Celestia's Tiny Student

by CommanderX5

Bonus Ch - Twilight The Pet

Steel Blade and Spike tried their best to convince Twilight to leave the birdcage while Philomena and the unicorn guard looked on in amusement. Thoroughly frustrated after several more failed attempts, Spike decided on taking a nap on the damaged bed, hoping that Twilight would wise up after an hour or two. Steel Blade, who wanted nothing more than to punch the phoenix in the face, decided to return back to his post to calm down, leaving Overwatch to keep an eye on both Twilight and Philomena, the only one in the group with no burning desire to scalp the red bird of all its feathers. She sat close to the cage, her armor off as she looked sadly at the assortment of burn marks it had accumulated from smothering the flames.

Twilight sat patiently in her cage for a while, but with nothing to read and nothing to do, she had quickly decided to take a nap. She had only fallen asleep for a half an hour or so before her rest was interrupted by Philomena noisily shaking the birdcage with her claws.

“Shmerrr... huh?” Twilight’s attention soon focused on the phoenix on the other side of the bars. “Why did you wake me up?”

The phoenix seemed to grin as she pointed to a small container of water held in her wing, a gesture which Twilight easily understood. She walked closer to the tip poking through the bars, an eyebrow raised at the bird’s offering.

She shrugged. “Now that I think about it, I do feel a little thirsty, so why not?” Twilight murmured, taking a few sips to refresh herself before walking back to her resting spot.

Before Twilight could go back to her nap however, the birdcage shook once again, and she turned, frowning at the insistent phoenix, who was now throwing grains into the cage. “You want me to eat this?” Twilight asked curiously, the phoenix nodding in response. “It’s bird food. I can eat grass, hay and cake, but I’m fairly certain grain seeds are unhealthy for ponies.”

Philomena let out a giggling titter as she took out more objects from a cardboard box Steel Blade had brought along with the birdcage as Twilight was sleeping. She recognized the objects as a wide assortment of toys that the Princess most likely kept to play with her pet phoenix, and she quickly caught on to what the phoenix was suggesting. “Wait a moment... You’re treating me as a pet, aren’t you?”

Philomena nodded her head energetically, throwing even more grain into the birdcage with an amused caw.

“I think you’re mistaken. I’m not your pet,” Twilight said, frowning at the phoenix.

The large bird seemed to shrug, pointing at the reinforced bars of the birdcage with her wing, and then at Twilight.

“I’m locked in this birdcage as punishment, not because I’m your pet!” Twilight said loudly, raising a hoof in anger.

Philomena pointed at the cage once again, then towards a small picture on the table, one of a surprised Celestia looking cross-eyed at a tiny purple unicorn sleeping on her nose.

Twilight blushed. Most of the day’s events were a tad blurred, but Celestia had apparently taken her for a round of public appearances and she had finally fallen asleep out of exhaustion at the end of the day. Much to Twilight’s embarrassment, she woke up the next day with this picture lying on the table next to her mentor.

She turned back to the phoenix, her brow knit in anger. “Are you implying that I’m Princess Celestia’s pet? I’m not her pet. I am her protege!” Twilight shouted, only for the phoenix to laugh in her face, sprinkling her with yet another volley of grains.

Twilight stamped her hoof, making a loud thud as it hit the bottom of the cage. “That’s it. You may be the Princess’s pet, but I will not let you insult me!” She shouted as she lit her horn to open the cage with her magic. To her surprise, the aura of her magic around the cage door disappeared, leaving Twilight stymied and causing Philomena to roll to her back in a fit of laughter.

“What just happened?” Twilight asked confusedly. “Why didn’t my magic work?”

“Twilight, you do realize whose cage you’re in, right?” Overwatch said as she walked closer. “Even though the princess lets Philomena fly around the castle freely, the phoenix in question...” she paused, making a quick glare at the red bird, who flitched at her intimidating gaze, “...is quite the prankster and troublemaker, so whenever her pet went overboard, Princess Celestia locked her up in this cage as punishment.”

Twilight nodded her head in understanding. “Okay, I think I get it. This cage was magically reinforced to endure Philomena’s flames! I can’t believe I didn’t remember phoenixes from my reading.” Twilight said, her forelegs on her head in exasperation. “Despite their small size, they can burn with an incredibly hot fire, and because those flames are magical in nature, Celestia made her cage magic-proof to keep her in check,” Twilight said proudly, before turning towards Philomena. “By the way, thanks for not burning me. If what that book said was true, the flames you used against me were nothing compared to the temperature they could reach.”

Philomena nodded, knowing full well she could turn this unicorn to ashes along with the entire room. Overwatch moved her hoof along the cage, touching the latch on the outside, unopenable from the inside. “Pretty much. This cage is strong enough to withstand Philomena’s strength and claws while the enchantments makes it resistant to magic and fire. It would require an incredible amount of raw power to break Princess Celestia’s own seal.”

“Don’t open it!” Twilight shouted hastily, and before Overwatch could ask why, she added, ”If this cage was sealed by my mentor, then I would love to try and break the seal myself.”

Overwatch shrugged in resignation before turning towards the bed and plopping herself on an unburned section to watch the little mare, knowing that there was no point in arguing with Twilight whenever she had set a magical or physical challenge for herself.

Spike was still deep asleep, unconsciously curled into Overwatch’s warm body as she and Philomena watched Twilight attempt to break free for over an hour. At first, Philomena had laughed at her failed attempts, but after seeing the tiny mare try to free herself again and again, no matter how many times she failed or how tired she was, the phoenix started to feel a bit of respect towards her and was now wondering if she may actually succeed.

Twilight, meanwhile, tried everything that came to her mind. She first tried to teleport outside, but found that her spell simply fizzled out when she cast it. Then, she attempted to levitate an object outside of the cage, hoping to use it to open the door from the outside, but the seals wouldn’t let her magic pass the bars. She tried combat spells, even combinations of fire and ice spells with the hope that rapid increase and decrease of the metal’s temperature would weaken its structure, but the fireproof seal caused her spells to pass harmlessly past the bars.

Her magic useless, Twilight tried to use brute force, hoping that all her physical training, challenges, and protection spells would make her strong enough to break out. Her hopes quickly died as she repeatedly crashed painfully into the bars, not even leaving a dent. “Maybe if I was an earth pony...” she grumbled, hitting it one last time with a hoof before moving to her next idea.

Twilight next attempted to scan and analyze the seal itself, trying to create a magical formula to break it, but her focus on training her magic and physical condition in the past years had left her with less time to read books and study magical theory, making it impossible to challenge the seal created by an alicorn princess almost two thousand years old.

In her final attempt, Twilight had tried to squeeze herself between the steel bars, but she was still too big to pass them. She smashed a hoof into the floor of the cage in frustration. “Ugh... This is pointless. Nothing works,” she said, her head hung low in defeat. Philomena was watching her performance, giving a soft coo in an attempt to praise her prank target for her efforts.

“You did your best,” Overwatch stated, looking solumnly at the caged mare, “but this challenge is out of your league. This cage resists magic, and with your tiny size, you don’t have enough strength to open it. Such a disappointment that you can’t use your magic to make yourself stronger,” Overwatch finished with a nearly unnoticeable wink and a smile.

“That’s it!” Twilight shouted enthusiastically, before charging up her horn and casting a levitation spell on her hooves. As long as the spell itself is not directed at the cage or outside of it, it should work, thought Twilight, the aura of her magic growing stronger every second. With a solid rush of magic, she punted her hoof towards the steel bar, hitting it so hard that she could feel the impact in her bone.

The attempt failed, but it did make a tiny dent in the bar, so she turned around and prepared both of her hind legs for an attack. Channeling her levitation spell into them and with one swift buck, she felt the steel bars give under the impact, the cage resounding with a loud clang.

With another attempt, Twilight levitated herself up before pushing herself towards the door of the birdcage, though she bounced painfully off of it, her head ringing with a buzzing noise and she landed in a heap in the middle of the cage.

Twilight groaned as she shook the orbiting stars from around her head. Her body already had burn marks from the Philomena’s flames and closed wounds from the phoenix’s claws, and now, she could add bruises from several impacts with the unforgiving steel to that list. In times like this, she regretted that she was not an earth pony.

Overwatch, Philomena, and the newly awakened Spike watched as Twilight slowly got back up on her hooves, trembling. After taking a moment to recover, she turned to see the damage she had made to the reinforced bars, only to find that her efforts had only twisted the latch that secured the door.

“I failed again!” Twilight shouted in exasperation, jumping in frustration before her pain asked her violently to sit down, a demand which she happily complied with.

“Hmmrr… Well, I have bad news and worse news,” Overwatch stated, looking intently at the damage to the cage from her position on the bed. “The bad news is that this cage is still too strong for you, even with your raw power.” She smiled awkwardly before pointing a hoof at the broken handle. “The worse news is that you did succeed in breaking the door, so now we can’t open this cage even from the outside. Well, without destroying it, that is.”

Spike rolled his eyes as he watched Twilight’s eyes open wide in shock, classic signs of yet another panic attack. “Here we go again,” he murmured as the tiny unicorn began dancing in panic, babbling something about how she will be severely punished for damaging the princess’s possessions before curling inside of the cage she was now trapped in, her defeat reminding her that despite all her raw power and training, she was still a tiny mare among giants.

Celestia trotted happily back from her short battle exercise, her wounds hidden under an illusion spell. I cannot believe how much I've improved! I can evade attacks that just a year ago would’ve hit me before I even noticed them, she thought, giggling lightly to herself. Now I can lift twice or even three times the weight I could before I began shrinking myself, and I’ve remembered at least hundred spells I forgot I even knew in the first place! She chuckled, rolling her eyes at her former complacency.

Hundreds years of peace made me very soft, but it turns out that I just needed a bit of training to get it all back.

Celestia approached her throne room, noticing Steel Blade standing guard at the entrance alone. ”Greetings, Your Highness. You’ve returned just in time,” he stated, his face impassive.

Celesta blinked, wondering if she’d missed something important. “Did anything out of the ordinary happen during my absence? Did Twilight overdo another adventure and end up in the hospital?” She asked, her eyes suddenly wide with worry.

“No, Your Majesty, but a certain bird does require your attention,” Steel Blade said, his voice serious.

Celestia’s eyes lit up. “Philomena is back?” She said hopefully, and after receiving a nod of confirmation from the guard, she pushed open the doors into the room.

Celestia’s mouth hung open as she took in the scene in front of her. Her bed was damaged and half-burned, books were spread across the floor with burned covers, and some of her bookshelves had also met the same fate. She looked at her unicorn guard, who was laying leisurely on her bed with her scorched armor in a pile on the floor. Spike and Philomena both slept around her, Spike curled into a crook in Overwatch’s body and Philomena using the guard’s barrel as a perch, despite her talons making a noticeable impression where they sat.

Overwatch perked up at Celestia’s entrance, managing to salute without disturbing the sleepers before motioning with her head at the birdcage next to the bed. With a raised eyebrow, Celestia walked slowly towards the gilded cage, peering cautiously at its contents.

“T-Twilight,” Celestia said with worry in her voice, her gaze focused on her sleeping student.

“Shrrrrr...” Twilight stretched up, her dizziness vanishing the moment she took in the blurry image of her mentor. “P-Princess!” She shouted in panic as she made a full bow, trying to make herself look smaller than she already was. “I’m sorry for destroying your bedchamber, princess! I will accept any punishment you see fit.”

Celestia ignored Twilight’s panic attack, having long ago given up on assuring her student that she would not punish her for foolish reasons and passing the responsibility over to Spike. “Twilight, are you alright? Did Philomena hurt you?” she asked, worry and concern in her voice as she noticed the slight burns and the closed wounds on her tiny student. The princess was quick to realize that Philomena had tried to defend her territory, turning the bedchamber into a battlefield.

Steel Blade walked into the room as Spike rubbed his eyes blearily at the noise, raising his head. Philomena slowly opened her eyes, only to notice the worried expression of her owner focused on the tiny unicorn bowing in shame to her. Philomena opened her eyes in surprise and attempted to sneak out, only to be swiftly captured in a levitation field by a grinning Overwatch, once again looking at her menacingly.

“N-n-no no no no no, I mean, yes, she did, but it wasn’t her fault. The fault is all mine. I provoked her,” Twilight spoke in panic, still bowing, not daring to look her mentor in the eyes. Celestia knew Twilight well enough to ignore her self guilt, lighting up her horn and sending a wave of healing magic through the bars to her tiny student, easily overpowering the anti-magical seals of her own making.

Once Twilight looked more presentable, Celestia focused her gaze on her pet, her face an emotionless mask. “I see you are back, Philomena, but I am very disappointed in you,” she spoke firmly. Philomena began to look scared and embarrassed, Spike and Steel Blade watching in amusement.

“You’ve caused a large amount of damage to my bedchamber, burned many of my books, and though I would let all that slide, there is something I cannot forgive you for,” Celestia stated firmly as she levitated her pet closer to her face, staring intently into her eyes and finishing coldly. “You’ve hurt my faithful student.”

Philomena looked around in panic and fear as she recognized the expression on her owner’s face. It was the same expression she gave her for accidentally setting the kitchen on fire and causing serious burns on many of the ponies on the kitchen staff, and she was not looking forward to being locked in her birdcage for a year or longer.

“But,” Celestia stated calmly, giving Philomena back into Overwatch’s telekinetic grasp, “before I decide your punishment, I want everypony in this room to tell me what happened, and...” she turned to look at her student sternly, “I expect the honest truth, not blindly taking blame on yourself, my little student.”

It was soon very evident that the only story she could trust was that of Specialist Overwatch. Twilight had told her that she had provoked the bird into taking hostile action against her, though Celestia more than knew that Philomena could restrain herself from just those annoyances. Spike and Steel Blade had made it very clear that it was Philomena’s fault and as a whole, made it seem as if they were omitting many of the relevant details.

Celestia sat quietly on her balcony as she ran through the various details of the encounter. Twilight may want to take all the blame for herself, but her actions were completely excusable while those of my pet Philomena clearly went over the line. If I punish Philomena, however, Twilight will blame herself for it. As for Spike, his attack provoked Philomena to burn my bedchamber, but he only wanted to protect my student.

Everyone in the room watched Celestia nervously as she strolled back in, looking imposingly at those gathered. “I have come to a decision,” Celestia said firmly, a proud grin on her face.

She looked first to the small dragon. “Spike, though your actions were a result of anger after what had happened to my student, they still caused a huge amount of damage while the entire situation could have been defused peacefully. As punishment, I will be cutting your gem desserts in half for the next two months, and if you try to hurt Philomena in any way, that won’t be the last of it.”

“Oh, come on!” Spike replied, crossing his arms and frowning.

Celestia’s gaze focused on Twilight, who bowed right away, expecting, if not demanding, to be punished. “I find little fault in your actions, my faithful student, and you won’t convince me otherwise. Even if you deserved any at all, spending hours in a birdcage was punishment enough.”

“But princess, I damaged your possessions!” Twilight said, pointing her tiny hoof at the misshapen steel bars and the damaged latch.

Celestia simply rolled her eyes before taking off one of her golden horseshoes and, with one strong strike, made a hole in the bars for her student to escape. “A sealed birdcage which you tried to escape from and apparently failed, even with a little help advice from Miss Overwatch. I will just count it towards your study expenses,” she said cheerfully, giggling at the mental image of Twilight using her own body as a battering ram in an attempt to break free.

Finally her gaze focused on Philomena, who gulped in expectation of her doom. “As for you, my dear Philomena, you may have been my companion for over a century, but that does not excuse you from assaulting my student.” She watched as Philomena hung her head further, before clearing her throat to catch the phoenix’s attention again, “However, considering that Twilight wishes you to be forgiven...” Celestia paused for dramatic effect before putting on a grin. “I want you to assist my student in her research.”

Philomena blinked in confusion as Celestia continued. “Your flames have damaged several books, and even though I cast a restoration spell on them that will restore them to their former glory, my student will need you to volunteer as a test subject until they are fixed.” She smiled cheerfully, “I am sure that my Twilight can learn a lot from a powerful and proud phoenix like you.”

Noticing the disapproving look on Philomena’s face, she levitated the pet closer and whispered into her ear. “You will assist in my student’s research without complaint, and if I find out that you have disobeyed Twilight or have tried to harm her, I will make sure that your rebirth will come much earlier than usual. Do I make myself clear?” Celestia asked, Philomena nodding her head in terrified acknowledgement.

“Twilight,” Celestia called, capturing the tiny unicorn’s attention. “Philomena has voluntarily decided to assist in your research as an apology,” she said cheerfully as she dropped off her pet in front of Twilight.

“Really?” Twilight shouted in surprise, looking up into the phoenix’s eyes. Philomena nodded eagerly, and the unicorn began bouncing happily around her. “That’s wonderful! There’s so much I can learn from you. I can study your magical flames and your feathers can help me in a project I was working on!” Philomena looked a bit overwhelmed by the tiny unicorn’s enthusiasm as Celestia, Spike, and Steel Blade grinned in satisfaction, finding the punishment fitting and just.

“This is incredible!” Twilight shouted into the wind, hanging tightly to Philomena’s back as the phoenix flew through the air near one of Canterlot’s towers, her entire body in flames, but without heat.

Weeks had passed since Twilight had begun to research Philomena, finding her unique magic quite fascinating. “A flame that will hurt only those you want to hurt. If I can manage to discover an offensive spell that can do that, there will be no risk of hurting allies on the battlefield, and I would never have imagined that even one feather has enough magic in it to revive an unconscious pony,” Twilight rambled in glee, watching the flaming trail bursting forth from the phoenix’s tail.

Philomena landed softly on the balcony, allowing the unicorn to hop off of her back and lead the two into the bedchamber. “Now that I think about it,” Twilight said slowly, looking over her shoulder at the regal bird, “if you only wanted to hurt Spike and me, why did my mentor’s bedchamber almost burn down?”

Twilight turned to face the phoenix, who was hiding an embarrassed blush under a wing. “You weren’t thinking about doing that, were you?” she said, and in response, Philomena sent a ball of fire into her face, only for the fire to pass by without doing any harm, hit the bed without burning it, and dissipate as quickly as they appeared.

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. “Don’t worry, I understand. While angry or afraid, we often forget about the simplest solutions,” she said kindly as she trotted into her mentor’s bedchamber. “Now please follow me. There are still some tests I want to conduct before I go to the Wonderbolts show with the Princess. Oh, I’m so excited! First I get to learn about a phoenix‘s magic up close, and soon, I get to learn about pegasus magic from best fliers in Equestria!”