Twilight was mortified; her mentor staring at her with a stern expression. She didn’t know what do, how to respond. Should she act strong and in control or rather submissive and apologetic? Certainly, things had gone a bit awry, but was it really so bad? Did she have to fear to stand responsible before Celestia?
Twilight decided to take the middle ground, hoping to salvage the situation either way it was going to swing. “Princess Celestia! I- I did not expect you.”
“You did not?” Celestia looked around, the now calm village taking the edge off her stance. “I assumed that you were in danger and unable to send a full letter as warning.”
Twilight was not sure what to make of this. How did one of the constructs end up with Celestia? Unless- “Spike. Did you send one of the spiders to Princess Celestia?”
Spike looked embarrassed and folded his claws in front of him, looking down. “My bad. Sorry.”
Twilight shook her head, but turned to Celestia again. The damage was done already; no need to shift around blame. “Princess, I am grateful that you responded in order to help. But I can assure you that the situation is now under control.”
“Yes, Twilight, I gathered as much.” Celestia relaxed almost unnoticeably, but held her gaze at Twilight. “I still expect an explanation to what happened.”
Twilight shifted around nervously, unsure where to begin. There was no point to talk around the subject with Celestia; eventually she had to tell the truth. “Well, last night, or sometime earlier this night, I gave the printer a command to print out the components for a magical construct I whipped up. It was a simple design, with a single spell matrix in the center. Copy Cat is really good with that, I must say. The spell matrix would assemble the construct from the given components and contains a come-to-life spell interwoven with a wood-divining enhancement and a sorting quality filt-”
Celestia held her hoof up and interrupted Twilight. “No need to explain the technicalities. I presume the ‘printer’ refers to one of the devices I heard so much about?”
“Yes, it can construct objects from soft wood by repeatedly printing layers of material on top of-” Twilight continued, but stopped as she realized that she was rambling on.
“I understand. Please continue with the events of earlier this night.”
“Right, well, the construct was supposed to help with finding suitable material to make soft wood of higher quality. I watched as the parts were printed out, but must have dozed off. When I awoke again, there were suddenly dozens of the spiders. I must have hit the keyboard and repeatedly send the print command. When there was no more material, something caused the spiders to seek out wood. Maybe the feeding mechanism for the printer was more complex than needed; I’m not sure.”
Celestia looked at Twilight, seemingly processing some of the terms she had used. She paused momentarily in thought, then addressed her again. “So if the material had not run out, would the printer have made even more of these constructs?”
“As much as there were wooden chips with the spell matrix on it. There were another hundred or so of those. Copy Cat is worryingly good at that; I guess I should talk to her sometime.”
“And suppose you had another contraption, automating the process of turning wood to soft wood. Would the constructs have fed said contraption?”
For a moment Twilight gazed at the stars, thinking, then responded “If the machine is designed properly, it should be possible.”
Celestia’s voice had taken on a slight tone of playful condescension. She sometimes did that, when she led Twilight on a trail of thought leading to a desired conclusion. “And suppose further you had taken an extraordinarily long nap, or simply forgot to turn the machines off in the evening. What would have happened?”
Twilight looked at Celestia puzzled, then she understood and hastened to reply “Oh, but Princess! I never would take it that far!” Behind her, Spike folded his arms and silently mouthed ‘Parasprite’.
Celestia hardened her expression again, regaining her regal composure and reminding Twilight, that she was in the presence of the Princess of the Sun. “That may be so; we will determine that at a later date. Still, you have violated one of your new responsibilities. I will now return to Canterlot. You can go to sleep, but we will have a private audience tomorrow afternoon at the court.” With a look at Pinkie Pie, who had fallen asleep laying curled up next to Spike, she added “And I expect the presence of the Bearers of Harmony.”
~~~
The six Bearers of Harmony entered the courtroom of Celestia with mixed feelings. Five of them were not entirely sure what their purpose in this meeting was, but could guess at it, when they observed the sixth one for even a little while. Twilight could not hide the dread she was feeling. Despite being almost a surrogate mother to her, Celestia could very well take on her role as diarch of Equestria. If she felt the need to reprimand Twilight, it was fully in her right and ability to do so.
Except for the six mares and Celestia herself, there were only two guards and a transcriber present. The latter reminded Twilight, that a transcript of this audience would be available to privy eyes. Then again, if what Spike had told her was true, then her reputation was already permanently damaged.
When the group had arrived at Celestia’s seat, they gave her a bow, to which the guards and the transcriber responded in kind, facing Twilight. Then, the transcriber took a step forward.
“Princess Celestia receives Princess Twilight Sparkle and friends. The third audience of October 11th in the year 3471 begins now.”
Celestia nodded towards the pony and stood up from her seat. “Thank you, Fast Quill. This audience will address the work of Princess Twilight Sparkle and the events, that happened in Ponyville on the night from yesterday to today. Princess Twilight Sparkle, please recount everything that has happened since yesterday evening until my arrival in Ponyville, including technical details.”
Twilight tried to tone down her nervousness and began to describe the flow of events. This time, Celestia did not interrupt her and only asked technical questions about the time frame of individual events and the position of some objects. Her voice never rose in pitch or volume, as if she was merely checking off some items on a mental checklist. Twilight could only assume, that Celestia did not care much about the detailed description, but was required to form a full report.
When Twilight was finished, she breathed out slowly, releasing the tension, that had accumulated during the long talk. The others had listened patiently, Rainbow and Pinkie with some difficulty, and gave her supporting smiles.
Celestia turned towards the transcriber and said “We will close the transcription here, if you please.” The transcriber raised an eyebrow, indicating that this was somewhat unorthodox, but then nodded and jotted down some final lines on the scroll.
Celestia gave Twilight a minute to gather her thoughts and for her friends to whisper among themselves. Then, she addressed Twilight again: “Twilight, do you know why I had you come here to report in an official audience?”
Twilight silently panicked. What rule had she broken? Was this covered in one of the books she hadn’t, but should have, read yet? Maybe this was a trick question or a test of her knowledge. She began to think back to everything Celestia had told her since her coronation, but this was too much to remember in the span of a moment. Or was she referring to her friendship reports?
Twilight opened her mouth to stammer out some fill-ins to buy her a bit more time. But then the answer became clear to her, as obvious as it was. She lowered her head and spoke with a tremble in her voice.
“Because I have endangered all of Ponyville.”
“Precisely. Given your report from just now, you should have been able to predict what was going to happen when the device was finished printing the components. I understand why it seemed like a convenience to give the constructs that much autonomy, but by doing so you also could no longer guarantee the safety of these machines. Instead of taking a safer alternative, you chose your convenience over the safety of others and yourself.
“While I would like to be lenient this time, I have to hold you responsible as a Princess of Equestria. Your actions endangered the ponies of Ponyville. I need you to understand this and be more careful in the future. You need to internalize, that the well-being of those around you is more important than your work.
“Since the damage is not great, I am sure that you can take care of repairs on your own time and with your own funds. I will not punish you, but expect a public apology to your fellow ponies.”
Twilight held her head down in shame, a tear sneaking down her cheek. At her side, Applejack laid a hoof over her shoulder; Pinkie offered a smile. The others looked like they wanted to give Twilight a hug, but could not move without turning their back to Celestia.
“That brings us to your work in the past months. I cannot deny that I am impressed and pleased with the progress you brought to Equestria. I am, however, concerned about the effect of your sometimes overzealous work ethic on your health and your appearance.”
Celestia could not hold back a small grin. “Rumors have a way to travel to Canterlot.”
“I can assure you, that all that work and all those projects will still be there tomorrow. Take it easy, Twilight.”
Wiping away the tears in her eyes, Twilight looked up again and met Celestia’s gaze with a hint of confidence. When Celestia did not continue, she finally replied “Thank you, Princess, for speaking the truth. I can remember when I wrote in a friendship report about the importance of being honest with your friends. I see that you know this too. I just wish, I were not such a disappointment as a princess.”
Celestia’s expression softened and she began to walk towards the group standing before her. “You are not, Twilight. When Luna agreed to your coronation, it was after I had convinced her, that you are ready for it. I still stand by my judgement. You made a mistake, yes, but do not let this get too close to your heart.”
Celestia had arrived at the group and nudged Twilight to look up to her and meet her eyes. “Everything is going to be fine.” she said, as she nuzzled Twilight. Pinkie Pie could not help herself and pulled all seven of them into a group hug. Nopony complained.
~~~
Holding a big package in her magical grip, Twilight walked through Ponyville with a whistle and a smile. It had taken her two days, and an embarrassing amount of ice cream, to cheer her up again, but her friends had done their best to improve her mood.
The residents of Ponyville had taken the whole affair with stride. Compared to an Ursa Minor, a couple of spiders were not as frightening. The next day, everypony was back to their routine and only a disgruntled clock maker had actually filed a complaint. The work in the ominous building across the library square had continued as always, only being made less ominous by the absence of Twilight Sparkle.
She had decided that Celestia was right and there was no need to spend day and night working on everything. Spike had been relieved to hear that she would stay the afternoons and evenings in the library again and only work in the morning on her projects.
The package was the same cardboard box, that had ended up in Twilight hooves. The contents were also the same, albeit with some additions. The books were full with bookmarks, sidenotes and one or two or many coffee stains on each page. The printer was made from the original components, while Twilight had made a copy of it for herself; a tribute to her work with it. The controller was missing from the package. Twilight could not bear to part with it, especially since it was still holding so much secrets and was irreplaceable for her work. Instead, the box contained a bar of gold and a heartfelt apology. Hopefully the recipient could just get another controller.
Twilight arrived at the post office and entered the building. There was not much work to do, so the two post office workers were sitting behind the counter when Twilight entered. One of them was a pegasus mare with gray coat, staring at a muffin before her. Twilight went up to the counter and greeted her.
“Hello, Ditzy. How are you?”
Ditzy took a bite out of the muffin and simply smiled sheepishly.
“Do you remember the package you brought us all those months ago? I think it is time for it to finally arrive at its destination. Could you deliver it for me?”
“Sure!”
Ditzy grabbed the package with ease and flew off, as soon as she left the building. Twilight decidedly did not look to see in which direction she was headed. It was better that way.