//------------------------------// // Not perfect // Story: Short stories about ponies and whatnot // by shutaro //------------------------------// Arcane lightning flashed all over Canterlot as a huge magic circle turned in the sky. Twilight Sparkle sat at the center of it all and directed powers that might have leveled mountains or raised the sea. But there was only one thought on her mind: She had failed Celestia. She had failed her and now it was time to make it right. “Spike, do you have the Eye of the Dragon?” Her assistant opened a small chest and presented a perfect ruby on a bed of black velvet. “Looking right at ya, Twilight.” The arch-mage of Equestria rolled her eyes at the cheesy line, but she lifted the gem into her spell anyway. In the next minute a king’s ransom in rare, enchanted jewels followed the first and took their places in the gigantic spell. Princess Luna stood on the peak of the Canterhorn and inspected the spellwork with a critical eye. “I see, so that’s what Nightmare Moon did wrong when we attempted this. Twilight uses different jewels for the same spells to make them resonate at different frequencies, so they won’t interfere with each other. Genius! Of course the Nightmare wouldn’t have thought of that. It was all ‘onyx, black and darkness’ with her.” Celestia stepped through the snow and joined her sister in admiring her former protégé’s handiwork. “Yes, very impressive. I expected no less from her. But you realize that the temporal gradient will be too steep? Time magic on this scale is about more than just knowing the right spell, she doesn’t have the experience to pull this one off. If she goes through with the spell, Canterlot will not just take a little one-day jump back in time. We might be looking at years, maybe even decades of history undone. I feel we already live in a world that’s almost as perfect as perfect can be, sister. I’m not going to put that at risk because Twilight thinks she can escape the inevitable.” Luna tore her eyes off the magnificent display of power. “You propose to go down there and tell the most perfectionist pony ever that the world will not live up to her expectations? That what you and she share will have a blemish she can not repair? Do you remember the day we told her that she was no longer your student, that there was nothing left to teach her? She almost unraveled reality before we could tell her she was our equal now. And she is even more powerful today.” Celestia smiled one of her little smiles. Had Twilight seen it she would have looked out for a flying pie or a blackboard eraser over a door. Celestia was about to pull a prank. And a big one by the looks of it. She drew a schematic of the spell into the air and pointed to the ring of gems. “You noticed the genius of using different gems to house the spells. Well, while I agree that it solves the fundamental problem, Twilight has been sloppy in choosing the components. Really, Luna,  would you have taken something a dragon has slept on for years or would you have taken the time and created the gems from scratch?” The princess of the night looked at the ring of magic artefacts and shuddered. “I see your point, sister. We should hurry, and take out that spell. I can already see the decay in the structure. If that energy cascades back down to Twilight it might fry her horn off.” “I came prepared,” Celestia’s voice gained a sing-song quality. “I know you’re around, you always are.” Just as if he stepped from the air Discord joined the two sisters on the snowy summit. He held a beach chair in his lion paw and started to unfold it. “You know me too well, Celestia. But there is little you can do to convince me today. I enjoy watching little Twilight fail far too much. She had it coming for years. Little Miss Perfect, always cramping my style.” “Oh, I don’t want her to succeed, not with this one.” Discord magiced a pair of sunglasses into his face, just so he could pull them down onto his snout and give Celestia a disbelieving stare over the rim. “Just make sure that nopony get’s hurt and I offer you a public cheesecake to the face.” “Tempting.” The spirit of chaos looked up to the display. He too could see the little imperfections that would blow the spell out of the sky in time. “Make it a public cheesecake for you and Sparkle and you have yourself a deal.” “A public one for me and a private one for the two of us,” Celestia said and stuck a hoof out. “Deal!” Discord bumped the lion paw to Celestia’s hoof, then he snapped his eagle claw and the first gem exploded into a thousand shimmering shards that flittered down to the city below. A veritable firework burned up in the sky and painted the night in a thousand different colors. Then he walked over to Luna and in one fluid move slapped a cheesecake in her face. The princess of the night sputtered through the crust and cream. “What’s the big idea? We had no … Oh, I see. For your silence about this?” Discord turned his head to Celestia to gloat a bit, but she was already gone. He turned back to Luna. “Yeah, it would be a shame if those two got in any real problems.” And then he was gone too. Celestia touched down in the royal gardens. Her former student sat in a circle of singed grass and looked at the sky with tears in her eyes. “It was going to be perfect,” she whispered. She didn’t notice Celestia beside her until the bigger alicorn gently wrapped a wing around her. “Twilight, please calm down. I’m not angry you forgot to prepare a present. I don’t need perfect, I need you.” The two alicorns sat together and watched the last sparkles of light that had illuminated all of Canterlot just a few seconds before. ”We can always celebrate the anniversary of our first kiss with just another kiss.” And they did. Then both took a cheesecake to the face.