Well, uh," he began, not sounding nervous, just uncertain, "We're not really supposed to bother her right now. But it is you, so I guess I can send somepony." Twilight thanked him as he stepped into the Castle for a moment and came right back out, having asked a guard on the inside to ask. Twilight glanced at Apple Bloom, who seemed rather pleased with herself. It occurred to Twilight she'd probably never met the Princess before, and meeting the Princess was a big deal to most ponies. It also occurred to her Apple Bloom might have some kind of plan, that she might be walking right into it. Twilight asked Mephistopheles about it. "She has no plan at the moment." Twilight was relieved to hear it. As they waited for an answer, the guard whom Twilight didn't know the name of gave her a few sidelong glances. Twilight pretended not to notice, but not in that cloying flirty way that might give off the idea she was playing with him. Instead she focused on Apple Bloom. She was currently counting the tiles on the path under the hooves. It was obvious, her eyes moved from tile to tile and Twilight could see her lips move as she said the numbers to herself. She'd taken Apple Bloom as an assistant so she could keep a close eye on her. She worried if Apple Bloom was left alone, she might start telling ponies her thoughts on how Twilight got all her knowledge. It was moments like these that Twilight thought she might be acting paranoid. Apple Bloom now lacked the focus to sit and think about anything for long stretches of time, unless that thing was building or fixing stuff. She probably would never sit down and re-think through all the clues Twilight unavoidably left behind and come to the right conclusion, and if she did, who would believe her? Now that she was like this? Maybe her family. But that's it. Still... Twilight didn't want to risk it. At least this way Twilight could direct Apple Bloom's thoughts to something more productive and less dangerous to her plans. If worst came to worst, she'd be able to stop Apple Bloom from telling anypony anything. The door opened, fully. A guard on the other side spoke, and the guard that had been hitting on Twilight stepped aside. "The Princess will see you," he said. "Wonderful." Twilight took a step forward, following the guard to Celestia's chamber, and her assistants walked behind her. They weren't stopped, so the guard had been smart enough to include them in the visit. Unlike when the Castle was open, either for court or for tourists, going through the castle when closed was a lonely experience. The halls were wide and empty, unadorned with banners or decorations, for there was nopony to impress. Guards patrolling the hallways and flanking certain high security rooms were the only other ponies to be seen. When they arrived, the guard stepped aside and gestured for them to go in. This wasn't a formal visit and the guard knew that, so there was no need for an announcement. Twilight enveloped the door handle in magic, and stopped for a moment to compose herself. She had to remember this was just a social call. She wasn't in trouble. Nopony had died. She was just here because she missed her friend and teacher, Spike had suggested it, and Apple Bloom... well, she wasn't important here. She opened the door and stepped through. Twilight had been here a thousand times. And like all times but one, Celestia had arranged herself to be presentable. She was sitting comfortably, but not completely candidly on a new plush red pillow. There was a stack of parchment sitting next to her, hastily put away, a closed inkwell and quill on top. "Twilight," she said as they approached. She was smiling, but the smile seemed kind of sad. "And Spike," she continued, nodding in his direction. Her smile grew warmer. "And you must be Apple Bloom." She nodded in her direction as well. "I heard Twilight decided to take on another assistant. Unfortunately I did not hear this from her." She sounded both chiding and amused. The tone helped put Twilight at ease. "I forgot," said Twilight honestly. "I understand," said Celestia. She looked past Twilight and continued, "How are you two getting along?" "Great," and "fine," came the replies. "Must be quite a life," she said to them both. She looked directly at Apple Bloom. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened. You are adjusting well I assume?" Apple Bloom blinked. Twilight could tell she was nervous. "It's hard," she said. "But I do okay." "I imagine it would be difficult," said Celestia, nodding. She looked back at Spike. "I know it's a bit rude, but could you two give Twilight and me some privacy? Perhaps, Spike, you could give Apple Bloom a tour of the castle? Just tell the guard outside and he'll escort you as you show her around." "O - of course, Princess," said Spike. Apple Bloom looked unhappily at the dragon, but she followed him as they left. Twilight hadn't expected this, but she wasn't unsurprised by it. As soon as the door closed and the two were gone, Celestia spoke up. "I'm glad you came," she said. "It's been a long time." "It has," said Twilight, and she was relieved to see Celestia nudge herself over, inviting Twilight to sit next to her. Just like old times. Twilight went ahead and did so. She felt content. Like her worries had melted away. She leaned her head against Celestia's side. Celestia didn't object, and Twilight barely registered she might have objected. "Is everything going well?" asked Celestia. "Yeah," said Twilight, not moving her head. "It's... stressful. I feel stressed. All the time. I've gotten used to it.... I don't feel like myself." "You haven't been spending a lot of time with your friends." It wasn't uncertain. She knew. "I haven't forgotten them. I spend time with them. But there's so little time. And so much else to do." There was a pause. "I know," said Celestia. Twilight sighed, feeling vulnerable suddenly. She didn't want to disappoint Celestia anymore. "How did your lecture go today, my student?" Twilight picked her head off of Celestia at that. She was just her student? Not her most faithful student? "Not as bad as I feared," said Twilight, sounding more professional than before. "Not as well as I hoped. A few of them tried to ask me political questions. I don't know what you're planning to do about that. It's not my project! I just explained the sky, I didn't suggest going up there!" Celestia reached over and nuzzled Twilight. Her actions were calming, and when Celestia had stopped, Twilight found herself putting her had back down on her teacher's side. "I know it's not your project," she said. "You never said we had to go to the Moon. But you planted the idea, and you explained to everypony how it was possible." "I didn't do that either," said Twilight. "Apple Bloom did." "And you taught Apple Bloom." "So I'm responsible?" "In a way." Twilight thought about that for a moment. She moved her off Celestia for the second time. "Are you saying you feel responsible for my mistakes?" Celestia just looked down at Twilight, saying nothing. She extended her wing slightly, and nudged Twilight closer, setting her head back down on her side, with her wing folded and covering Twilight's body. "I feel like I am sometimes," said Celestia. "Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't feel uncertain about it. I'd say yes, your mistakes are my mistakes. But... you've changed. I know you have. You lie to me, right to my face. And you keep things from me. I don't know what happened... and I don't know if it's my fault, or if somepony else has done something to you. Or maybe you've decided to stop listening to me. I don't know." Twilight pressed her body into Celestia's side harder, nuzzling her close. "I'm sorry," said Twilight, her voice muffled as she spoke. "I'm so sorry. But... I can't tell you. It's too late. I think if I told you what happened, everything that's been going on... it'd just make things worse. I don't mean any harm... I just want to help everypony. Make the world a better place. I don't want to hurt anypony or go against you or anything. You'll have to trust me on that." "How can I trust you when you won't tell me what's going on? When you lie to me?" "That's why it's trust, Princess. I can't tell you why everything's going to be alright. But it will be, I'm sure of it. So long as you trust me. I can't... I don't think I could keep going if you didn't trust me." There was a long pause. For the briefest of moments Twilight considered asking Mephistopheles what Celestia was thinking. But she couldn't help but think if there was ever a moment when it was inappropriate to peak at another pony's thoughts, this was it. She'd trust Celestia, she wouldn't try and tailor her own reactions to what Celestia was thinking. Suddenly, Celestia sighed. "I don't know what to do," she said. "Luna wants me to trust her too. And while she hasn't lied to me, she's made obvious mistakes. You haven't done that, not that I can see. I don't think I can rely on her judgement. And I can't trust you both, what you want and what she wants are at odds. What do you think I should do?" The tone of her voice surprised Twilight. Her teacher, her mentor, the pony she looked up to her entire life was asking her opinion on what to do, and with such helplessness... she'd never heard Celestia speak like that before. It broke her heart. And it was all Luna's fault. Luna was wrong. Twilight was right. Luna had missed out on the last thousand years. She knew nothing. Twilight knew everything. That was enough to know what to say. "Trust me," said Twilight. "How could you ask me to trust you over my own sister?" asked Celestia. She didn't seem offended. She was asking a serious question. "I've never tried to overthrow you and kill everypony with Eternal Night," said Twilight, chuckling lightly. "I know I've made mistakes. But I don't think I've made any that were that... big. And destructive." Celestia sighed. Twilight couldn't hear it, but she could feel it, the slow movement of Celestia's body as she exhaled. "I'll trust you," she said softly. "Unless I can't. And I'll have to admit to myself that Luna isn't as trustworthy as you. For now." That sounded ominous. It meant either Twilight could lose trust. Or Luna could gain it. "Thank you," said Twilight anyway. "I won't let you down." Three hundred a forty seven steps. That was probably three hundred feet. Together, fifteen thousand feet squared. Just hallways. Each room was of varying size. She didn't get to see all the rooms. From what she did see, estimated floor space of Canterlot Castle was nearly a million square feet. It'd be fun to make something like it. Maybe not as big. But maybe a new house for the farm. She'd have to talk to Applejack about it later. Apple Bloom walked quietly behind Spike, who walked behind a guard. He was four feet, three inches tall, his natural coat probably brown, judging from the shade of his white coat near his mane. His mane was harder to determine, though most brown coated colts had dark manes, so probably black. When they arrived back at Celestia's chambers, Twilight and Celestia were talking quietly, sitting together. They looked up, their heads moving thirty five degrees to look at who had interrupted them. They were sitting very close, their heads previously hunkered down. Their relationship was closer than Apple Bloom had thought. Perhaps like a mother and a daughter. Given what Apple Bloom knew about Twilight's feelings for her sister, it was definitely not romantic. Twelve steps from the door to Twilight and Celestia. "How did you like the tour?" Celestia asked. Her mouth curved upwards thirty percent lower than maximum, given the lines on her face. She was either only casually interested, or trying to hide disappointment, probably at being interrupted. "It was alright," said Apple Bloom. "I like the design. It's very classical. But the stone's newer, so it was probably built recently. Within the last hundred fifty years or so." "I didn't know you were interested in architecture," said the Princess. "Buildin' things is my special talent. Building and fixing. Putting things together. Stuff like that." "An admirable talent." Apple Bloom wished the Princess wouldn't say such meaningless things. All talents were admirable. "Thanks," said Apple Bloom. That was the proper thing to say in response. "Would you two like to sit?" she asked, indicating nearby cushions. "I still have some time, if you wish." Apple Bloom smiled, because she needed to show she appreciated the gesture. She nodded, so they would know she wanted to talk to the princess. Spike trotted over on his stubby legs to a cushion and lied down on it, with a content sigh. "I've missed these things," he said. Apple Bloom wondered why he didn't have them at the workshop. She moved forward and sat down, taking a moment to look closer at them. They were soft. They were filled with many things, not simple fibres. Feathers. Pegasus Feathers. The fabric was thin. A type of silk. They'd be very expensive, which should have been obvious, these were the Princess's pillows. Twilight didn't have them because either she couldn't afford them, or couldn't justify the cost. Definitely the latter. Apple Bloom turned her head towards Celestia, who was speaking now. She'd missed what was said, but luckily the question wasn't directed at her. It was directed at Spike. Apple Bloom paid attention, but it wasn't anything important. Small talk. Meaningless stuff that conveyed no real information other than interest in each others's well being. The Princess was doing this so they would know she cared about them. Spike responded because it was necessary for her to do so, and because he wanted to show interest in the Princess beyond her status as Monarch. Apple Bloom looked at Twilight. She wished she could have some alone time with the Princess like Twilight had. Twilight was scary. The Princess didn't know it. She wasn't so scary that it was an emergency, but there was definitely something wrong. When there was a lull in conversation, Apple Bloom spoke up. "Princess Celestia, do all letters to you have to be letters on friendship? Can we write just to tell you how our day's been?" "Of course, Apple Bloom," she said. "I can't promise I'll respond, but I'm interested in the lives of all my subjects. If there's something you want to share with me, you can do so, whatever it is." Apple Bloom could see the corners of Twilight's eyes narrow about one sixteenth of an inch. She suspected something, though Apple Bloom wasn't sure if she suspected the truth of her motivations, or if Twilight was suspecting wrongly. There was no way to find out without informing her of her own motivations, and it was more important to remain secret. Apple Bloom just didn't want anything bad to happen. And there was a possibility that Twilight was being controlled in some way, or perhaps simply being manipulated. Either way, there was a possible danger to everypony in Equestria. Possibly the world. She'd have to keep Celestia up to date, and do so in a way that seemed like idle observation. "That'd be great," said Apple Bloom. "Lots of cool things happen and I'd like to talk to somepony about them." That would sound stupid. If that was the case, she could talk to her friends. To Twilight. To Spike, or to her family. But she couldn't think of anything else to say that was both appropriate, and wouldn't give anything away. The rest of the visit was short lived and uninteresting. More small talk. Apple Bloom responded properly when spoken to by the others. The goal of the visit had been accomplished. Apple Bloom had successfully taken the opportunity presented to her, and obtained a direct line to the Princess. She hoped everything would go alright.