//------------------------------//
// The Forgivness of a Mentor 
// Story: The Canterlot Healing Process 
// by twilightsparkle3562 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 6

"The Forgiveness of a Mentor"

The day of the real wedding was a glorious day in Canterlot and all the ponies were finally looking forward to witnessing and celebrating Princess Cadence and Shining Armor's marriage. All of Canterlot had been repaired and those who suffered minor injuries were healed of their wounds. Twilight had spent the morning with her friends getting last minute preparations done with Cadence. Everything had to go right and after everything that had happened, it was no wonder that everypony was thinking the same thing.

Perhaps no one was looking forward to this day more than Twilight Sparkle, who was now her brother's Best Mare and her future sister in law's Mare of Honor. It was a few hours before the wedding and Twilight was alone in the bridal suite getting herself ready for the ceremony, while her friends were helping Cadence get ready. She was wearing the magenta dress her friends made for her and she was putting her mane into curls. As she had just finished getting ready, a knock was heard at the door.

"Come in," she said and the door opened to reveal her mentor, Princess Celestia, walking towards her. Twilight was not expecting to see her mentor so soon, but Celestia had a good reason for it.  Despite everything she had said to Luna the night before regarding Twilight's future, the real damage between her and Twilight still had to be fixed right here and right now.

"Hello, Twilight," she said, seeing how lovely her faithful student looked in her wedding attire. "You look beautiful."

"Well, thank you," Twilight replied bowing to her and blushing slightly. "It's not every day someone as important as you gives a nice compliment.  My friends worked very hard on this dress, you know."

Twilight then used her magic to put on the string of pearls and flowers on her head, completing her look for the wedding.

"Actually, Twilight," said Celestia, taking in a heavy sigh. "I wanted to talk to you about something that happened a few days ago at the rehearsal."

But, Twilight had already knew what Celestia was going to say. She was going to bring up the moment that they all walked out on her in that moment of despair and agony.  First her brother, then her friends, now her mentor and it was still coming.

"I know what you are going to say, princess," answered Twilight, knowing what Celestia was going to say. "Everypony has been so apologetic to me lately after what happened at the rehearsal. My brother and my friends and now you."

"The reason we have been feeling so apologetic towards you Twilight," said Celestia, looking down at Twilight, with remorseful eyes. "Is because we ignored the one pony who knew something was wrong with Cadence and that was you. I knew better than to leave you alone in the wedding hall like that.  I am just as fallible as anypony despite being a princess."

"Well," replied Twilight, not knowing what to say now. "I would normally say that you had every right to leave me alone. I bursted into the rehearsal without any evidence to back me up and we both know that Cadence would never act like that."

"I know, Twilight," said Celestia. "I was so caught up in monitoring a situation that was already in Canterlot that I didn't take notice. You are right, we have both known Cadence forever and that even if she did act the way she acted towards everyone, she would have kept it to herself and come to me and Princess Luna."

Princess Celestia sighed heavily at what she was going to say next.  Twilight could see tears forming in her eyes, which she never expected her mentor to show.

"Twilight," she said sadly. "I know I angrily said to you that you had a lot to think about for your actions at the wedding rehearsal. But, I guess I was the one who had a lot to think about and because we did not listen to you, the Changelings had invaded Canterlot and I failed to protect my subjects from the Changeling Queen in front of them all at the fake wedding. Whereas I failed you, Twilight, you did not fail me and that is something I and all of Canterlot and Equestria will always be grateful for."

It seemed that this apology was enough for Twilight to take in and much like before, a small tear came down her cheek much to her concern as she didn't want her light makeup to be ruined.

"Thank you, Princess," said Twilight as a small tear came down her face. "I know I acted like a little jealous foal in the eyes of you and everypony else, but I guess now you see that I was only trying to protect the ones who are so close to me because I care about you and that I could see that when the fake Cadence failed to recite our friendly greeting that we always shared from our days when she was a foalsitter, I knew then that some evil force was controlling Cadence and that if I could force that being to show herself, then maybe I could've revealed to everyone that the pony being Cadence was not who she said she was. But, I guess it all backfired as you all saw."

"How did you know about that?" asked Celestia, surprised by this new confession by her faithful student.

"Well, actually," said Twilight. "I could tell that the fake Cadence's magic aura was green and Cadence's true magic aura was blue. I could also note that the fake's behavior was not like Cadence's and that the original bridesmaids must have seen right through her disguise and were going to tell you about it, but then the Changeling Queen must have sent them down to the Canterlot Caves before they could do anything themselves."

Celestia was wondering herself what had happened to the original bridesmaids when they mysterious disappeared and slightly knew that Shining Armor was not telling the truth when he berated Twilight at the rehearsal, much to the horror of herself and Twilight's friends.

"However," continued Twilight, remembering the flower bouquet trick that Cadence used on the bridesmaids. "Cadence and I did find them trying to block our way out of the caves and we had to throw an abandoned flower bouquet to distract them."

"Well, what matters is that they are back where they belong," said Celestia, placing a wing over Twilight. "They are in Canterlot Hospital and will be discharged in time for the wedding reception later tonight."

"Speaking of the wedding reception," interjected Twilight, stepping back from Celestia. "I have a song that I have been working on called 'Love is in Bloom.' It's my wedding gift to my brother and Cadence. I am going to sing it later at the reception."

"I can't wait to hear it, Twilight and I know you have a beautiful singing voice," said Celestia, smiling happily. "But, I just want you to know that we are all sorry for what we did and that we would not be having the wedding we all wanted if it weren't for you, my faithful student."

Just then, a guard knocked on the door and beckoned to Celestia that the ceremony was nearly ready to start.

"Well, we'd better get to the wedding hall," said Celestia, knowing that the real wedding was about to begin. "It's time to finish what we started, thanks to you Twilight."

Twilight blushed slightly again as she and her teacher and mentor hugged each other once more and made their way towards the wedding hall, with Celestia realizing that she still had one more important thing to say to Twilight.

A little while later after a short and beautiful ceremony, Celestia was standing with Twilight and her friends as they watched Shining Armor and Princess Cadence wave to the crowd of ponies below. Celestia placed her hoof on Twilight's shoulder and the student turned to her teacher.

"This is your victory as much as theirs," she said to her faithful student. "You persisted in the face of doubt and your actions to your being able to bring the real Princess Cadence back to us."

Twilight couldn't help but smile happily as her mentor said those words of gratitude.  It was like Celestia had said to Twilight before the wedding, that the wedding would not be what it was if it weren't for her.

"Learning to trust your instincts," finished Celestia. "Is a valuable lesson to learn."

By the time she finished her sentence, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence kissed on the balcony and Celestia knew that one certain blue Pegasus had to still complete her task.  Seeing her brother and new sister-in-law kiss touched Twilight's feelings and a small tear of happiness formed in her eyes.

"Rainbow Dash," she whispered to the blue rainbow haired pegasus. "That's your cue."

Stripping off her bridesmaid dress, Rainbow Dash took off and unleashed a powerful Sonic Rainboom for all of Canterlot to see and flew down fast back towards Canterlot filled with excitement over the success of the wedding.

"BEST WEDDING EVER!" she cried as a rainbow trailed behind her.

And it was, it really was.