Twilight kept waiting by the journal. Waiting for the slightest hints of glowing or vibrating.
The book didn't really look that special. It had a plain brown hardback cover with some small golden clamps on its spine. The only sign of its importance was that a pink star put against the backdrop of about seven smaller white stars was embedded on the cover, that image being the cutie mark of Twilight herself. The journal used to feature the cutie mark of princess Celestia, but after the book was given to Twilight she thought it would be more appropriate if it sported her own cutie mark. But even besides that, the journal looked like it could be just any old book from Celestia's library.
But it was much more special than ANY book in Celestia's library (well accept maybe the personal journals of Starswirl the Bearded, Marelin the Robed, or Candlespark the Pointy Hatted, or any other great wizard from Equestria's history...the journal was still very special though...honest...). When Twilight wrote in the journal, the same words would appear in a book in the other world, one that looked identical to hers, but featuring Sunsets cutie mark instead. Twilight and Sunset used this to communicate with each other from their separate dimensions, and this was usually as a friendship report from Sunset and Twilight responding to it.
It had been two days since Sunset left, and Twilight hadn't received any word from her since then. She'd written to her, asking how everything was at Canterlot high, mainly as an excuse to talk to her, and she wasn't going to write to her again. What if Sunset found it annoying?
'Stay calm Twilight, she's a busy girl. Probably doesn't have time to talk with me at the moment.' She thought to herself.
But what if that wasn't the case? What if the connection between the two books was broken? What if the connection between the two worlds was broken? What if she would never see Sunset or any of her Canterlot high friends again?!
'Just keep it together girl, that sort of thing is unlikely to happen. Surely there would be physical signs.
But what if Sunset didn't WANT to talk to Twilight? What if she was sick of having to organize and find books all day? What if she was freaked out by the way Twilight acted when she was leaving the previous day...
She'd thought about the event a lot since that day, and scolded herself for her actions. WHAT WAS SHE THINKING! Just rushing forward and grabbing Sunset in a tight hug without warning? Yeah, that wasn't going to freak her out at all! Sure she was feeling sad about Sunset leaving. Sure she didn't want her to go. But that didn't excuse her actions at all. Twilight herself barely understood them at the time. She'd never hugged any of her other friends that intensely. Had she?
'Look twilight, thinking this pessimistically isn't going to help. Just be patient, and get something else done. I'm sure she'll...
Her thoughts were cut off by a vibrating noise, and she turned her head to see the journal glowing pink and shaking in a systematically.
The magenta light of her magic dragged the book over to her desk in a flash, and she opened the pages to find a new entry written in a very familiar handwriting.
Dear Princess Twilight
I'm sorry if I didn't get back to your message instantly, we were told that a chemistry test was coming up and I wanted to be prepared. Hope you didn't mind having to wait.
'Okay.' Twilight thought. 'She DOESN'T hate me.'
Big Macintosh recently got his leg broken in a football game, right before the apple families harvesting season, and A.J. made the CRAZY decision to harvest everything all by herself. Day after day she seemed to be getting more disoriented, and ended up causing a bunch of destructive accidents. I mean, who knew how terrifying a stampeding hoard of BABY BUNNIES could be so terrifying? And every time we tried to offer our help she just turned us down, saying that she had to do it herself. In the end, she finally overcame her stubborn pride and let us help. She learned that no matter how responsible your supposed to be for something, you should always accept a helping hand when its offered to you. And when someone as stubborn as A.J. understands something like that, we can all be inspired to do the same.
Your friend always, Sunset Shimmer.
This brought a smile to Twilight's face.
"I guess the magic of friendship isn't the only thing that exists in places other than Equestria." she whispered to herself.
"Really? I'd love to meet another version of me. Oooooh, I wonder if there's a janitor me in the multiverse!"
Twilight sighed in annoyance. That voice could only belong to one obnoxious spirit...
A white flash appeared to Twilight's left, revealing the grey head of a pony, sporting the beige antler of an elk and the blue antler of an oryx, attached to a simple brown furry body. The various limbs were the arm of a lion, the claw of an eagle, the hoof of a donkey, and the green leg of a dragon. Behind the legs was a red scaled tail with white fur on the end, and the face featured a white beard, an oversized fang, and two yellow eyes with red irises, both of which were staring at her.
"Good afternoon, Discord..."
The draconequus stared at her with wide eyes and a huge smile on his face.
'Well this can't be good...' Thought the Alicorn.
"Twilight Sparkle how are you?" asked the spirit of chaos. " I haven't seen you since...how long's it been? Two, three weeks? Oh never mind, I just thought I'd check on how my favorite Alicorn princess is doing."
"I've just been organizing my castle and stuff like that..."
She grumbled as politely as she could. As good and reformed as Discord was these days, especially after the Tirek incident, he was still one of the most annoying forces in Equestria at times.
"Oh yes the CASTLE." He said, turning his head in multiple angles and directions. "I really love what you've done with this place. I mean, at first I was all 'Oh what an ugly castle, that crystal theme is overused, it looks so out of place in Ponyville, I miss the old Treehouse!' you know, things like that. But now, this interior, oh yes, this interior is just lovely!"
In another white flash he was leaning against Twilight with one arm around her back and the other arm holding up...was that a cellphone?!
"Smiiiiiiiile for the selfie!"
The resulting flash left her eyes disoriented and blurry for a few seconds, and after it cleared up she found discord shoving the phone in her face, his facial expression similar to a ducks and hers as if she'd been punched in the face.
She stared at Discord with a look of severe annoyance. "Look Discord if your gonna stay in this library you better grab a book and start reading, I have some important studying to do."
He was too busy paying attention as he seemed to be...texting? She'd never seen a cellphone anywhere except at Canterlot high. WHO WOULD HE BE TEXTING?
Pinkie pie maybe?
He did at least turn to face Twilight.
"Oh yes you recently found that book didn't you? Starswirl's work I believe, yes that guy does make for an engaging read."
This sparked a thought in her head.
"Hey, did you ever personally meet Starswirl the bearded?"
The Draconequus raised his eyebrow at this comment.
"I just thought I'd ask. Y'know, since your...like...a few centuries old and stuff..."
"Yeeeaaaaaaah..." He properly looked her in the face and chucked his cellphone away, which promptly turned into a flock of butterflies. "Starswirl sadly passed from our mortal realm right before I was born. Never met him."
"Okay just...thought I'd ask..."
There was a suprisingly long moment of awkward silence.
"You know Twilight, we cant be doing this friend thing well if there's this much awkwardness and not enough chatting and getting to know each other." In yet another white flash of light he was walking circles around her. "What to do, what to do...ooh, I know, how's that new student of yours doing?"
"Student?" she asked in a confused voice (She did a lot of that talking to Discord).
"Green eyes, yellowish-orange-ish coat, yellow and red mane..."
"Sunset Shimmer?" She asked. "I don't know if I'd call her my student."
She hadn't really thought about it that much. Well, she did receive reports from Sunset and did give her helpful advice, but she never really felt like she was teaching her. It felt more like they were learning from each other.
"Oh well, suit yourself. You should start seeing her more often, I have a feeling something pretty entertaining is gonna come out of this particular friendship..." A flash of light later he was standing near the biology bookshelf reading You're in heat! by Dr. Organalysis PHD
"I really love the job she's done by the way."
What did he mean by that? Discord tended to give almost prophetic advice at times, and usually in a way as cryptic as Celestia, only it was more in an infuriatingly teasing way than in a wise way.
"Well I best be off, places to be, ponies to see, stuff like that. I did enjoy the conversation by the way." He walked over to the door and turned his head towards the Alicorn. "Oh yes and I forgot to mention, Princess Celestia told me to inform you that she's coming to visit when your little dragon comes back from Canterlot."
And in a final flash of light, the spirit of chaos was gone.
Twilight stared at the spot where he was standing just a few seconds ago, wrapping her head around what he just said. Princess Celestia was coming HERE!?
As if on cue, a purple and green puff of smoke appeared in mid air, and a note dropped out of it into Twilight's hooves.
Dear Twilight Sparkle, my fellow princess
I imagine by now Discord has informed you of my upcoming visit. Since he hasn't always been the most trustworthy kind, I decided to send this letter as well. I hope that you do not mind the surprise, as since Spike is done with his royal business and is returning to Ponyville, I thought that I would come check up on you. We should be arriving in one hour.
Your mentor, Princess Celestia
Yep, the princess was coming here all right.
"Oh no."
She ran over to her desk and looked at the clutter of books, lamps, magnifying glasses and research equipment, and thought about how the library wasn't all sorted yet.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! What is she gonna think if she finds the castle so unorderly? I don't want her to think I'm unorganized!"
Okay, she had one hour, if she called the rest of her friends over, she might be able to sort out ALL her two hundred misplaced books, and still be able to tidy her desk, bedroom and throne room up. No, that wouldn't work, they weren't all as familiar with books as Sunset was. Maybe if she got all of Ponyville to help her, she'd get it done in time. They were all her subjects after all. No, she didn't want to take advantage of them like that. What if they thought of her as some kind of bossy tyrant? What was she going to DO?!
'Keep calm Twilight.' she thought to herself. 'You've in overreacted in situations like this before, she's never thought of you negatively during her visits.'
But she wasn't a princess before most of those situations, what if Celestia thought that she wasn't taking her royal duties SERIOUSLY?!
She took a deep breath in, and then a deep breath out. Just like Cadence had taught her.
'I guess I can just tidy up my desk, and leave the rest of the castle. She thought 'Then I'll see how she reacts'
***
After about five minutes of waiting on her balcony, Twilight looked up to see the golden shine of the royal chariot appear from out of the clouds. As it descended closer to the castle and into plainer sight, she got a better look at four strong white Pegasus stallions dressed in golden armor pulling the large gold and purple chariot, on which was a white alicorn and a purple and green dragon.
As it landed on her Balcony, Spike jumped down and run into Twilight with an affectionate hug.
"How was your trip to Canterlot?" she asked
"Great!" The dragon replied. "I mean, writing and sending letters to just about every politician in Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom is pretty boring, and tiring, but I got to sleep in this really soft quilted bed, and was eating buffets of gems for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
He looked up at the sky while drooling and licking his lips. "Awesome."
Twilight giggled at the dragon and turned towards the large white Alicorn
Princess Celestia's flowing pink, blue and green mane, along with her shining white coat, golden crown and towering height, made for a truly magnificent sight that made Twilight feel tempted to start bowing, if she wasn't an Alicorn Princess as well.
She welcomed her old mentor with a quick hug. " It's good to see you, Celestia."
"As it is good to see you, Twilight Sparkle." She turned to face her guards. "That will be al,l sirs. You are permitted to enjoy Ponyville at your Leisure. Twilight, is there any spot you would recommend for my guards, they must be quite peckish after their journey."
"There's a muffin sale going on at Sugarcube Corner if your interested."
The four stallions replied with a nod, though she saw one of them lick his lips hungrily.
"Ooh, ooh, can I come too? Maybe they got some emerald muffins today!" Spike proclaimed excitedly.
One of the stallions picked him up and placed him on his back. "Fashao dude, lets roll!"
And with that, Spike and the four white stallions rocketed off onto the sky.
"Fashao?" Twilight asked in a confused voice.
"Sir Dawson hails from a beach town south of Mareami, they seem to just make up their own words in that area," Celestia explained.
Twilight chuckled at the comment. "So, what would you like to do?"
Celestia just smiled at her old student.
"I would like to see what you've been up to."
Twilight smiled back, thinking of some of the messier rooms in the castle. "Sure..."
' I am so dead...'
***
Twilight was genuinely surprised at how well Celestia was taking the tour. When they passed her room Twilight was sure that Celestia would blow a gas cap over the fact that she left a pile of books on her sheets and an empty coffee mug on her bedside table. But no...nothing.
'Maybe she's assessing and judging everything in her mind, with the intentions of writing a report?!'
As they entered the throne room, Twilight's eyes darted from spot to spot, looking for any signs of untidy-ness.
"It hasn't really changed much since you last saw it..."
It was than that she spotted it. BREADCRUMBS! Monstrous heaps of breadcrumbs on the floor! Why hadn't the girls swept it up when they finished eating!
"It all looks wonderful, Twilight." Proclaimed Celestia, her voice radiating with kindness.
'Okay, maybe she hasn't seen them yet'
"Oops, let me get that for you." In the yellow light of Celestia's magic, each individual breadcrumb lifted into the air before vanishing in a yellow flash.
'Oh no, this is going in the report isn't it!'
"I must say Twilight, I really am proud of what you have achieved with this place. I don't think any one of my students has ever accomplished anything quite like you have, even if you put aside the Alicornhood," The elder princess said in a voice that was ringing with pride.
And the subject of students put a thought in Twilight's mind.
"Thank you Princess." She said in the most grateful voice she could muster. "I was wondering...you've heard that Sunset Shimmer's been visiting me, right?"
The smile seemed to fade slightly from Celestia's lips. "Yes, Spike has informed me of this."
"Well, I was wondering...if you'd ever like to see your former student again? You know, since she's reformed and everything."
The white alicorn turned her head and looked through one of the windows.
"I have not spoken to Sunset Shimmer in many years, and while that may have been long for Sunset shimmer, by the standards of my lifetime it really hasn't been that long. The last time we spoke to each other has really left a sad feeling in my heart."
Twilight was surprised by the emotion that was in her voice. "What happened exactly?"
A sigh escaped from Celestia's mouth.
"Sunset Shimmer was an amazing student. She radiated potential and opportunity, but this came with impatience and ambition. This ambition was furthered by her discovery of the mirror. She wanted to learn more about it, but I forbade her from going near it, telling her she was not ready. In the end, she tried to study it behind my back. When I confronted her about it, she couldn't believe that I would try and hide something of that power from her. It was then that she went a step too far. She told me that she was destined to rise above me, and demanded to be brought to the next stage of her studies. She demanded Alicornhood."
This was shocking for Twilight to hear. She knew Sunset used to be ambitious but she never imagined that anyone would have the nerve to demand being made a princess of Equestria.
"This made me...spiteful. I renounced her as my student, and banished her from the castle. I hoped that she would learn from this mistake, but as she was being escorted out, she took out the guards, and escaped through the mirror. I have not seen her since then." She turned to face Twilight again. "The events that unfolded that day make me feel like I still cannot face Subset Shimmer again. What she became, and the way I acted, is not something I remember gladly."
"I can assure you Celestia, she HAS changed. For the better." Twilight insisted.
"Perhaps..." Said Celestia. Twilight could sense the doubt in her voice. "But I have seen great deception before. Non of us truly know what goes on in that mares mind. That is one reason I came to see you Twilight. I wanted to warn you, personally. You and Cadence are the closest thing I have to daughters, I don't want to see you get hurt. Physically, or emotionally."
Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing, but she knew better than to question her teacher.
"Do you think you will ever speak to her again?" Twilight asked.
The white Alicorn stared out the window again.
"Perhaps..." She said quietly "One day..."