//------------------------------// // 5: Familiar Faces // Story: Principal of Equestria // by MareDoVVell //------------------------------// Celestia growled as she awkwardly grabbed a pillow with her hooves and jammed it over her head. "Why do the birds here sound so damn cheery, it's not natural!" she muttered darkly, trying her hardest to drift back to sleep. Sleep had been a much needed reprieve from her time in Equestria, giving her mind some time to just shut down and unwind. Admittedly, the resulting dreams had been a bit strange, or at least the pieces of them she could remember. She was fairly sure one of them had even featured a pony with a striking resemblance to her sister. Regardless of their content however, she was eager to return to the peace of sleep. It was not to be however, as she heard a knock on the door. She groaned pitifully and lifted an edge of the pillow, casting her eyes towards the door. "Who is it?" The door opened and Sunset peeked her head inside. "Um, Principal Celestia? Twilight says breakfast is ready." Celestia grudgingly sat up, looking more war-weary than bedraggled, and gave Sunset a slight nod. "I suppose it would be rude to keep our generous host waiting," she said through a brief yawn, pulling herself off of the bed and trudging towards the door. "Do you know how to get to wherever we're supposed to go?" she asked, trying and failing to keep an edge of grumpiness out of her voice. Sunset just nodded, gesturing behind her to a scroll pinned to the hallway wall with a large arrow drawn on it. "I'm not sure when she put them up but it seems like they keep going for a ways." "Huh, she thinks of everything doesn't she?" Celestia mused as she took a brief look in the mirror, attempting to brush her hair into a presentable state with her hooves before quickly giving up and walking out into the hallway. "You have no idea." Sunset responded with a chuckle as they began their trip to wherever it was the arrows were directing them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight pushed the empty plate away from her with a contented sigh. "Alright girls, we should figure a few things out before I send you both off to Canterlot." At this, Sunset gulped audibly, while Celestia paused in trying to aim a clumsily levitating pancake at her mouth. Seeing she had their attention, Twilight continued. "I've sent a letter ahead letting the Princesses know they should be expecting visitors, but I tried to keep things vague so as not to start any sort of undue panic." She turned to look at Celestia. "That in mind, I think we should probably disguise you a little bit so you don't freak anypony out at the palace, at least until you get a chance to meet with the Princesses. I'm not really sure how the guards would react to an apparent pretender to the throne waltzing through the halls." "That makes sense I suppose." Celestia agreed with a grimace. It was already pretty taxing being stuck in another body, in another world. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a jail cell, in another body, in another world. "I went to see my friend Rarity earlier this morning and she was kind enough to throw this together for me, it should at least let you keep a low profile walking through the palace." Twilight said as she stood and walked over to a plain box on a nearby table. She opened the lid with her magic and out levitated a simple but pleasant looking cloak made of bright white fabric. After a moment the garment drifted across the room and gently settled over Celestia's shoulder. Celestia held up an edge of the cloth, taking a closer looks. "Your friend made this? Today? With hooves?" she asked incredulously. "Oh she's very good at what she does." Twilight answered with a nod and a smile, enjoying the brief swell of pride she felt for Rarity. Celestia just shrugged. "Fair enough, it's not like questioning anything at this point gets me anywhere, I'll have to meet her sometime so I can thank her." She gave a small smile herself as she realized just how comfortable the cloak was. "At least if there's time before the mirror is fixed," she added hopefully, doing her best to keep telling herself she'd be going home soon enough. "It's a good thing we're somewhat similar in shape, I wouldn't have been able to stand in for your sizing before I became an alicorn." Twilight admitted sheepishly. "I just told her it was for me, seemed easier...though she certainly didn't hesitate to tell me how much the color clashed with my coat." she added grudgingly. Sunset was tempted to tell Twilight she probably looked wonderful in it, but managed to stop herself by shoving a pancake in her mouth. "Anyways, I'm ready to teleport you two to the palace gates as soon as you are done with your breakfasts." Twilight said as she mentally reviewed the long range teleportation spell she'd been perfecting since late last night. "Might as well get this over with." Sunset grumbled after swallowing the mouthful of pancake. While she still dreaded her reunion with Princess Celestia, she had resigned herself to her fate. "I'll be sure to write from my cell, or banishment, or whatever." she added with a huff as she stood up from the table they'd been sharing. Celestia gave her half eaten breakfast a pensive glance before standing. "I think I'm ready as well.". As an after thought, a blueberry launched itself from a nearby bowl, hurtled on by a golden glow, and landed in her mouth. She had been getting sort of good with levitating small things at least. It really was amazing how naturally it seemed to come to her. Twilight shot an impatient glance at Celestia. "Are you done?" A handful of blueberries flew by, landing near perfectly in Celestia's waiting mouth. "Yesh," she replied guiltily around the mouthful. Twilight rolled her eyes before positioning the two next to each other and began casting the spell that, with any luck, would leave them standing right outside the front gate of the Canterlot Palace. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While a bit jarring, the experience of teleportation hadn't been entirely unpleasant. It mostly felt like standing still while hundreds of unidentifiable objects whizzed past. Celestia opened her eyes and blinked blearily for a few moments as the world came into focus. Before her sat a gleaming white castle, with spires and towers jutting haphazardly from every angle. While imposing, there was also a certain welcoming feeling to the towering structure, impeded only by a set of golden gates with an armored guard at its sides. "That is one hell of a home." Celestia couldn't help but comment as she pulled the hood up on her new cloak, trying to get it to sit comfortably over her horn. "It certainly used to be," Sunset said with a sad sigh. "Come on, we should probably let the guards know why we're just loitering out front." She began trotting towards the gates with Celestia in tow. As they neared, the pair of guards shifted inwards, blocking any chance of passing. "Halt! In the name of The Sisters, identify yourselves!" One of the pair called in an overly official tone, pointing a forehoof out at them. "We've been sent by Princess Twilight Sparkle to meet with the Princesses, we are expected." Sunset replied, matching the authority of the guard's voice. The guard who hadn't spoken pulled a scroll from under his wing and began to briefly peruse the contents before giving his partner a brief nod. The pair immediately split apart, heading to their original positions while grabbing and opening the gate as they went. "Welcome to Canterlot Palace," they said in unison before resuming a stoic silence. Sunset walked casually through the open gate while Celestia followed a few steps behind, her head swinging left and right as she tried to take in more details of the palace while still keeping her hood in place. "This place is nuts! Every time I think I'm ready to accept all that's going on, I find something else torn straight from a storybook. I mean come on, princesses in castles? Really? Twilight's place was one thing but this, this is a whole new level! Tolkien would have eaten his hat!" Celestia babbled, looking back and forth at the various pieces of art that lined the walls of the hallway they were currently making their way down. "I specifically remember being surprised when I found out that you didn't live in a castle." Sunset replied with a chuckle."Finding a Celestia that lived in small cottage in a suburb was pretty weird." Celestia's brows narrowed. "How do you know where I live?" "Um, uh, it's just common knowledge!" Sunset stammered. "Definitely not because I used to egg it every year on Halloween!" "Well, you can just come over the day after Halloween and de-egg it this year." Celestia said with a scowl. "I wasn't gonna do it this year, I've changed!" Sunset shot back, almost pleadingly. "That's not the..." The words dropped from Celestia's train of thought as they turned a corner and came face-to-face with the largest door she'd ever seen. The door was made of dark wood and stretched all the way up to the spacious ceiling and adorning the face of it were an ornate sun and moon. Sunset walked up to it and rapped a hoof gently against the surface. Almost immediately, the door began to open, seemingly of its own accord. As it parted, Celestia caught sight of a wide open room made mostly of white marble, with a large raised dais at the far end. Atop the dais was a pile of cushions, and atop those was a large, white pony, smiling serenely while looking over a scroll. This time Celestia took the lead in walking into the room, while Sunset hesitated near the opening, suddenly trembling. "She'sgonnakillme,she'sgonnakillme,she'ssogonnakillme..." she muttered under her breath, finally taking a few steps into the room. In a matter of moments, both of them were standing only a few feet from the dais, trying to ignore the awkward silence as they waited for the alicorn to finish reading. After another few moments that felt much longer, Princess Celestia rolled up the scroll and placed it to the side. "I'm sorry about that, Twilight told me you were coming but I still had a few things I couldn't reschedule. Now, how can I h..." she asked as she finally glanced up at the pair of them before freezing completely as she saw Sunset, her deep pink eyes widening and her jaw going slack. The room had suddenly become unbearably silent for Sunset and time seemed to stretch even further than it had while they waited to be addressed. It took everything she had to not slam her eyes shut, bolt from the room, and not stop running until she found a place that had never even heard of pony princesses. After another year long second she opened her mouth, hoping to apologize, but instead she just squeaked a barely audible "hi". The Princess blinked a few times, seeming to be stuck in shock, but eventually snapped out of it enough to say something herself. "S-Sunset? Is it really you?" Sunset was sorely tempted to say no, but despite everything she still couldn't bring herself to lie to her old teacher. Instead she just nodded, staring at the ground and wishing she could disappear. Suddenly a pair of great white wings swept around her, scooping her into a hug that could crush an Ursa. "It is you! Thank the stars!" Princess Celestia gushed, her normally calm demeanor cast completely aside. "You're here and you're safe! I can't tell you how happy I am to see you my little pony!" Celestia couldn't help but smirk a bit as she watched her giant doppelganger assault the little yellow unicorn. 'This is really weird, but still pretty funny,' she thought as she pulled down her hood, figuring the need for anonymity had passed. As she did, the sound of hooves on marble caught her attention, and she looked to the side to see a large but strangely familiar dark blue pony staring at her. "By Celestia's beard, is that a tiny Tia?...IT IS!!!" Luna shrieked in glee before charging the unicorn and tackling her in a hug similar to the one her sister was still crushing Sunset with. "LUNA!? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?"