//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Lessons // Story: Mother Celestia // by jl7895 //------------------------------// Before I called Celestia my mom, I always wondered and dreamed about what my real mom was like. I always wanted her to be sweet, caring, and always looking out for me. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to call Celestia my mom. She was everything I thought my actual mom was like. At the same time, I had no idea that there was another side to being a parent. When she adopted me, our relationship changed a bit. First off, I noticed that she was more loving. Remember back when I had my nightmares and Celestia would sleep in my bed to calm me down? When I woke up, I would find her holding me as if I was her own. I always enjoyed it because it made me feel loved and safe. Before I turned ten, Celestia would sneak into my room and sleep in my bed. I told everypony that I hated it, but secretly I loved it. There was just something about her that made me feel secure. I think she knew this, and that’s why she didn’t stop. She also started teaching me life lessons. When we were younger and we wanted a toy, all Cadence and I had to do was ask. That stopped around the second grade. Celestia told us that if we wanted something, we had to earn it. She would tell the maids to leave at least one chore for each of us every day. For every three chores we completed, we would earn five bits. She wanted us to earn everything. The strange thing was the records sounded better when I bought them. This was just one thing she taught us. Almost every day, she wanted to teach us something new, and neither of us minded it. “Always make a good first impression” is why all of our teachers loved us. “Make good choices” is what kept us out of trouble. “Work hard today and rest tomorrow” is what gave us good grades. We took each of her lessons to heart, but she’s not the only one that gave me life lessons. Shining Armor’s little sister was born towards the end of the third grade. She was a cute little purple unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. When she was able to walk and talk, Shining brought her along when the five of us went out. We didn’t mind. She was too cute to even care. One day Vinyl and Octavia wanted to try something new. Octavia was going to play her cello and Vinyl was going to remix a record at the same time. It was something that none of wanted to miss. We went to go look for Shining and eventually found him in Canterlot Park with Twilight. “Shining!” Cadence said as she ran towards them, “you have to come see this. Vinyl and Octavia are doing something amazing!” “Trust us, it’s something that you don’t want to miss,” Octavia said when she caught up to Cadence. “Alright, let’s…” “But Shining,” Twilight said with almost a puppy dog look on his face, “you promised that we would play hide-and-seek.” “She’s right guys. Sorry, but I made a promise.” “Aw come on Twily,” Vinyl said after she sat down next to Twilight, “you can always play with Shining Armor another time.” “I know, but I love playing with Shining. He’s my BBBFF.” We all gave Twilight a look of confusion. “My big brother best friend forever.” “Oh,” we said at the same time. “Yeah, but…” “Vinyl, I made a promise to Twily, and you should always keep a promise. What kind of pony would I be if I didn’t keep my promise?” “I’m fine with waiting until tomorrow,” Octavia said as she sat down, “what about you, Vinyl?” “Fine, I can wait too. But I think there’s somepony who can’t.” “Who?” Twilight asked “The tickle monster!” Vinyl started tickling Twilight. When she finished we stayed in the park and played with Twilight and Shining. What Shining said really stuck with me. When you make a promise to somepony, they put all of their trust into you. I couldn’t show my face if I ever lost anypony’s trust. From that day on, anytime I made any promise to anypony, I kept it. Just ask Vinyl. Speaking of which, her and Octavia gave me a great lesson. It all started when Shining Armor was sick in the fourth grade. As it turned out, Lightning Arc only avoided us because he was afraid of Shining Armor. The first chance he got, he immediately went back to his old roots. He approached us while we were sitting eating lunch. “Well now, it looks like somepony came to school without their armor. Why don’t you go play a sad song about how these are the only friends you’re ever going to make, Tavi?” “You know what!?” Vinyl shouted as she stood up and slammed her hands on the table. “You should really learn to pick your battles!” Like Shining Armor, you could just see the anger grown on her face. “If you didn’t notice, Shining Armor isn’t the only unicorn here! And that spell you saw, was basic defense spell!” Like Shining, her horn was glowing brighter and a ball of energy was forming at the tip. The spell was actually just a light source and wouldn’t do anything if anypony touched it, but Lightning Arc didn’t need to know that. To scare him even more, Cadence and I started to do it too. I don’t think I ever saw anypony gallop faster than before. I looked over at Octavia and she didn’t even budge. It was like Lightning Arc wasn’t even there. “How do you do it?” I asked her. “How do you keep calm when it comes to jerks like that?” “It’s always important to keep your composure and never lower yourself down to their level. Trust me, there are times where it’s better to do nothing.” “At the same time,” Vinyl said after calming herself down, “you should also try and stand your ground. If you let too many ponies walk all over you, you’ll never get back up.” I understood what both of them were saying. On one hand, you have to fight for what you believe in, even to the bitter end. Even if you knew you were going to lose, you have to at least try and maybe, just maybe, you’ll win. On the other hand, you have to know when to back down. Sometimes the risk isn’t worth the reward, and trying would just be a waste of energy. What you have to do is find the perfect balance. It’s alright to fight for your friends, but it’s also alright to give in over something small. The biggest lesson came from a close friend of mine. If it wasn’t obvious, Shining Armor and I were destined to join the Royal Guard. Celestia wanted to introduce us the whole thing. During the first half of the summer between eighth and ninth grade, Princess Celestia wanted us to shadow Captain Iron Side. Cadence even volunteered to watch Twilight. We both enjoyed almost every moment of it. We started off every morning with the assignments and daily salute, which was Shining’s favorite part. Even after the summer, Shining showed up whenever he could to salute with the rest of the guards. Next came his daily patrol around the city. Then, if he didn’t finish it yet, his monthly report. It was the only paper work he had to do, and it was the most boring part of the day. He would try and get it done quickly and we would go to training camp. “Alright you newbies,” he shouted to the new cadets on our first day, “this is Shining Armor and Golden Shield! They’re going to be in your spots one day, bit I’m almost positive that they can already run laps around you! So are you little fillies going to prove me wrong or do there two have more stallion in their finger than you do in your entire body!?” I’ve never seen Captain Iron Side this way. I knew that he had to be this strict and mean in front of the new ponies, but this blew me away. Afterwards, we went to the obstacle course. Shining Armor and I did a run with the cadets, but they helped us a lot. We had to sit out the next run because that was the one that they counted. After that, Captain Iron Side would take us to a somewhat late lunch and let us go about our day. On our last day, Captain Iron Side asked us if we wanted to know anything else about joining the Royal Guard. Shining Armor didn’t have any questions, so he was free to go, but I still wanted to know a few thing. “Captain Iron Side,…” “Please Golden, I’m off duty. Please just call me Iron Side.” “Iron Side, when did you know you wanted to be Captain of the Royal Guard?” “That’s a tough one son. I’ve always been good at defense, both verbally and physically. I was really good at sports, but not very good at making my point clear. I dropped the idea of me becoming a lawyer and decided to focus on something that could utilize my talents, so I joined the Royal Guard. The captain before me, Captain Strong Arms, convinced me to go for captain when he retired. I was scared and didn’t want to take the risk at first, but then he told me something I’ll never forget. He told me ‘Don’t live your life with regrets, and regrets are just risk you didn’t take’.” That stuck with me the most. Everypony says that they don’t want to live their lives with regrets. I was one of those ponies. With that advice I knew what I had to do. I promised myself that I would take more risks, but I had no idea what the repercussions were. I didn’t care, because what kind of pony would I be if I didn’t keep a promise, especially to myself.