//------------------------------// // After the Coronation // Story: Five against One // by Paper-Lillie //------------------------------// After the Coronation The newly crowned princess of Equestria gazed out of the window in her old room at Canterlot castle watching Luna raising the moon the day after she returned from the world in the mirror. She had and her friends had returned straight to Canterlot. She was thinking about how rushed these past few days had been; recieving Starswirl's spell, fixing her friend's destinies and transforming into an alicorn princess, saving a different world and stopping a giant plant invasion. For the first time in her life, Twilight Sparkle felt that her brain was overloaded. But there was one thought nagging her, hidden away at the back of her mind. "Will my friends accept me now?" she pondered. Of course, the had seemed happy enough at the coronation, encouraging her with smiles and winks. They had backed her up when she had to go through the portal. They had aknowledged that they needed her to save the Tree of Harmony. But she couldn't shake of the feeling that she and her friends would soon drift apart. Rainbow Dash flew round and round in circles in the castle courtyard. It was the kind of thing she liked to do to shake off bad feelings-even though she had never done it on castle grounds. And she had a very bad feeling. She had never felt jealous for any one of her friends before and she didn't like that she was jealous now. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was literally shaking off a bad feeling. Pinkie felt strange. It wasn't that she wasn't happy, it was just because she had never experienced a feeling like this in her life. A guard stuck his head round the door. "Are you OK?" he asked, unsure what the crazy pink party pony was doing. Pinkie, however, kept shaking and wriggling. She didn't like this odd feeling at all. The guard left, slowly, and thought tat he had never seen such a strange and random pony in all his life. Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity all felt the same uncomfortable feeling as their other friends. "I feel so happy for Twilight, but its as if I don't want her to be an Alicorn Princess..." Fluttershy meekly told a pigeon outside the window of her castle bedroom. "She's getting so much attention, but she doesn't want it. She hasn't worn her crown at all yet. I feel like......like she doesn't deserve it. And that doesn't feel right." Applejack was pacing around her room restlessly. "Calm down, AJ. It's not as if Twilight has turned into a snob and she's gonna watch us die smugle while she takes over from Celestia an' Luna as the new ruler of Equestria. Its not as if she thinks we're rubbish friends now she's royalty. Its not as if.....oh, who am Ah kiddin', I can't lie to myself. I'm jealous!" Rarity wasn't so lucky with holding back her feelings. "I mean why can't I be an Alicorn Princess to? I'm beautiful and charming and well mannered and I wouldn't refuse to wear my crown or be called a Princess. I know every bit of magic that...that show-off knows and I know all about friendship to! I mean, Magic, what kind of key does that play in friendship? Generosity is a much better quality to have if you are going to be a Princess of Friendship? And she expects poor little Spike to follow her all day doing what she commands! "Oh my, Rarity! Stop your little rant at once!" She scolded herself. ***** ***** ***** Twilight excused herself after breakfast that morning to ponder over her worries. Meanwhile, the rest of her friends had a little chat in the courtyard. "I had the strangest feeling last night." Rarity informed her friends. "So did I" Fluttershy whispered "I felt as if Twilight didn't deserve to be a princess." The others agreed. Well, not all of them. "You guys are jealous of Twilight? I mean seriously, what kind of friends are you?" Rainbow Dash smirked. "So you didn't feel strange last night, I presume?" Rarity asked. "Nope. I felt totally normal. Ok fine......I did feel a little bit funny about the whole Alicorn thing." Rainbow admitted after getting a disbelieving look from all the others. Apart from Pinkie Pie. "Where's Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked. "HERE!" Pinkie shouted while wriggling and squirming on the floor. "What the hay are you doin'?" Applejack asked. "I'm trying to shake off a funny feeling. It's the same one I had last night." "Why?" "Because whenever anyone mentions Twilight being an Alicorn, it comes back!" Twilight knocked gently on Celestia's door. "Come in-Twilight! How are you?" Celestia asked. "Actually, not that great." Celestia's former student replied. "Why?" "I kept getting a feeling that my friends won't accept me as who I am." "Twilight. You and your friends make up the Elements of Harmony. This is because you are the bestest of friends. Nothing could change that. It wasn't the Elements, but you friendship that helped defeat Discord and his hypnotising spell. It was your friendship that kept you determined to keep the crystal ponies occupied. It was your friendship that saved the Tree of Harmony. And you know that your friendship remains in every world existing. Never forget that. Everything will be fine." "I sure hope it will be..." Suddenly, Rarity thought of something horrible. "This is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!" "What is?" Applejack asked as the others crowded around Rarity. "We are all jealous of Twilight!" "Yeah...I think we knew that already." Rainbow replied, thnking that Rarity was over-reacting as usual. "But jealousy was what drove Princess Luna to become Nightmare Moon! If we let our jealousy get the better of us, we could all turn into evil Alicorns ourselves!" "Oh, my. That is very dramatic..." Fluttershy whispered, scared. "Oh, come on! We're not going to turn into Nightmare Moon! That's just stupid!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "Even so, we can't run the risk of anything like that happening!" Fluttershy said. "Indeed!" Rarity declared. "We must all Pinkie promise to never get jealous again!" It never troubled them. Until a few 100 years after.