//------------------------------// // Respite // Story: Land of Friendship and Magic // by Archmage Ansrit //------------------------------// (Celestia and Twilight, teatime) Celestia was contemplating the list Twilight had given her - containing all of her observations pertaining things she could have handled better. It... it was way too freakishly long like oh goodness... and it seemed to be missing some things that Celestia herself admitted were wrong of her. And having cleared her schedule felt just plain odd, almost wrong. Like she was trying to swim through gelatin; it got everywhere - in her hair, in her feathers, in awkward places, and was just making her feel uncomfortable. But Twilight was right. She was absolutely right. The meetings were pointless. All of the things she approved of were already approved, those she didn't were rejected, and there was no need to sit through that many meetings - with only a bran muffin and half an orange's worth of juice sitting in her stomach as a wholly-inadequate breakfast - since everything about them was already done, filed, and out of the way. And while she had some meetings to appease the nobility... she realized that she was doing just that. Appeasing them. Not addressing the real issue. Letting them trot all over her just because she won't approve any of those ridiculous proposals that helped nopony but them. Just so that they would stay quiet for a time, then they would send another request that she would deny, and start the same song and dance all over again. Well, they would have to be reminded that having a Title carried responsibilities, not just rights. Some of which they couldn't even get right. Oh goodness why did she let it grow to that point! Oh, right. Because she 'knew better'. Because she 'could totally take it'. Because taking it was 'easier' than making them pony up and act like their predecessors did - dang, where some of those ponies an inspiration. No more. Her little scene at the throne room... and at her chambers... was proof she couldn't deny. She had too much on her plate, too much load on her shoulders - and not just speaking of her workload! Even if her schedule was packed to burst, that was remedied by removing all of the unnecessary parts. Which... meant that now she had a full day free of 'obligations'. To spend it, as Rainbow Dash would put it, "just chillin'" with Twilight. Twilight herself said that usually her schedule was neater, but for now, all of her hours were allotted to 'help the princess no matter what that entails', so she was fine. Celestia grimaced; she might have given Twilight a few pointers about schedules... but if her own idea of keeping a schedule was flawed, obviously she would pass that flaw to her student. She had too much in her mind, and she couldn't keep shelving it and leave it to gather dust. That was what had happened to Luna. Luna had deferred her judgment to Celestia and, while Luna did try to push the issue, neither of them had considered it that important. Luna kept the nights peaceful, but ponies simply didn't feel safe. It was just 'the way things happened'. And then Nightmare Moon 'happened'. Why was hindsight so harsh? Oh, that was one thing to get Twilight's help with. "I'm sorry, Twilight." She began, and noticed it was much easier to say it than the day before. Twilight herself was startled slightly, the magic holding her cup faltering for a second. "I wish to apologize for my behavior." Celestia set down her cup. "Huh? But what would you have to apologize to me for?" Twilight asked, and her eyes told Celestia that she really did not know why. "Because I never apologized." She said. "For anything but the most trivial of mistakes; a writing mistake here or a misplaced pencil there, sure, but everything else?" "What 'everything else'? I don't understand, princess." "All of the late, or even outright canceled, lessons; all of those times I just expected you to accept my mistakes, or provided an excuse I just assumed you would understand." Celestia watched the small ripples of her tea, or at her graying reflection - Twilight couldn't tell. "But I did accept them, and I understood the reason-" "No, Twilight." Celestia interrupted, looking at her student... a small spark of joy shone into existence at noting that Twilight was looking at her eyes. "I shouldn't have assumed that you would. That was wrong of me. It was your time, your expectations... the way you would jump in joy, only for me to crush it with a simple 'I'm afraid we can't X today; something came up' without even taking the effort to add three or at the least two measly words." She held up a hoof. "Please, forgive me." She raised the other. "I'm sorry." Twilight looked at the princess; Celestia's hair still held color, but hung low, and Twilight felt... like she shouldn't be like that. It was like... a sad Pinkie; just the thought of it was alien, like it shouldn't exist. Like, those faces were meant to smile all the time, and merely trying to conceive them sad should be impossible. There was a solution; as the princess said, 'three or at the least two measly words'. Twilight help up a hoof. "I forgive you." She raised the other. "Apology accepted." She smiled, and Celestia mirrored the expression. "I also feel like I should explain myself some more." Celestia said, drinking a little bit from her cup; she didn't really feel like it, but Twilight quite obviously enjoyed it, so that was one sacrifice that was worth it. "Explain... what, exactly?" "The reason I kept giving you all of those tasks." "Wait, like, Discord and Nightmare Moon? But there was no other choice - you said it yourself, Discord was too dangerous and unpredictable for you to face directly without the Elements, more so with Luna still recovering her strength." "Well, yes, and hopefully you noticed that I wouldn't have asked something like that of you if there was another exit to the situation." Celestia paused for a moment to see Twilight nod. "But I meant to say the way I did most of them, or... others." She tapped the table for a moment, thinking how to word it correctly. "Typhon was very talkative with us, since, even if we wanted to take him into custody, he could tell we had no intention to actually harm him - that he did not have to worry too much about our magic probably helped - and he once said something, right after the elements of Harmony didn't work." She searched her diary for the exact words, cleared her throat, and spoke in a remarkable approximation of a younger Typhon. "You wanted to 'make me' harmonious? Don't be ridiculous; harmony, friendship, love - they just happen. You can't force love; if you force it it will wilt - without having a beginning it will reach its end. You can help, but help is all it'll take, no more." Celestia sighed. "I knew, by the time you became my student, that the Elements of Harmony chose by themselves, and it would be their choice, and any friendship would have to be natural. Exactly what that entailed, that I confess I did not understand, given that friendship could be forged by fire; some of the guards met and became friends in harsh conditions, caused by outside events, and yet you would think them brothers." Celestia coughed - daintily, of course. "I knew that Nightmare Moon would come after me and, although I had all intentions to refuse to fight her, she would try to duel me. As you can see, I was afraid that she would try to use you as leverage. That was why I sent you to Ponyville; to keep you safe while whatever strange forces of fate and the Elements themselves gathered their Bearers. I do believe I had said that I 'knew' you had the magic in you to best her." Celestia gave her faithful student a smirk. Twilight, once more, blushed at the compliment. "Imagine my surprise at seeing that not a full day had passed!" Celestia laughed a little refined laugh, yet still full of relief. "You surpassed my expectations so completely that I could not help but swell with pride... that was why I asked you to evict that dragon." "Um... I thought that it was because of the treaty; no sending guards after dragons that aren't actually attacking." "That was a factor, and an important one, but not the most important." Celestia sighed; the treaty had helped pacify the dragons after Tiamat's sealing, although she did not know if any of them knew that she had died inside her seal from her injuries. Injuries she had inflicted. "So... you're proud of me?" Twilight asked, still a little nonplussed. "Yes." Celestia answered, and Twilight could not help but feel that there was something about the way she did so, like she would attack anypony that thought the answer to be different. "Yes I am, and every time I see you you grow a little more into the mare I know you can be." They simply remained like that, content with drinking tea. Luna stopped by for a moment, opening the door to a slightly-more-colorful sister and her student. "Greetings, sister, Twilight Sparkle." She nodded, and Twilight did a small bow from her position - just as Luna had asked her to, to not stand up if she was at the table. "I have something to ask of you." Celestia, for her part, was simply glad that her sister had not decided to distance herself. "Anything." "Sister, what have you decided to do for the matter of these 'five kings'?" "That... that is a difficult thing to answer. From what Shining Armor and you said, he is apprehensive of fighting them, yet it seems like he can't refuse; we don't know what they would do should they win, but we cannot afford to take the risk; he seemed elated that he could take on one of them by himself, so it's evident he will need support." She sighed, and Twilight nervously served another cup both to the princess and herself. "We can only hope the second encounter will happen with the same result as the first." "Oh, I hath not informed thee?" Luna was surprised. "The second encounter happened mere hours after the first." Celestia grimaced for a second, settling into a light frown as she took her tea to calm down. Twilight was pretty much imitating her. "Typhon summoned another human with strange new magic." Now, Luna was expecting one of several different reactions. Never in her wildest dreams would she have guessed that Celestia would actually spit back her tea, right on Twilight Sparkle, or that said unicorn would have the exact same response on her sister. "Another human!?/New magic?!" They both yelled, one in shock, the other in, well, also shock, but with a spark of something in her curious purple eyes. Well, since neither of them minded being covered in tea, she continued. "I-indeed. This second king possessed strange magics, as well as the ability to move at high speeds after casting a spell that covered the second human in conjured stone. Strangely, although he was severely injured, he was able to rise up again and continue the fight. This blue king used some spell on Typhon, which he had previously used on himself; judging by all of their reactions, I would say that the spell is detrimental yet possesses some secondary characteristic that makes the spell useful under the right circumstances. I am still unsure as to why it was able to have an effect on Typhon." Princess Celestia dried both Twilight's and her coat with an idle spell, leaving them slightly fluffy and smelling of tea that had been prepared wrong. She then reached for her diary. 'I think it might be because I'm not compatible with...' "The magic of this world..." She whispered, although she was easily heard. "He said he wasn't compatible with the magic of this world." "That... that would explain why he had exercised caution when he fought the red king; their magic might actually affect him to some degree. The other human had some form of magic which seemed to heal him, although the encounter was too brief to discern anything meaningful, like its nature. Typhon then used that strange object of his to produce an enormous contraption, which he used to fabricate various objects; among them a strange coin with an emblem, which I could only see because the device projected an illusion of exaggerated size before he corrected it." "What kind of emblem?" "A Serpens Tempesta, which he proceeded to fondly regard." "A storm snake? Fitting." "I do not know how the device operates, but it seems to be based around his cards. It produced items at his command." Luna then remembered something. "Ah, the mages and I have concluded our study of the Ribbon - so far as it could got without risk of damage to the object." She said, making it appear in front of her with a flash, looking at it with reverence. "It holds powerful magics of protection; it is selective, however, since We found that it was only possible to tie it to mares; We are still unsure as to the reason. The wards ingrained into the Ribbon are potent, meant to keep its bearer from non-physical harm." "Really? How 'potent'?" Twilight asked, sparkles in her eyes, which followed the unassuming strip of cloth as Celestia took it and inspected it, as if something could be discerned by sight. "We have concluded that, apart from finding some spell that could entirely side-step the wards, the only means of breaching the protection offered by the Ribbon are to physically destroy it, or to use such a great spell that the feedback destroys the Ribbon." "That... that is one powerful enchantment." "There are some protections placed upon it meant to protect itself, although none quite on the level meant to safeguard its bearer. It is possible to change some of its physical properties, as well." Celestia smiled - slightly, if you will, but it was a smile. She turned the ribbon a soft shade of blue, and tied it to Twilight's mane, doing her hair in a bun. "You should keep it." She sighed. "At least, until we can get some answers from Typhon." "How did you meet?" Twilight asked, blushing faintly at the attention and the gift. "He sneezed a small tree onto a gate." Celestia said, watching with satisfaction as Twilight's jaw dropped like, a whole foot. "He then sneezed himself over a hundred meters into the air." Luna couldn't stop herself from laughing out loud.