Twilight Sparkle skipped through Canterlot, her saddlebags filled with books. A smile decorated her purple muzzle; it was a wonderful day whenever she was going to have tea with the Princess, even if on this particular day, clouds had covered the sky, and rain was pouring down. She could barely see the sun through a gap in one of the gray clouds, which loomed over her.
She smiled at them, knowing that there were Pegasus ponies that had worked very hard to make this rain, and that it would benefit Canterlot. She had always appreciated how much the Pegasi did to make the weather balanced. It was even more so that she had done research on exactly how wings worked. It seemed to her that it took a lot of practice and talent to use them well, though some ponies --she suspected Rainbow Dash was among them-- had a natural-born talent for it, and flew from a young age. The same was true of Pound Cake, she realized.
She nudged the errant thoughts out of her head-- the palace was before her, and she was nearly late!
Twilight Sparkle winced. She hated being late. Only one thing to do...
Her horn lit up, and she teleported into their private tearoom, shaking her wet mane out.
She looked over to see the princess completely soaked.
Twilight Sparkle gasped, and immediately began to siphon off all the water with a spell. "I'm so sorry, Princess! I didn't mean to do that-- oh, I hope this dries out of your mane!"
Princess Celestia laughed, and went to help Twilight get all the water out of her mane. "It's alright, Twilight. That was an impressive feat of teleportation, you know."
Twilight blinked. "Thank you! You're so kind!"
"Sit down, Twilight," said Princess Celestia, obviously very amused. However, Twilight saw her eyebrow twitch slightly, and immediately recognized one of the stress tics of the Princess. She'd known her for a very long time...
"Princess, is something wrong? I'm sorry if I'm being nosy, but you don't look happy."
Princess Celestia looked at her, and Twilight looked back at her long-time mentor. She was a glorious being-- pure white, decorated with gold and purple, and with a beautiful, ethereal mane. And yet, Twilight could see how stressed she was. She was surprised at just how good she was at telling this. Perhaps it was all of her experience with friendship that was giving her this new insight into Celestia's feelings.
"Well," said Princess Celestia. She trailed off, looking out the window at the rain. "Tea, Twilight?"
The teapot on the table was enveloped in a yellow glow, and Twilight gratefully enveloped it in hers. "Earl Gray?"
"Your favorite," confirmed Princess Celestia.
Twilight raised the cup to her lips, letting the steam flow into the air between them. It curled into a shape that was uncomfortably like a question mark, and Twilight looked at the Princess.
The Princess poured a cup for herself and raised it to her lips, delaying the subject.
Twilight studied her. What was going on with her mentor? Whatever it was, Twilight was positive that it wasn't good... but then again, she might be wrong... she might be excited for something! Twilight leapt at the chance that whatever was happening was a good thing, and ignored her instinct that it really wasn't, that it was the exact opposite.
"Princess, what's coming up lately? Anything exciting?" Twilight's eyes brimmed with hope.
Princess Celestia resumed looking out the window.
"The opposite, to tell the truth."
"What do you mean, Princess?"
"I mean that lately, things are a little... well, they're boring."
"Boring? What do you mean?"
"Well, it's just that with all this court policy, and talking to griffons, and organizing things, there's not time for me to do anything alone anymore. I don't have time to do things like work through my feelings--" Celestia abruptly cut herself off.
Twilight considered the tail end of Celestia's sentence. She began to see what was going on, but she stopped herself from prying into it further, at least for the moment. She needed to wait, to take a more subtle approach to things. She wasn't going to get anything out of her teacher if she asked blunt questions-- she'd already proven that assumption wrong.
Her perfect, wonderful mentor... for a minute, Twilight found herself questioning exactly what was worrying her about Celestia. Was it the eyebrow twitch? The cut off sentences? The near-constant looks out the window? It certainly seemed to spell trouble, but couldn't it easily be anxiety about ruling, or something like that? Or maybe, Celestia was mad at her? The possibility crashed onto Twilight like a tidal wave. Oh no... What if she'd done something wrong on one of her assignments? Oh, what if she'd said something to Celestia that made her upset, and she hadn't even noticed? What if she'd...
Twilight looked at Celestia. "P-Princess? Are you mad at me?"
Celestia stared at her. "Of course I'm not mad at you, Twilight? Whatever would make you think that?"
Twilight shrugged. "It's just that you seemed so distant, and I was wondering why... I'm sorry, Princess!"
"Twilight, you're right. I am a little distant today, and I'm sorry. I'm not exactly feeling my best lately."
"I... gathered as much."
"Yes. You're a very perceptive mare, Twilight."
"Thank you... Celestia, why aren't you feeling at your best? I'm worried for you."
"Don't be. It's alright. Twilight… I need to deal with this myself.”
Twilight looked at the Princess. "But Princess... that's what friends are for."
Celestia gave her a wan smile. "I know that, Twilight. But I don't want to burden you with my problems."
"You wouldn't be burdening me."
"Twilight, please stop talking about this!" said the Princess sharply, glaring at Twilight.
Twilight gasped and immediately went into a flurry of apologies. "I didn't mean to pry, I'm so sorry, I didn't--"
Celestia seemed even more surprised than Twilight was about her outburst. "Let's continue our tea and talk about other matters, shall we?"
"Oh-- yes, of course!"
Long after the tea was over and Twilight was home in Ponyville, Twilight found herself unable to stop thinking about her visit to Canterlot.
What was going on?