Evening. Such a time of day was a point of time that was usually spent at home with one’s friends and family/loved ones, frequently sitting outside on their porches and watching the sun set on the horizon.
Typically, the sun setting was always the burden of the Sun Princess. It was her requirement to set the sun, making sure that it would not linger for too long in the sky, scorching their world on one side, and freezing it on the other. She had done this for over three thousand years, being born four thousand, one hundred and twenty six years, seven months, eighteen days and nine hours ago; so one could forgive her for letting the sun linger in the sky for a minute longer.
In all honesty, the citizens of Equestria had not even bat an eye regarding the sun staying up for even another five minutes. What was going in the castle however was another, completely different story.
Celestia slammed the door to the balcony hard enough to make the sound echo through just about the entire hallway. She pressed up against it, heaving panicked breaths. If anything had shown her she needed to get out of the castle and into someplace where she could lay low, the way they reacted to her less than stellar behavior should have proved it. There were so many questions. Questions about whether they may speak her name in vain. What they should do if they incurred her wrath. How to avoid incurring her wrath. Where they should build temples for her. What they should do in the temples. What kind of goddess she was. The questions just wouldn’t stop. And she was sure they were still trying to ask questions about what sort of sacrifices they would have to make, and where, and when. “Oh Celestia,” she sighed to herself. “you’ve really goofed up now...”
“Um, your highness…? Are you alright?”
Celestia realized three things. One: She was not alone. Two: This pony that asked her how she was feeling was one of the castle maids. Three: That maid in question was very familiar. “I… Oh! Hello again, you’re just the pony I need.”
The red maid that she had seen two days ago jumped in surprise, dropping her feather duster. “I-- Me??”
“Yes, you! And this is really important--” She stepped over, grabbing said maid by the shoulders. “--I need your help.”
“B-b-but I’m just a maid,” The red pony protested. “Why would you want my help??”
“Little maid, we’ve already been over this; without you or any other maid in this entire palace, we’d die.” After lightly shaking her, she let go. “Now will you help me?”
The maid seemed to ponder this for some time.
“Please, I need an answer!”
“Y-yes, your highness!” The maid replied, saluting rather poorly but all the same enthusiastically.
“Great! Now, I have two questions for you… First, what’s your name? I never caught it, and I apologize for that.”
“P-Poppy, your highness.”
“Good name; fits your coat color. Poppy, how quickly can you-- and follow me on this-- send me--and everypony in my private chambers--packing on a vacation to ponyville--along with anything that could cause trouble being left alone in the storehouses??”
Poppy’s eyes widened. “A vacation? But why now?”
“Oh I’m sure I’ve stocked up on enough vacation days to last me for a thousand years, so I’d love to spend at least a month or two off if it isn’t too much to ask. How quickly can you do it?”
“Well… how many are in your chambers right now?”
“Fifty seven, thirty out of country” Celestia didn’t tell them where out of country those thirty were, for fear of instilling paranoia too early on.
“...And that coupled with booking fifty seven tickets, Plus shipping of essential cargo on the next train and handling of delicate instruments, arranging for living space of those thirty… two days, and that’s at a quick pace.”
“Okay… what would it take to do it in twenty?”
“...Hours?”
“Minutes.”
“M-m-minutes?! But that’s madness!” She protested again. “Booking tickets alone would take at least an hour!”
Celestia raised her right eyebrow. Clearly, what she was saying wasn’t working. She had to try a different approach. The palace staff’s peace of mind from the paparazzi depended on it.
“Just how many maids would it take?”
“Um… All of them?”
Celestia dropped her right eyebrow, raising the other. “‘All of them’?”
“All of them, your majesty.”
“All of the maids…?”
“Yes, all of the maids, your highness!”
“What, in the castle, or…?”
“All of the maids ever!!” Poppy shouted out. “Um, in an exaggeration of sorts, your majesty.”
“Very well then, Poppy. We must gather all the maids, and organize them into a single, collective force to complete this upcoming task! I have complete and utmost confidence in you. Now I must go and tell Twilight and company the news.” After what was supposed to be an assuring hug, Celestia exited the room, and took off speeding down the hallways to her destination.
Poppy was alone, but not for long. Where one maid was, there was always another. As she--with slight hesitation--picked her duster back up, another maid rounded the corner.
“Oh…? Poppy, aren’t you supposed to be on your way to those library shelves that always seem dusty?” The other maid stopped in her tracks, noticing the panicked look on Poppy’s face. “Oh dear… Princess orders?”
“All the maids…?? Poppy whimpered. Why must the goddesses put me up with an impossible task like this??”
---
While Celestia may have been trotting ahead with a purpose, Anypony who was getting some much needed sleep was thinking otherwise. Seven ponies and two changelings were snuggled up underneath princess Celestia’s luxurious bedding. Along with how warm and fluffy ponies were, coupled with the natural spread of warmth to points of contact and back into a body, the changelings and ponies were not remotely interested getting out from their makeshift nest.
It was for this reason that Celestia stood at an impasse. For Celestia, it was important to her that she leave as soon as possible, lest she somehow perpetuate the popular belief that she was a goddess. However, the eight beings (and one lump--probably Pinkie who had scooted herself to the foot of the bed) sleeping soundly made her really not want to get them all up and out. Her mind was at war. Thankfully, she did have someone-- or rather somethings-- to bounce thoughts around with, all without saying anything out loud. Sun, I’m having just a little bit of trouble figuring out what to do here…
“Please don’t put us out, mistress!” the sun wailed in reply.
Really? After all this time not actually saying a word to you, the moment I say something, that’s the first thing that occurs to you to say? I’m hurt!
“We’re sorry mistress! We-- we heard you were a goddess, and--”
“Oh would you just shut up!” the moon snarked from near the horizon. “If you took ten seconds to actually listen, you’d realize that she wasn’t mad at you! So quit blubbering, you’re like ten times bigger than me!”
“We--You’re right Moon, as always… What’s the issue, mistress?”
Oh, I’m just trying to figure out how to handle this problem. I need to get us out as soon as possible, but I don’t want to be the one to disturb Rarity’s beauty sleep.
“How did you hear about that?” the moon asked.
Oh, Twilight wrote about it in one of her old friendship reports, Celestia mused. Smart really, not bothering a pony in the early morning over something as trivial as a romance novel returned with an unofficial, Ponyville library unapproved bookmark in it.
“‘Tartarus hath no fury like a big-sister scorned.’,” The moon quoted. “Especially a big-sister scorned for sleeping one minute late. Learned that from you, dear goddess.”
Oh, not you too! Celestia felt offended.
“No worries, I say it ironically.” It replied in defence. “But we’re getting off topic. There’s only one way to get it done.”
And that is…?
“Don’t worry about it.”
Celestia’s teeth clenched. That’s not helpful.
“Hey, I’m just a space rock, floating about with my spaciness, carrying space creatures who live in their space cities, eating their space food and doing their space work--”
“We get it, you’re from space!!” The sun interrupted. “But… is that truly the best way to go?”
Celestia sighed. “I suppose there’s just no other option. I could call on my guard, but they’re trained to be forceful.” Celestia reached a hoof out, placing it past the threshold to her room. “Well, here goes,” she muttered.
“MY DEAR SWEET GODDESS, WAIT!!” Celestia shot her head around, startled by the sudden lack of silence in the midst of her potential bold action. She was surprised to see several maids sliding-- no, drifting-- around a corner in a mad dash towards her position. And leading them was Poppy.
“Poppy, I’m surprised at your punctuality--”
“PLEASE DON’T!! YOU MUSTN’T SOIL YOUR HOOVES ON OUR BEHALF BY TOUCHING A MORTAL BODY!!”
Celestia watched, indignant at the fact that somehow poppy caught wind of false exaltation of her, then slacked jawed as the army of maids in one single force shot around her, gently gathering each and every one of the temporary residents up in their own pre-warmed blankets, all of them barely noticing being moved an inch before they were carried along by the stronger earth pony maids. “So… that was pretty impressive, though I didn’t like the whole ‘soil your hooves’ part... Where are the rest?”
“Oh thank you so much dear goddess,” Poppy blushed somehow through her red coat. “It’s absolutely wonderful to hear such admiration from you. I would beg of you to forgive the rest of them, they’re… coping through the use of paper bags.” She looked inside the room as the last of them carried out the remaining changelings. “So… Foreigners?”
Celestia sniffed the air, noticing the pungent smell of burnt rubber possibly from high heels against the marble floor. “Is there a problem, my little pony?”
“Well, yes-- I mean no! It’s perfectly fine… How could just little old me ever manage to comprehend the thoughts and feelings of Princess Celestia Del sol of the immortal empire of the solar diarchy--”
“Okay, stop right there,” Celestia urged, jamming a hoof in the maid’s mouth. “I’ve heard that spiel, and if I have to hear it again I’m going to be very saddle sore.”
Poppy cocked her head. “W-whatever do you mean, my sweet godde--”
“I mean thou shalt not use my full title ever again!!” The princess shouted, practically knocking over the poor maid in the process. Groaning, she ground her wings into her temples. “I can’t believe I ever allowed that title to get so big…” Her horn glowed, attempting to straighten out her hair, but it seemed that the only thing that could fix it right now was a comb, despite her powerful magic. “Anyway yes, as far as you’re concerned, the nymphs are foreigners, and they’ll be coming with me for the duration of my stay in ponyville. I would hope that’s acceptable for the near future?”
“I--Well yes, yes it is.”
“And I’m very glad to hear that,” Celestia nodded, smiling in exaggerated gratitude. “Now, if you would kindly head on your way to… oh I don’t know inform the rest of the staff of this event?” Saying what she wanted to say, Celestia turned tail to follow the other maids down the hall… until she noticed that Poppy was not following her. “Um, Poppy are you alright?”
Poppy shifted nervously. “Just one question… What is it like being with children of… of her?” In the moment after asking the question, she flinched visibly, as if she did something very wrong.
Celestia took easy notice of that. “Poppy, nopony who’s ever asked me a question has been smitten by the wrath of the sun as a result.” It’s got a soft spot for the castle staff anyway, she noted to herself.
“S-so does that mean you won’t--?”
Celestia rolled her eyes, opening up a wing and wrapping it a little more roughly than intended around her back, eliciting a surprised squeak. “Poppy, sweetie-- Look at me, right here and right now.” She squeezed her close and snug, beaming at the scared little maid in her protective grip. “Does this face look like the face of a raging, wrathful, heartless goddess ready to kill anypony who so much as trips in her presence?”
In hindsight, she could have phrased her question differently-- that is, she probably shouldn’t have given Poppy a rhetorical question for her to mull over in her head and draw her own conclusions for, because the question in mind and the gentle wing hug did the exact opposite than the intended effect. This predictably made Poppy fall catastrophically into a panic, fighting to get out from underneath the wing holding onto her. It was only Celestia’s understanding of the minds of ponies that told her that apparently she felt she was trapped, and the answer to that rhetorical question was “yes”. Only a tight hug and a silent plea for her to not freak out kept poppy from running off screaming that she should have never left the library of which its shelves constantly and conveniently needed dusting. Thankfully, Poppy was plenty receptive to calming hugs and reassurances, having dropped her panic as quickly as it arrived. “By the way,” she softly spoke to her maid. “The correct answer you were to draw out of that little rhetorical question was supposed to be a resounding ‘no’.”
Poppy giggled, partly because of nerves, and partly from embarrassment. “I’ll… keep that in mind, my goddess.”
Celestia chose to ignore that, instead satisfying Poppy’s curiosity. “To answer your question Poppy, being with the little nymphs was an enlightening experience. For one, those little children were strikingly naive, thinking that their mother would allow them to waltz into Equestria and do the cowardly deed of ‘earning love’. But she allowed them to go anyway under that guise, and then used them as a cheap way to worm her way onto the throne. I was… unhappy, to say the least.”
Poppy shivered. “Oh no… that’s just horrid...”
“What’s even scarier is how quickly they distanced themselves from her when they found out. I don’t know who among them carried around the idea that Chrysalis was unworthy of their love, but it was a scant few minutes before they all disowned her.”
“Oh my word, that’s even worse!”
“Oh yes, that’s why they’re all going to come along with us to ponyville. They’re really such sweet little things when you finally get to know them, filled with an absolutely wonderful sense of curiosity around us ponies… and maybe even love! I think you’d love to meet them.”
“Yeah, I would...”
“But having their mother be so manipulative, it just made me so mad… That’s why we’re punishing her with a little bit of irony… See, she wanted to rule equestria with an iron hoof, conquer it and bend it to her own will… so in that end we’re going to get her what she wants,” a glare fell on her face. “She’ll have all the power, prestige and glory... along with the long hours, stacks upon stacks of paperwork, infuriating meetings where nothing gets done, and every little hearing in court with every vile, selfish petition put forward by the greedy upper class. She is going to suffer through every little second of painful rulership, not to mention the understandable spite towards her and her kind.”
“That’s only just what she deserves.” Poppy agreed. “...You’ve been holding this rulership thing in for a while, haven’t you?”
“Yeah… It’s really been quite lonely. I’m glad to be able to have this vacation.” The two shared in a nice, tight hug. “It’s funny though… I didn’t think that you’ld actually agree with putting the changeling queen on the throne.”
Poppy gasped in realization.
Celestia relaxed her grip, looking into Poppy’s yellow eyes. “Have you just been agreeing with me because you’re afraid of being contrary.”
Poppy gulped. “I--I just-- um--”
“Don’t worry my little pony, I’ve got a little bit of a thicker skin than that--”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please don’t tell my mom! Please don’t banish me and then tell my mom either!! I’m only a mortal and I make mistakes and I’m sorr-yyyyyyyy!!!” Suddenly Celestia found she had her forelegs full of thrashing pony. She had to let go for Poppy’s sake so that she wouldn’t injure herself, but when she did, she charged off as far and fast as she could.
“No wait!” Celestia called out to her. “I won’t let you leave until you’ve formed an independent opinion from myself!” It was futile. Poppy was out of sight.
Celestia stared, slackjawed. With shaking steps, she joined in with the rest of the ponies, speaking the greatest understatement of the year. “That… can’t be good.”
---
Of all the trains in Equestria, the Friendship Express traveled the most, with the highest number of tickets per day for any train in the entire country. This might have been because it was a charmingly ugly looking train; designed by a second grade school body after their teacher won a lottery hosted by the Equestria transportation company. Everypony seemingly forgot that it was not hosted for charitable reasons, but rather strictly for profit; yet that was not a factor even when known that kept it from being such a popular train to ride.
This trip was different, however, as the Friendship Express was sparsely packed--nay, almost empty, because somepony had not only bought off every bound from Canterlot to Ponyville, but also convinced every pony who had already bought a ticket to get a refund and travel by different means. (1)
A short walk down a back alley to avoid the public made the trip there a little longer than normal, but once she knew that every dangerous and/or classified item of questionable usage was in crates and safely stored away in the cargo hold of the train, she along with twenty six ponies and thirty changelings boarded the train. Then, Celestia found a seat in the nearest passenger car, laid down on her belly and contemplated just how everything went wrong.
Twilight Sparkle and friends woke up, realizing quickly that they were now facing a change of scenery. Twilight stretched her limbs, her blanket still draped over her back. It made
stretching her wings a little bit more difficult, but she really didn’t want to get out from underneath her warm bedding. She liked her bed in the Golden Oaks Library, but palace bedding always held a special place in her heart; so soft and warm as it was against her body. If she could, she’d find at least ten of those blankets, drop them smack dab in the middle of her home, burrow underneath them and hibernate through the winter--
Suddenly it occurred to her that not everything was well, and there was something very wrong that they were trying to get away from. Many ponies looked around the train with worried glances, coming to the same realization since they had made peace with their nymph friends.
But the most worrying thing that could be was the sorry state of Celestia. Fluttershy was already by her side, one wing over her back. But it didn’t seem to help her. Her eyes were wide as if she’d seen a puppy get run over a cart; and she just couldn’t stop shaking--
“Oh my gosh, is she in shock?!” Now wide awake, Twilight rushed over to her precious princess, pulling her own blanket off and wrapping it tightly around Celestia’s shoulders. Then she went through important steps, lying her down on her back, keeping her legs elevated and checking to make sure she was breathing properly. Now all she needed was some sort of way to contact a hospital and she’d be certain that Celestia was going to make it through this medical emergency alive and well once more.
“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy stopped her before she could dart out of the car and get the medical team to the scene. “I appreciate the effort… but she’s not in shock.”
“Huh?” Twilight stared up at Fluttershy in slight disbelief. “But--but she was shivering! I couldn’t just leave her like that!”
“And that was very nice of you,” Fluttershy assured her. “But I already checked up on her, and physically speaking she’s perfectly fine. Some of the biggest signs of shock are shortness of breath, confusion, clammy skin and a rapid but weak heartbeat.” She smiled. “Every university in Cloudsdale requires some guard training; I took a course on field medicine.”
“...Oh.” Twilight dumbly replied. “Wh… What about the shivering?”
“Well, I was going to use my blanket, but you beat me to it. Shivering is a sign, but in this case she was just nervous.”
Celestia nodded weakly. “Thank you by the way, Twilight...” Twilight smiled in reply. But just to make sure Fluttershy was right, she lit her horn, casting a warming spell on the blanket Celestia wrapped herself up in. “Oh...” she moaned in approval, pulling it tighter around her.
“Feeling any better?” Fluttershy asked gently.
“Oh no not at all,” Celestia replied bluntly. “It’s been maybe forty hours since we all started this whole fiasco, and I’m just remembering how my loss of temper crushed everything I have worked for the past thousand years… maybe longer.”
There was a thick silence. “...Wow,” Rainbow Dash said.
“That sounds just dreadful,” Rarity Seconded.
“Mm-hm,” Celestia nodded. “I had started this whole blasted thing because of the way my little ponies were scraping their heads on the floor whenever they saw me, and every little patch of dirt I walked upon was sealed up in glass jars labeled as ‘soil blessed by the sun goddess’.”
“Well that’s just a tad bit silly,” Applejack scoffed.
“What’s worse is apparently the very plants revered that dirt, and really did grow stronger.”
Applejack’s eyes twinkled. “Really?”
“Now now AJ,” Pinkie gently scolded. “I’m sure there’s nothing special about that dirt except what the plants thought about it.”
Twilight stared at Pinkie. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s an earth pony thing.”
“...Right then,” Twilight remarked, allowing the sun princess to continue. And continue she did.
“Back in the earlier times after I had been crowned queen of Equestria, the ponies under my rulership believed that the battle armor that I had forged rather shoddily in preparation for our remarkably anticlimactic battle against Discord was condensed sunlight, and not only was it burning to the touch, but apparently it hid my glory from their eyes. As such they were only comfortable when I wore it.”
“Well that’s just dumb,” Rainbow snarked.
“No no-- It gets better,” Celestia held up a hoof, urging everypony else to listen. “When one pony actually happened to see me without the horrendously uncomfortable plates of metal, the whole town called for her to be executed!” A collective gasp sounded from the ponies. Celestia rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t that bad, really. Being the ultimate authority allowed me to go in direct conflict with the supposed religious doctrine surrounding my existence, and that little filly was spared her life.”
Rarity was indignant. “Well I hope you gave those ponies a stern talking to!”
“Oh believe me, there was much more than a stern talking to.”
“...D-did you… beat them?” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Of course not,” Celestia assured her.
“Oh, thank goodness.”
“I gave each of them a four hundred bit fine, two strikes with a belt and put them all to bed without dessert.” Fluttershy curled into a ball, whimpering. “What? Did you think I used the metal end across the face? It’s gotta hurt, but I’m not gonna leave bruises on my little ponies!”
“I think Fluttershy is saying that you shouldn’t whip ponies with a belt.”
“But they were adults, they could handle it!” Celestia protested. However, Pinkie put a hoof to Celestia’s mouth, stopping her from saying any more.
“Shh, this isn’t your fight. When you’ve got kids of your own, you’ll be able to punish them for their wrongdoings however you want… within reason.”
Celestia wisely gave up, choosing instead to continue her rant. “...So Twilight… Did you know that this name of mine is not actually my real name?”
Twilight tilted her head. “I had no idea. What is your real name?”
Celestia shrugged. “That’s just the thing. It’s been too long for me to remember. That very name-- ‘Celestia’-- was just part of an increasingly long string of titles tacked on behind the title of princess. That name’s also part of a dead language which while at the time I knew it because everypony spoke it, I had come to forget it a while after we’d all moved out of the dream valley when the windigos invaded.”
“Wow, so you weren’t always a princess when you lived among ponies?” Pinkie interrupted.
“Of course not; did you really think I was just born as a princess of Equestria, Unicornia, Pegasopolis or Earth?”
“Nope, I just thought you were at some time just a pony who lived in the wild and was raised by wolves or something. Were you always an alicorn? Or did you start as an earth pony? or a pegasus? or a unicorn?” Pinkie caught herself with another train of thought. “Wait wait-- were you a mixed breed? Like a pegacorn, or something?”
“...What’s a ‘pegacorn?’” Celestia asked. “Is that a pony with unicorn and pegasus traits, but no earth pony strength?”
“Wow, how’d you know?”
“I’ve been around for a while; I can make a couple of educated guesses,” Celestia replied cooly. Then she realized that she went off topic. “You know Pinkie, you’re kind of distracting.”
Pinkie toothily smiled. “Welllll, your train of thought was just leading down a path of perpetual misery and depression. Can’t have that when you’re around the bearer of laughter, right?”
“Pinkie, I just lost four thousand years of progress with easing ponies’ fears of me in the course of an afternoon! Am I just supposed to dance a little jig because I didn’t destroy anything in the process?” Celestia let out a soft, dejected sigh, curling the edge of the blanket she was so generously given with her hooves. “And now, even in all of this, I’m asking you Twilight, to run in and fix my mess for me… again. Oh Twilight… What am I going to do? I’m just… I don’t know, is world weary the right word? No, I’m just sick. Sick of the world, sick of not managing to fix my problems, sick… of me.”
Twilight tenderly ran a hoof along Celestia’s back. “Celestia, I think Pinkie’s right. You shouldn’t be worried about the world on your shoulders right now. Besides, you did solve one problem! I’m quite confident that Princess Chrysalis will not be conducting an invasion against the country that she’s been thrust into rulership over while you go on your extended vacation.”
“That’s… That’s a very good thing, yes. I just hope that that doesn’t become all messed up as well.”
“Tell you what: next big crisis that strikes Ponyville by force, you can personally bring down your solar fire when words of reason don’t work.” Twilight winked, earning a small smile from her ex-teacher. “That being said, is there anything I could do for you right now?”
Twilight waited, watching Celestia as she looked out the window. If there was any deep thought going on in her mind, Twilight couldn’t tell what it could possibly be. But then again, Celestia had proved quite effectively how well she could hide her emotions. It was with bated breath that she waited for a response. A nodd. A shake of the head. Hay, even a grunt might have been enough for her given the awkward silence that all the ponies were waiting on--
“Actually Twilight, I believe that there is something I missed while I was training you to become a princess.”
That was hardly the response she was expecting. “I… I-I thought you were quite thorough...”
Celestia shook her head. “No no, there was something that I always did for my previous students; a something that I used to decide what sort of curriculum that student was going to study to become a princess. It was something of a test, really--”
Twilight interrupted her, shooting up a foreleg. “Princess Celestia, I haven’t done much studying in practical magic applications since my first entrance exam! If you’re going to throw a test at me like this, can I at least get some books on the study material?”
Celestia let out a hearty laugh, reaching out a hoof to pull the purple pony into an affectionate headlock. “Oh Twilight, why would there be test on the curriculum when I would have had no idea what sort of curriculum one would be studying?”
“...So, it’s not a written test, but an oral one?”
“Um… Sort of. More like an ‘observe and report’ test.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“You know what?” Celestia got up out of her chair from underneath Fluttershy’s wing. “Come along, I think it’d be easier to just show you what sort of test this is.” She grabbed Twilight’s wing with her own, and carried the two of them out of the passenger car and further back the train. “I’ve got the very thing we’d need for the test right on this train too, conveniently waiting for somepony to look at it.”
The remaining five friends waited in another awkward silence. Applejack cleared her throat in a vain attempt to break the silence. “So… A lot ta take in, huh? Celestia don’t wanna be a princess right now, and now we’ve got kids who disowned their ma. Now we’ve gotta find a home for them, and I’m not sure just how easy that’ll be dependin’ on how much it matters to the ponies that they’re changelings...”
Fluttershy scratched her ear nervously. “I guess we’ll just have to hope that it doesn’t matter.” (2)
“And then,” Pinkie spoke up, “We can worry about bigger problems, like who the hay is Princess Celestia’s granddaughter!”
“Eeep!” Fluttershy collapsed on the floor.
“Okay, this is getting really old.”
---
Celestia turned a key on a particular padlock on a fairly large crate. Allowing the lock to fall, she simply grabbed hold of one of the boards, wrenching it open. Twilight watched in fascination as Celestia dove into the crate, haphazardly tossing packaging paper all over the place before picking up a larger thing covered in similar packaging paper and thick ropes. “Twilight, this test I’m giving you is not about any particular field of study,” Celestia began. “It’s more a test of character, or personality.” She began to untie the ropes around the very large thing, revealing that it was… a mirror.
It was actually pretty elaborate. It had a blue frame with intricate wire decorations outside of it. Eleven gems were set in the frame, five on each side and one on the top. Steps led up to the mirror, and on top of that mirror was another mirror which only seemed useful for displaying the image of a pony rearing back.
“This mirror,” Celestia continued, “Is not just any sort of mirror. Starswirl called this the Erised fo Rorrim… He thought it was really clever, but Personally, I don’t think it’s very creative at all. I’m sure a smart pony like you already knows what that name means.” She beamed. “Go ahead and take a look; Tell me what you see.”
Twilight wondered just what sort of trick was being pulled on her that she was asked to look in a mirror and tell her what she saw. She knew exactly what she was going to see, She was just going to see herself, and that would be all she saw. No silly mirror with a silly name was going to do anything special. Hay, for all she knew, it was named for some smarmy crush Starswirl had on another pony. Twilight felt proud of finding the trick, turning to the mirror with a smug grin.
To her credit, Twilight was right about seeing herself. “Uhh… Pri-- Um-- Celestia?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Why does my reflection have really long, floaty hair?”
Celestia’s grin seemingly widened. “Oh I don’t know, why do you have long, floaty hair?”
“I-I don’t know, does this mirror show ponies with long, floaty hair or something? Pr-Prin-- Just-- Look at this, would you?”
“I’m looking.” Celestia held a hoof to try to stifle her laughter.
“I’m pretty sure this just-- Wait, you don’t look pink in the mirror, you’ve got your typical aurora mane and-- Wait, did my friends follow me here??”
“Twilight?”
Twilight turned around, but her friends were in fact not there. “Wait, I don’t understand-- What’s going on?? Now my parents are there! I really don’t understand--
“Twilight?”
“Okay I’m really scared now, and for some reason we’re all hugging despite the fact that I’m not actually hugging anypony; Princess, what is this?!?”
“Twilight, this is the mirror of desire! I’m sure you know what that means!”
Just like that, all the ponies behind her in the mirror image up and disappeared. “Um… Oh.” There was the long flowey mane again, and nothing else. “So… Mirror of Desire?”
“Mmm-hm.”
“What’s the point of using it?”
“It’s supposed to show you what you desire, but it’s kind of unreliable because it’s on an at-the-moment basis.”
“So what’s the point?”
“It works a little better if you’re asked something like ‘what do you want for Hearthswarming?’, or something like that. Gives a pony a particular desire to focus on.”
“Okay then, thanks for scaring me.” Celestia chuckled, hugging her fellow princess. “So what question would you hypothetically ask a future princess?”
“How do you see yourself ruling over Equestria?”
Twilight looked back at the mirror. There was a definite vision of herself looking back, showing her exactly what she wanted in the distant future.
“...Can I get a long flowey mane?”
Celestia laughed. “Yeah sure, why not? I’ll see what we can do when we get to ponyville.”
“Thanks, Princess!” Twilight wrapped Celestia in a hug. “I don’t even know why I want it… But thanks anyway!”
“It’s probably a desire to emulate me, but we’ll work on that later. Believe me, it’s no trouble at all! In the meantime, we should probably be heading back to our seats.”
“What do you see when you look at the mirror, Princess?”
“Twilight, that’s a very personal question.”
“Says the pony who got me to show her my heart’s desires.”
“Touche.” Celestia thought for a moment. “There are some things that I couldn’t hope to accomplish within three earth pony lifetimes, but there is one thing that could be solved very quickly.”
“And that’s…?”
“I look in the mirror, and I see…“ Celestia looked at her reflection’s hooves. “Socks. Nice, long, fluffy stockings. Made from the highest quality wool, and very toasty.”
“Socks? I’d have thought it was--”
“Cake? Oh, I really do love cake, but socks are a little less temporary. Sometimes, I feel like I can’t get enough socks...” She smiled a sad smile, but it had a hint of a humorous glint in it. “There’s not a Birthday party or Hearthswarming that goes by where I don’t get cake for a present instead of socks.” Celestia pat Twilight on the shoulder, trotting off away from the storage cart and back to the other passengers. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to talk with the other ponies on this train a little longer before we arrive in Ponyville.”
Twilight was gobsmacked. First Spike didn’t want books, now Celestia didn’t want cake? She sat on her haunches, wondering just what she had been doing wrong all those years.