She’s early.
That was the first recognisable thought that came to Celestia in a sea of chaotically swirling emotions and ideas that combined to create a mild case of panic. As a princess, however, Celestia didn’t do panic; or so she liked to tell herself. Twilight Velvet all but snatched Twilight from her grasp and hugged her daughter close, smothering the filly with a mixture of reassurances, kisses, and questions on whether or not she was alright.
After a deep breath which she let out slowly, Celestia looked at her bodyguards. Both Aegis and Rook seemed taken with the scene, or at the very least focused on the grey mare whom had just screamed with an intensity that could put a windigoes’ to shame. Things would need to happen sooner rather than later if she wanted to salvage the situation in a discreet manner. Already, ponies within earshot of their blob-monster attack were gathering around them in groups, with some of them already asking if the princess needed help.
The ‘sooner’ Celestia had been looking for sadly did not come soon enough. Before she had straightened out her thoughts and opened her mouth to call out a few general orders to restore normalcy to this part of the castle, Twilight Velvet opened hers. “What in Equestria is going on here?” The mare asked brusquely, directing her accusatory gaze towards Celestia exclusively. “I never would have thought—
“Missus Velvet, please,” Celestia interrupted her, lowering her head so she could look the angry mother in the eyes and lowered her voice in the hopes of accomplishing something similar in the mare. “I am very sorry for scaring you with that little display, and I understand how upset and angry you must be because of it, but would you please join me in my chambers so that I may explain what happened in detail?”
At first, it didn’t seem like Celestia’s words had even registered with the mother who clutched her child with such vigor that it looked like Twilight was having trouble breathing. Too much of a good thing as far as Celestia was concerned, but she understood where the impulse came from. She thought that she might have responded the same way if she had a child that she had just seen in a potentially dangerous situation. When Velvet opened her mouth, Celestia almost flinched. Instead, she tried to convey peace and understanding in a look.
Much to her surprise, it worked, and Velvet actually looked at the ponies surrounding them before slowly closing her mouth and nodding. “Alright,” she replied tersely, her tone letting Celestia know that, while she was willing to listen, there would be hell to pay if she didn’t like what Celestia had to say.
Celestia nodded gratefully and turned to face the crowds. “Thank you all for your concern, but the danger has passed. Please continue with your day.”
Her softly spoken request was met with murmuring and ponies who slowly broke off from the crowd. They had a fire lit under their collective asses when Rook turnabout faced and glared into the crowd. “You heard the Princess!” He yelled. “Back to work! Nothing to see here!”
“Sergeant Aegis? You are to make sure that this place is spotless. And after that, take a good long time to scrub yourself clean,” Celestia told her other bodyguard in a stern, authoritative voice. “I don’t want to see a speck of paint on you when you arrive at your post.”
It was an act for the benefit of Velvet, and luckily Aegis seemed to realise that. “Yes, Ma’am, Princess, Ma’am,” he replied, snapping to a salute and wincing when it sent more paint flying at the walls. “Not a speck!”
After Velvet had reluctantly put Twilight down on the floor, and Twilight had gotten enough air to be able to move again, Celestia picked her student up in her magic and cleaned her of all the errant specks of paint that still clung to her coat before shepherding them along the brand new colored lines to her quarters. She stopped at the doors and motioned for Velvet and Twilight to go on ahead before focusing on Rook who brought up the rear. “Nopony gets in,” she all but hissed, and after Rook nodded and took his place next to the door she slammed it shut and layered several spells over it for good measure.
It seemed strange, even to herself, how such a comparatively diminutive mare inspired more dread than a mob of angry ponies demanding to know what had happened to their dental plans. The mare and her daughter hadn’t moved from their spot near the entrance. Velvet still looked angry and uncertain, and Twilight looked even more afraid and even more uncertain than she had right after the attack. Probably due to her mother’s behaviour.
Celestia quickly created a seating arrangement out of the pillows she had stacked up against the wall, and then almost put a hoof through her face when she realised that she hadn’t asked for any refreshments. Too late to do anything about that now, she thought to herself when Velvet sat down and stared at her with one eyebrow raised.
She found herself cowed in the presence of an ordinary pony. Apparently Twilight got her penchant for upsetting the balance of things from her mother. Celestia thought with a smile that she strictly kept inward. She dwarfed Twilight Velvet in everything from stature to magical power, and could likely have made the mare faint simply by increasing the ambient magic she put out, but there was one thing she would not be able to stop Velvet from doing: taking Twilight away from the castle if she was truly afraid for her daughter’s well being. At least, not without doing some morally questionable things, and possibly not without irreparably damaging Twilight’s trust. Neither one of which she even wanted to think about.
That left only one option.
With a deep breath to hold together the shaky foundations of her confidence, she walked over to the pillows she had laid out for herself and sat down. The scene was almost exactly how she had expected her talk with Twilight’s mother to take place, with a few important differences. There would have been some calming tea for starters. She briefly reconsidered asking Rook to fetch some, but when Velvet cleared her throat, even that seemed like a foolish idea.
“I... wanted to apologise for raising my voice to you, Princess,” the mare muttered apologetically. “I had heard some... worrying things before I came to the castle, and when I saw Twilight about to get eaten by that blob monster I just—”
This isn’t right. “Please,” Celestia replied, holding out a hoof when Velvet tried her best to curtsy from a sitting position. “You shouldn’t need to apologise for acting as a mother should. I can only imagine how frightening it must be to see your daughter in a situation like that.” She smiled supportively. “And to help put your mind at ease, that ‘monster’ was merely a collection of animated paint, no more dangerous than the paint fight she engaged one of my guards in earlier in the day.”
Velvet smiled back hesitantly. “That’s a relief, but...” She looked over at Twilight, who was beginning to relax now that her mother was as well. “What about the rest?”
The tense knot in Celestia’s stomach wound itself tighter but she kept her smile pleasant and asked, “The rest?”
Velvet nodded. “I came to the castle because somepony told me about some terrifying things that have happened since she came to live at the castle. Like the fact that Twilight almost fell to her death in the middle of court!? How could she ever have gotten into a position where that was a possibility?”
“I am...” The word on her lips was ‘unsure’, but even though Velvet seemed to have calmed down somewhat, admitting she didn’t know about potentially life threatening issues didn’t seem like the best of ideas. “—Working to resolve that matter. It won’t happen again.”
“It was my own fault, mom,” Twilight admitted, her ears folding back on her head. “I wandered out of my room when I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.”
With one hoof, Velvet pulled her daughter close, and with the other she rubbed Twilight’s back. “That’s okay, dear. Can you tell me what happened?”
Twilight seemed hesitant to continue, shooting a glance at Celestia as though it was her approval the filly was worried about. Celestia nodded and motioned for her to go on, she probably needed to know what had happened more than Twilight Velvet did. Especially if she wanted to have any chance of fixing what had so obviously gone wrong in her castle.
“Well...” Twilight began, “The castle is very big, and I wanted to know if there were any fun places to see that I hadn’t seen yet. So I went exploring, just like Daring Do!” She picked up steam and smiled now that she was comparing herself to her favorite explorer. “First I went down some stairs to a huge—” She emphasised her words by spreading her forelegs and trying to envelop the room with them. “—market. The kind Daring Do always visits at some point in her adventures. Then, after that, I found the Princess’ secret hideout—” She looked around as though the walls had ears and leaned in close to her mom, whispering: “Princess Celestia is a superhero,” which earned her two looks of utter disbelief.
Velvet glanced at Celestia, who could only respond with a shrug and a confused shake of her head.
“Her hideout doesn’t have any lights, which was scary at first, but I figured out a light spell.” Twilight beamed with pride at her victory, apparently oblivious to her mother’s deepening frown. “It took a really long time before I found anything, but she has a super special armor thingy in the center of her hideout, with glowy pictures on it and everything!” Twilight paused there, once again looking at Celestia as though she had done something wrong. “But when I tried to pick it up with my magic, it put me to sleep and it gave me a headache. Sorry, Princess. I know you shouldn't touch other ponies' things without permission."
The body language of the older mare clearly conveyed how frightened she was. Even though she was holding her daughter, Celestia could all but see the horrifying implications of Twilight’s tale flow through Velvet’s mind. This is going to take some doing.
“And then, Twilight?” Velvet asked gently, letting her daughter go with such reluctance that it seemed as though it physically hurt. She wasn’t at all happy with what she heard.
“Then, when I woke up, I was hungry, but I could hear the princess’ voice,” Twilight continued dutifully. “So I followed it, and there was this small opening which I had to squeeze through, and after that I was in the courtroom, but wayyy high up. And I wanted to wave to the Princess to let her know where I was, but I slipped and then...”
“That's enough, Twilight. We know the rest.” Velvet fixed Celestia with a look that demanded an explanation.
Celestia however, was still stuck on the revelation of the armor. It was an ancient artifact, from a time when her little Luna was still with her, back when the world had many more rough edges to it. When Chaos still stalked the land, and continued survival was not something to be taken for granted. She had all but forgotten that it even existed, having buried it along with the painful memories that it evoked. Those memories surfaced now, when she heard Twilight talk about it, and it had all but taken her breath away.
"Princess?"
In her mind's eye, Celestia came face to face with a nightmarish creature that hadn't set a hoof in Equestria for nearly a thousand years. A snarling, insane monster that she had dealt with in the only way she could. She had chosen the lesser of two evils, but after the deed was done, she had locked away every single thing that had lead to the monster's demise, and distanced herself from those that called themselves her allies at the time, wanting no more to do with any of them.
"Princess?" Celestia blinked and looked down. Twilight had scooted over and was poking her cutiemark with an earnest expression. "Is everything okay?" The worried looking filly asked.
Now's not the time, Celestia. Pull yourself together. She blinked again and shook her head before smiling at her young student. "I'm fine, Twilight. I was just... lost in thought."
“If you are fine, could you explain to me how she have gotten into this ‘secret hideout’ of yours? Or why that armor wasn’t put away in an armory where it belongs?”
“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed hopping up and down on the spot. She kept hopping until her mother looked at her and then drew an imaginary circle on the floor with her hoof. “There was this hole in the floor, beneath a statue that moved when I leaned against it. And inside there was a switch! But I didn’t understand how it worked at first so I—” While she talked, Twilight upended herself and tried to repeat the acrobatics that had almost gotten her into the secret passage. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any statue to brace herself against this time around, and she ended up falling flat on her back. Not that it stopped the filly, who immediately got up again and continued talking like nothing had happened. “I tried to put my horn in it, but when that didn’t work, I tried feeling around with my magic, and it worked!”
Velvet said nothing for a while, merely looking like she was debating berating her daughter for her poor choice of wording.
Celestia, knowing that she was going to have to put a stop to Twilight’s explanations before they made it seem like she had no idea what was going on in her own castle, coughed to draw the mare’s attention and began with; “As Twilight said, it was a secret passage, one that I kept a secret for a reason.”
“Because it was dangerous?” Velvet immediately cut in.
‘Dangerous’ was a word best avoided when rash decisions weren’t the desired effect of a given conversation. Dangerous implied that what was happening could harm somepony —in this case Twilight— and Celestia was trying to convince Velvet that she had nothing to worry about, not send her running for the hills in terror with Twilight in tow. “Not by itself, no. It merely has some heavy enchantments against magical interference.” Celestia painted a wistful smile on her face. “And it isn’t being stored in the armory because the veteran guards kept daring the new unicorn recruits to tamper with it. It lead to some embarrassing and occasionally even painful incidents, which is why I locked it away in the first place.”
Even though it was a well crafted story, skepticism was to be expected. For the average pony, locking something away did not generally involve secret rooms, after all. And Velvet was nothing if not skeptical with one eyebrow raised high enough as to be fusing with her hairline. However, she did not comment on it further, and before she got to her next question there was a polite knock on the door.
Celestia looked towards it, rolling her eyes in exasperation.“Please excuse me,” she said, getting up and making her way over to the door. She halfheartedly mused about an appropriate punishment for those that complicated an already delicate situation, and for her guards, which she’d specifically instructed not to let anypony through. Rather than find a pony when she opened the door, however, Celestia was presented with a cart, on which were placed tea, and a few light snacks.
“One of the cooks just brought this up, Princess,” Rook informed her. “I thought it might be helpful.”
Celestia nodded and used her magic to pull the cart into the room before closing the door. "Thank you, Rook. Convey my gratitude to Mead."
She closed the door without waiting for a reply and returned to the two Twilights with a painted on smile.
The two were softly conversing amongst themselves, Velvet shooting furtive glances in her direction every so often. The conversation stopped when Celestia returned to the pillow pile, but judging by the disparity in expression—Twilight was smiling happily while Velvet wore a frown—it was easy to infer that her troubles weren't over yet.
"Is it true that you fainted after a lesson, Princess?" Velvet asked before she had even sat down.
Celestia paused, the small wooden tray with the teapot and snacks suspended in her magic. "I wouldn't necessarily call it fainting," she replied before setting down her cargo. "Would you like some tea before I explain what happened?"
Velvet's expression cleared up a little, and she almost bowed her head in ingrained deference. "If you— I mean... Yes, please."
Celestia smiled and then looked at the younger of the two. "Twilight?"
Whatever the filly had been thinking about was apparently interesting enough that she had missed the preceding questions entirely. Nevertheless, she responded with a very eloquent: "Huh?"
"Could you please go help Aegis clean up?"
After a moment of deliberation and a not so subtle glance at her mother, Twilight nodded, and asked: "Why? I thought—”
“I don’t know if I want her to leave my sight—” Velvet interjected.
“Please.” Celestia said, cutting them both off. “I’ll be happy to explain what happened, but it’s more than a little... embarrassing.”
Velvet held Celestia’s gaze for a time, seemingly probing her for falsehoods. Fortunately, Celestia’s public face had been honed by centuries of partial truths, and even outright falsehoods when necessary. “Fine. Twilight, go help Aegis. We’ll come get you when we’re done.”
“Okay.” Twilight said, hesitantly.
"Now then," Celestia began after she had sent Twilight off with Rook. The cleaning job shouldn’t take them too much longer but with a little luck it should give her just enough time to find out what else Twilight Velvet knew. While she held that honesty was generally the best solution, it was important to put the focus on the most important facts; and it needn't mention every detail. "To answer your question, yes I did have a brief moment of weakness after a lesson. Your daughter's magical power is nothing short of astounding. Which is not something I say lightly. She shows an instinctual understanding of complex magical practices that puts her ahead of her peers, or most unicorns in general for that matter." She took a sip of her tea, ordering the rest of her thoughts and taking a moment to see the effectiveness of her words.
Velvet nodded appreciatively, not in the least bit surprised. “We’ve always known that there was something about her... She once used her magic to fling a rock at a young colt that was bullying her...”
“I’m given to understand that isn’t all that uncommon among children these days. What made it special?”
Taking a sip of her tea, Velvet spent a minute gazing out the window thoughtfully. “She wasn’t supposed to have learned basic levitation yet... And the rock was bigger than she was.”
“That makes sense in light of what I’ve seen her do since she arrived at the castle,” Celestia replied, making a mental note about making the next lesson about self-control. “Was the colt alright?”
Velvet nodded. “Thankfully, her aim was off. The wall behind him wasn’t as lucky.” She sighed and shook her head before taking another sip. “But great as it is to hear my suspicions confirmed, none of that explains why you collapsed.”
“It had nothing to do with your daughter. It was very much my own fault.” Celestia said quickly. “I was trying to teach Twilight a very basic shielding spell. But...” Celestia hesitated...
“But?”
“Your daughter... has magic the likes that have not been seen in generations. I can’t even say she is powerful for a unicorn, because truthfully... she is powerful even on my scale.”
“Princess, you’ve already said that. I know my daughter is powerful. I was there when she got her cutiemark. I still remember what having roots felt like. How does that relate to—”
“Well...” Celestia took a deep breath. Sometimes the truth wasn’t good enough. She was all but certain of Velvet’s reaction if she was told that her daughter had almost died twice within a week of coming to live at the castle. She would take Twilight home with her, and that, above all was something Celestia desperately wanted to avoid. Besides, what she was about to say wasn’t precisely a lie, merely an omission of key details. Sort of anyway. “Twilight created a shield powerful enough that took me a great amount of effort to break. Long story short... I was trying to dazzle her and ended up overextending myself.”
Velvet’s mouth opened in a quiet gasp. “You..? Is that even possible? What happened?”
“Used too much magic,” Celestia said, adding a sheepish smile to sell her story. “I’m not quite sure I could explain the details,” Again, not a lie. “Suffice to say, I woke up some time later with a group of doctors scolding me and one very distraught Twilight who thankfully had the presence of mind to fetch an adult.”
There was an uncomfortable silence for several moments, until Celestia felt compelled to bring the conversation back around to her concerns, and away from Velvet’s. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone. It’s bad enough I scared her. I’d rather she not know what a fool her teacher was for making that kind of mistake. And before you ask... I’ve already decided that the next lesson will be: ‘knowing your limits and staying within them’.”
Thought she tried her hardest, Celestia couldn't keep the relief from her face when Velvet nodded in agreement. Thankfully, the mare had shifted her focus to her teacup. “I’m glad to hear that.” Velvet held out her cup and smiled for the first time since she'd arrived at the castle. “Could I get a refill please?”
"Certainly," Celestia replied with an equally amiable smile. Considering the start of their conversation, things had gone much better than she would have dared hope. The lie might be something that came back to bite her later, but it would give her the time she needed to strengthen bonds with Twilight which would, in turn, mitigate the potential damages. If a single lie was the extent of the problems arising from Velvet's visit then she counted herself lucky.
They sat together in a companionable silence for a while. While she couldn't tell what Velvet might be thinking, Celestia's thoughts were focused on the mare herself. With everything that had transpired, strengthening bonds was just what she needed to do, and not just with Twilight.
When she opened her mouth to lay the first bricks, however, Velvet opened hers. "So, Princess, is it true that you consigned my daughter to a duel?"
Horsefeathers.
"Aegis," Rook called out from behind Twilight while they walked back to the disaster area.
Or at least, it looked a lot like the same area. Twilight glanced around, trying to assure herself that they hadn't in fact taken a wrong turn somewhere. It had only been a few minutes and already, most of the extraneous paint seemed to have been cleaned up. Or at least migrated onto Aegis' coat, to the point where she wasn't entirely sure it was him until he smiled. "Hey there." He said, letting the mop he'd been holding lean against the wall. "Back already?"
"The Princess wanted to talk to Twilight's mother alone," Rook answered for her. Twilight merely nodded in confirmation, her head was too full with the way her mother had been acting. Had she done something wrong?
"Something wrong, kiddo?"
She skittishly took a step back when one of Aegis' hooves landed on her back. She hadn't even noticed him move, let alone expected him to pay any attention to her. "I think I got the Princess in trouble."
"Because of your mom?" Aegis laughed softly, picking up his mop and continuing with his clean-up. "Don't worry, Twilight. The Princess wasn't born yesterday. I'm sure she knows what she's doing."
Twilight had her own ideas about that. Neither of the guards knew how scary her mother could be when she was angry. Then again, the Princess was plenty scary when she was angry, too, so maybe it would be okay? There was just one question that made her stomach tie itself into knots. “What if my mom wants me to come home with her?” she asked, folding her ears back. In her mind she could very clearly picture the bullies that had tormented her for so long, the boring lessons that school forced her to sit through, and mostly, having to learn to control her magic without the princess. There were upsides of course, seeing her mom and dad again, and being able to read for days on end during the weekends, but weighing the pros against the cons, going home didn’t appeal to her.
The biggest downside would be not learning how to control her magic properly. What if she turned her parents into plants again? Sure, the princess was able to change them back, but it would be very scary having to go to the castle and admit she’d done it again and needed help to fix it.
“Worried that the princess will have to take your magic away if you can’t stay at the castle?”
Twilight turned to regard Rook. The stoic guard had a look on his face of something that almost approached concern, yet didn’t quite hit the mark. She shook her head softly. “No. The Princess can’t really take ponies’ magic away, She told me herself.”
The second expression she saw on Rook—one of bafflement at her statement— came through much clearer than the concern had, and when he looked to some point behind her, she figured that Aegis must’ve had a similar expression.
“That can’t be,” she heard Aegis mutter moments later. He trotted over to where she was standing, mop and all, and asked: “Are you sure that she wasn’t just saying that? I mean... you were probably scared, right? Maybe she was just trying to put you at ease?”
An emphatic No! was the first thing that came to Twilight’s mind. Unfortunately, it got stuck there, and didn’t get to travel to her mouth. The truth was that she didn’t know. What if the princess had lied to her? What if she did, at some point, decide that Twilight couldn’t be trusted with her magic, even if they hadn’t reached that point yet? A cold shiver ran down her spine and suddenly going home seemed a lot more appealing.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said, pairing her words with a weak smile.
It was taken for real and Aegis laughed in what she interpreted as a healthy dose of relief and patted her on the back. “Don’t worry about it too much, Twilight. I’ll bet by now the Princess has convinced your mother that you’re going to be an alicorn if you study under her long enough.”
“Yeah,” Twilight replied with a half-hearted chuckle. She had trouble seeing any possible benefits under the heavy feeling that had settled on her stomach. “Maybe.”
“Come on. Let’s get the last of this stuff taken care of and then we’ll go grab something to eat.” Aegis smacked his lips. “They’re serving roasted asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and I heard that Mead was talking about truffle stew.”
A few minutes earlier, Twilight would have jumped at the chance. Her hunger had been building steadily while they were painting the castle, but between the paint monster and the flurry thereafter, she had almost forgotten about it. Now, even though her stomach reminded her that she was in fact hungry, she didn't much feel like eating. All the dishes sound weird anyway.
She quickly moved to the other side of the hallway, finding her own cleaning tools roughly where she’d dropped them when the monster had appeared. With a hesitant glance at the paint around her, she picked up a sponge with her magic, keeping it far away from herself while she darted back to Aegis’ side. If any more monsters were going to attack her, at least he would protect her, right?
They worked in silence for a good fifteen minutes, interrupted only when Rook told them that he was going to go back to the Princess’ chambers, and that he would relay their intentions to the Princess. Aegis gave him a quick salute and watched him march down the corridor before resuming his work.
“There we go, all done,” He said with a content sigh when the last spot of paint he could find was cleaned up and he could finally put his mop away. Twilight didn’t reply. She was still trying to get at a few spots of paint that had flown high enough to get stuck on the ceiling, and she wasn’t having much luck. Aegis marched over to her and prodded the filly in her side, startling her and rewarding him for his attention with a paint-soaked sponge on his head. It was the first time since her mother had arrived that he saw Twilight smile again, albeit not for long. “Don’t worry about those spots, Twilight,” he told her after tossing the offending piece of cellulose into one of the buckets. “The pegasus maids will get it. And if they don’t...” he shrugged. “It’s not like anypony looks up there anyway.”
Twilight nodded but didn’t say anything. For the last half hour, she had remained focused on her task, moving little, and saying less. Unusual, but nothing he was really worried about; he’d given the filly a lot to think about after all.
“Well, shall we go and get something to eat?” he asked her with a bright smile.
Twilight shook her head and pointed at his helmet. “Shouldn’t you go take a shower first? You look like the paint monster ate you.”
For a moment he worried that she was still afraid of it, but her soft smile put him at ease. He chuckled while he looked himself over and replied: “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He quickly formed a plan of attack in his head, the exact way he had been taught during the Royal Guard Induction Course. “Okay, you wait right here, I’ll gallop to the showers and be back here in... ten minutes, and then we’ll go get something to eat, okay?”
“But wouldn’t it be easier if I just went to the Dining Hall and waited for you there?” The confusion in Twilight’s voice was apparent, which in turn fueled his own.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t get lost without me?” Again that soft smile appeared on Twilight’s for a few seconds while she pointed at the colored lines that ran the length of the hallway. His hoof met his face moments after that. “Right, forgot about that. Those things are going to take some getting used to. Okay, I’ll head to the showers and see you in the Dining Hall in about twelve minutes, okay?”
“Okay,” Twilight replied with a nod. He watched her spin on the spot and trot in the direction of the colored line before hurrying in the other direction. Only after she’d pointed it out had he become aware of just how uncomfortable it was having paint everywhere on his coat. He couldn’t wait to get into a clean uniform.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile a little while she trotted through the hallways. Sure, the knowledge that the Princess could probably still take her magic away was kind of frightening, but she hadn’t done so yet. And Aegis was just such a funny stallion, it was hard not to feel a little better after talking with him, even if he sometimes said or did weird things.
She looked back and forth, admiring the lines she had helped create around the castle. Miss Sunny had said that they could stay, and they made all the hallways look just that little bit happier.
It was during one of those times in which she looked at the line behind her that she ran into somepony. She stumbled back and barely managed to avoid falling down on her rump. Her first reaction was to apologise, but the apology died on her lips when the other pony spoke up first.
“Watch where you’re going, young filly.”
The curious thing was that the colt that spoke couldn’t have been much older than she was. Three or four years at most. Yet he acted like he was in charge. Superior, through no other fact than that he was slightly older; or maybe it was because he was taller than she was?
With an immaculately groomed white coat, and neatly combed blond hair, he couldn’t have looked more different from Twilight. Despite Celestia’s earlier magical cleaning, she had managed to get some new specks of paint on her coat, and she hadn’t so much as taken a comb through her mane when she’d woken up to begin with; too full of her new ideas to take trivial things such as personal hygiene into account.
“Sorry,” she said belatedly. She’d only seen the colt for three seconds, but she already knew that she really didn’t want him as a study-buddy. For his side, the colt regarded her with a smirk that was as irritating as it was triumphant. He reminded her of the bullies back at school.
“I suppose I can forgive you,” he said, lifting his muzzle higher into the air. “After all, everypony knows that common ponies are stupid and can barely tell their hooves from their tail.”
That sparked a flame in Twilight’s chest. She wasn’t stupid! “Well,” she replied, sticking her muzzle in the air to mirror him. “The princess herself is teaching me magic, so at least I’m smarter than you are.”
The colt’s muzzle came down and his body tensed. For a moment, Twilight was worried that he might jump her and try to hit her, but the tension drained when he looked to his side. Twilight followed his gaze and found that there was another pony beside him whom she had missed completely up till now.
Sporting the same white coat, and with a practically identical blond mane, the mare couldn’t be anypony other than Duchess Blueblood. The pretty mare that was secretly trying to steal the Princess’ throne like any evil pony would. Which meant that the colt must be... Blueblood. Twilight frowned. Names were confusing sometimes.
“Ah, so you’re that filly?” His voice filled with barely disguised contempt. “Then might I suggest that you tuck your tail between your legs and run home to your mommy? If you give up the duel and let me become her student, at least you’ll be spared the worst of what could happen.” Young Blueblood’s triumphant smirk returned. “Because if you don’t, sooner or later, she’s going to eat you to replenish her own magicks. She does that to all her students.”
Twilight stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was the castle’s version of a village idiot (Those ponies always said the strangest things in Daring Do’s adventures) or if he was just that stupid. “No she doesn’t, you stupid,” she replied, satisfied to see his smirk diminish somewhat. “If she did that, then why would you ever want to become her student yourself?”
Blueblood opened his mouth, and closed it again after a few seconds, looking sideways to his mother with a frown that was as upset as it was apologetic. Young Blueblood seemed to be able to do a lot with just a few facial expressions.
“That is indeed correct, young Sparkle,” the Duchess said in a tone that could have frozen a fire. She didn’t even deign to really look at her son, but gave him a slap on the head regardless, making him wince. “While my son might have a rather... vivid, imagination when it comes to our beloved Princess, he’s not completely wrong.” The Duchess stepped forward, obscuring her son from vision and brought her face close to Twilight’s. “Because of her long life the Princess has learned a lot of empathy towards ponies that she thinks are in need of it. But despite her good intentions, she gets bored rather quickly.”
Twilight blinked. That didn’t sound like the Princess at all. “Bored? But—”
“Have you ever heard of any other students of the Princess?” Blueblood cut her off.
After a moment of deliberation, Twilight shook her head. Even if the Princess used to have other students, she’d never heard about them.
“Exactly,” Blueblood continued with a sad smile. “At first she tries to be supportive, make time for them, and make them feel like they are the most important pony in the world. But after a few weeks, she bores of them and sends them back into the world. Nopony has been her student for long enough for it to actually count.” The Duchess nodded sadly. “Surely you’ve realised that she doesn’t have a whole lot of time for you?”
Twilight nodded mutely.
“Well, sorry to say, dear, but that’s only going to be getting worse.” The Duchess lapsed into silence, briefly looked back at her son, and then leant closer, whispering: “I’ve heard from a reliable source that you have been her most difficult student yet. Causing trouble every time you try something.”
“B-but...” Twilight frowned. Imagining the Princess having to deal with problems she had caused was all too easy. “I don’t mean to!”
“Oh, dear,” the Duchess gave her a sympathetic look. “I know you don’t, but the fact of the matter is that the Princess has had to work twice as hard to keep everything going. She’s overslept, and passed out, and... well... you know.”
Twilight sat down on her rump heavily, eyes glued to the floor. Was she really making things that much more difficult for the Princess? “But I can’t help it...”
A white hoof landed on her shoulder and she looked up at the Duchess’ patient smile through teary eyes. “I know you can’t, so perhaps...” The mare sighed theatrically. “Perhaps it is better that you go just home. Just think of how much it would help the princess if you stopped being her student. She would have more than enough time to sleep, and eat, and she wouldn’t even have to make extra time to teach you. In fact, I dare say that it would be better for everypony. Even now she’s devoting time she should be spending on ruling her kingdom on talking to your mother about your behaviour.” The hoof left her shoulder and Duchess Blueblood shrugged. “Then again, perhaps she is telling your mother that you can no longer be her student right now and that she’s going to have to take—”
“She wouldn’t!” Twilight blurted out. A knot of anxiety had formed in her stomach and was constricting her throat, making speaking clearly difficult. She swallowed a few times, but couldn’t her her vocal cords to behave, which made her next utterance come out sounding weak and soft: “Would she?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know, dear, but why else would they send you away?” The Duchess asked innocently. “She is talking to your mother right now, isn’t she?”
It was torture. She didn’t want to believe that any of it was true. She wasn’t a mistake made by the Princess! She’d done good things too... hadn’t she? She couldn’t refute any of the ideas that the Duchess spoke of way she had done with young Blueblood’s idiot idea. And the Princess had sent her away after all, which was something adults only did when they wanted to talk about kids without upsetting them.
“Twilight!" Just as she was about to ask what she could do, Aegis' voice echoed through the halls. The guard all but bounded towards her, his gait changing into a stiff canter when he saw who exactly she was with. "Duchess," he said when he reached them.
"Guardsman," the Duchess said in turn, pointing her muzzle skyward as if she was appalled by the idea that he would even have the gall to speak to her.
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave this filly alone, and move along, ma'am." Aegis stepped in front of Twilight and turned himself sideways just enough to block her view of the mare.
From Aegis' other side, Twilight heard a shocked gasp, followed by the Duchess' voice going: "Well I have never— we were just conversing. You have no right to tell me... to tell us to leave."
"All the same, ma'am. I am asking you to leave." The tone he used was very forceful, similar to how her father would have told her to go to bed when he was being serious.
From the moment they had met, Twilight had thought of Aegis along the same lines as her brother: a friendly stallion with a near constant smile on his face when he was talking with ponies, and who always had some encouraging words when they were needed. Now, however, he very much looked like a guard. Big, strong, and stoic. His entire posture was threatening even if Twilight couldn't put her hoof on why exactly that was.
The Duchess snorted. "Fine. We were just about to leave anyway, but I'll remember you. What is your name, guardsman?"
"Aegis," Aegis replied without missing a beat.
"We'll see how smug you'll feel when I bring your uncouth behaviour up with the Princess, Aegis...” She turned from him dismissively, sweeping her gaze back down to her son. “Blueblood, apologise to the filly for your pathetic attempt at scaring her."
While Aegis kept himself between Twilight and the Duchess, he didn't bother with the young colt who walked up to Twilight and nodded. "I am... sorry for saying something so stupid," he said, although Twilight got the distinct impression that his apology wasn't aimed at her.
With his apology done, the colt rejoined his mother, and together they moved on, leaving Twilight standing in the hallway with Aegis.
"Why did you do that?"
He didn't move until what Twilight assumed was the point when the Bluebloods had turned the corner and then turned to her with a smile. "Do what?"
"Tell them to go away?"
He shrugged. "You looked uncomfortable."
"Oh..." Twilight looked at the floor. Doubts over what the Duchess had said were clawing at her mind, and the realisation of what the Duchess' last words to Aegis meant heaped another helping of guilt onto the pile. "I'm sorry," she said morosely.
"What are you sorry for?"
"You are going to get into trouble with the Duchess and the Princess because of me."
Aegis laughed. "Don't worry about it. I'm supposed to protect ponies. It's in the job description, and besides, I doubt that the Princess would listen to anything the Duchess had to say at this point." He shrugged again and rubbed his belly. "So, are you ready to taste some of the best food you've ever had?"
It was Twilight's turn to shrug. As far as she was concerned Honey Towers were pretty much the most tastiest thing in the world, but it could never hurt to try new things. While you still live at the castle at least...
Celestia was an unhappy mare. Over the course of their conversation, Velvet had relayed a lot of lies to her, as well as some truths that had been presented in an unfavorable light, and every new revelation made her blood boil hotter. She no longer had any doubts as to whose handiwork had caused Velvet’s involvement, and in her long life, few beings had managed to invoke her ire so completely as Duchess Blueblood.
After managing to convince Velvet that taking Twilight home with her now wouldn’t be the best course of action for her daughter, she had asked, and was told about Twilight’s education prior to her coming to the castle; the bullying that the filly had apparently endured for years, and last, but not least, about Twilight’s Big Brother Best Friend Forever and his desire to join the guards. None of it could wipe out Velvet’s admission that she had heard those things from the Duchess, however. Worse, Velvet hadn’t run into the despicable mare in a hallway somewhere, no, Blueblood had made a trip to her home exclusively to extol just how bad a job Celestia was doing.
“—So while we were still reeling with the political implications,” Velvet continued, “Twilight and Shining had already decided that this Gryphon Ambassador, who they had never seen before mind you, was going to be their new playmate, and swept her paws right out from under her in their ‘tackle attack’.” The mare actually smiled when her story was finished, remembering good times no doubt.
Celestia hadn’t been an active listener for some time, but she painted a smile on her face none the less and nodded encouragingly. “That sounds like quite the tale. What happened then?”
“Well...” Velvet stifled a laugh. “After a brief moment in which she thought she was the target of an assassination plot, Glados was all too happy to play with them. I was worried about them for a while there, but it seems Gryphons are surprisingly gentle with their young.” Velvet took a sip of her teacup, the third of the hour, before continuing. “Speaking of devious plots, is it true that some stallion accused my Twilight of trying to assassinate you?”
With a sigh, Celestia put down her own cup. She had no desire to traverse that conversational minefield with Velvet, especially not after the grilling she had just received. Anything and everything could be misconstrued, and even with the new understanding she felt she had reached with the mare, she didn’t want to risk the tenuous balance she had achieved. “His claims were as preposterous as his supposed ‘evidence’,” she said at length. “Twilight didn’t quite trust her magic the first few days after she came to the castle, and fumbled her knife which got stuck in the backrest of my chair. It was a frightening experience, I’ll admit, but it wasn—”
“Princess? Mom? Can I come back in now?”
Twilight’s timid voice was startling, doubly so for one who was used to ponies knocking at her doors at most hours of the day. Celestia looked over her shoulder, shared a glance with Velvet, and nodded. There was little more that needed to be said on the subject they were talking about, and they had kept Twilight out long enough. “Of course, Twilight. Come in.”
Abandoning her post by the door, Twilight slowly made her way over to her mother and sat down. Velvet smiled down at her daughter and stroked Twilight’s mane when she leaned against her. “So, as I was saying, Glados enjoyed her time at our house. She even promised to visit us again when she was in Canterlot, which happened to be a year later.”
“So you’ve bonded over the sibling’s attack?” Celestia asked in bemusement, picking up the thread of their conversation again. A lighter subject was for Twilight’s benefit, but she couldn’t say it wasn’t in her interest either.
“She almost seemed to want to adopt them.” Velvet replied with a smile. “I’ve only met a few griffons on the job, but the ones I’d encountered before all seemed far less... friendly.”
“They take some getting used to, to be sure. Their economy is seeing a bit of a decline, so we’ve been seeing more of them migrating in recent decades.” Celestia turned to Twilight with a bright smile meant to convey her happiness at having learned more about the filly’s experiences. It faltered when she saw the look on Twilight’s face.
The filly had pressed herself against her mother since her return to the room, but there was no smile in remembrance on her face. No happiness in talking about what should have been happy memories. Instead, she looked... afraid, morose, and something else which Celestia couldn’t quite place.
“Oh, dear. Glados never mentioned anything like that. Maybe that’s why she visits so often. Twilight—” Velvet looked down at her daughter to ask a question, only to see that Twilight had tears in her eyes. “Twilight?” she began in a softer tone. “What’s wrong sweetie?”
“I wanna go home.” Twilight said in a voice that was only barely audible to even Celestia’s hearing.
It was painful to hear. How long had Twilight been waiting to say that? Was she that upset with the way Celestia had, or rather hadn't taken care of her, that she jumped at the chance to go home the moment the opportunity presented itself? Had the paint monster scared her more than she had initially let on? For a brief moment, Celestia felt helpless. Even with the surprise appearance of Velvet, and a half formed plan, she had managed to talk her way out of the situation. And now, the one thing she had taken for granted had caught her by surprise and threatened to ruin everything.
Velvet was still trying to figure out what her daughter had said. She leaned in and rubbed Twilight's back, conversing with her in a soft, encouraging tone. “Use your words, sweetie, what's wrong?”
Twilight’s whimpers only grew in strength until she reached an unseen tipping point. “I wanna go hoooooooommmmmmmmmmee,” she cried, opening the floodgates and letting her tears stream down her face.
Velvet leveled a confused frown at Celestia, but for all of her conversational maneuvering in the previous hour, Celestia could only shake her head. She wasn't good with crying children to begin with, and this was just more evidence to that effect. If anything, Velvet could probably teach her a thing or two about that. Rather than employ any secret techniques or hard earned skills, however, Velvet simply pulled her daughter close, and let her cry into her coat.
Twilight's betrayal stung, but Celestia forced herself to think. No matter why Twilight was upset with her, she was still the Princess, and more importantly, it might all be in her head. Wars had been fought over less. “What happened, Twilight?" she asked, putting on the gentlest smile she could find. "Why do you want to go home?”
An apologetic look was all she got before the filly buried her face in her mother’s coat again. Before she had a chance to interpret what that could mean, her thoughts were interrupted by a masculine voice from the direction of the door.
“Princess? A moment of your time?”
Looking up, she found Aegis standing in the doorjamb. His appearance in her chambers, while not unheard of, was generally preceded by a polite knock on the door. She had half a mind to send him away so she could focus on the problem at hoof, but the intense look on the face of the otherwise laid back guard changed her mind. With another glance towards Twilight and her mother, Celestia made her way over to him, belatedly remembering that he might have talked to Twilight in the interim.
"Sorry, Princess," Aegis began in hushed tones when she approached the door. "Twilight didn't close the door, and I couldn't help but overhear..."
"Yes?"
"Before we came back here, I suggested to Twilight that we grab something to eat." Aegis brought up a hoof and rubbed his neck with it. "But seeing as I still looked like a mess—"
"Get to the point, Aegis," Celestia snapped, feeling more than a little agitated by the amalgamation of trouble that seemed to follow her every time she was certain things were moving in the right direction.
Aegis snapped to a salute. "Yes, Your Majesty. I caught Duchess Blueblood talking to the filly, and whatever she and her son told her... she looked less than comfortable when I arrived."
"Blueblood...” Celestia all but hissed. She turned on the spot, nearly knocking Aegis on his rump with her tail alone, and marched back towards Twilight and her mother. “Twilight? Did you talk to Duchess Blueblood?” she asked sternly, trying, despite everything, to contain her anger.
She did not succeed.
Or at least, not completely, judging by the wide-eyed stare of terror Twilight faced her with, the tears running down her face replaced by fresh ones. A tense moment of silence passed for everypony in the room before Twilight broke down. “I’m so-ho-ho-rry, Princess!” she replied through frequent sobs. “I got Aegis into trouble, and I made you lose sleep and made ponies think that you’re a bad Princess for—”
Celestia cut her off by placing a hoof on her lips. “And did talking to Blueblood make you want to go home?”
Twilight shook her head mutely.
“No? Then what did?”
With a hoof Twilight wiped her tears away. They were immediately replaced by fresh ones, so her gesture was futile, but it seemed to give the filly a bit of respite from her ever mounting anguish. “I don’t want to go home,” she said miserably. “I want to stay at the castle and learn magic from you, but...”
Celestia could guess what came next, and she didn’t wish that on her student. She had heard enough. Velvet, however, spoke up in her place. Running her hooves through Twilight’s mane in a calming manner while she urged her daughter onward with a soft: “But?”
“But I do everything wrong! I can’t even do the simplest spells right!”
“Twilight,” Celestia sighed. She was torn between getting the truth about Blueblood’s little game from Twilight and sparing the filly from further pain. In the end, she decided that knowing exactly what Blueblood had talked into the filly’s head would help protect her in future, and so she asked: “What exactly did the Duchess tell you?”
Twilight did not reply immediately, leaning against her mother for comfort. “She asked me if I’d ever heard of other students, and then said that I was boring for you and that I should just go away...” It was more of a whimper than actual speech, but being as close as she was, Celestia understood perfectly. “I’m sorry, Princess! I know I’m boring, and stupid, and can’t do anything right...”
“What else did she say, Twilight?”
Again, Twilight sniffed, and a fresh cascade of tears had to be wiped away by her mother’s foreleg. “That you haven’t been able to get enough sleep or time to eat because of me, and— and... that you would take my magic away and send me home if I didn’t go home right away.”
“Twilight...” Celestia tried as gently as she could. “I told you that I can’t do anything like that, remember?”
“I know you said that,” Twilight replied, hugging her mom tighter as though her demise was imminent. “But you were lying to make me feel better, because I was so scared!”
“And what if the Duchess was lying?”
“B-but... Aegis and Rook said that you could do it as well...”
Celestia had heard enough. She pushed herself onto her hooves—not having realised that she had sat down for the entirety of the conversation— and stalked over to the doors. “Aegis. Rook,” she barked in a way that she’d never done to them before, but it had the intended effect, they stood at attention, “Make sure my guests are undisturbed while I take care of an errand.” In a lower tone, she added: “And we are going to have a long talk about spreading rumors in the near future, especially to impressionable young fillies.”
Aegis looked ready to protest, but in the end training won out over panic, and he nodded in the affirmative. Celestia then looked at Rook just long enough for him to do the same.
“I won’t be long,” she said finally. “But there is something important I need to take care of.” And with that she lit up her horn, engulfing herself in energies that would transport her to her destination. At least, until mare’s voice made her pause.
“Princess Celestia?!”
She looked back over her shoulder at a Twilight Velvet who was wearing a frown similar to her own.
“Kick her ass for me.”
Somewhere in her chest, Celestia found a grim smile, one she donned while nodding at the enraged mother. “Count on it.” And with that, she vanished in a blinding flash of light.
Keying a teleportation spell to a pony’s magical aura was a useful skill, and were it not a top tier magical spell that could only be cast by the strongest mages alive, it would likely have made marehunts a thing of the past. The only problem was that you could never be completely sure of where you would end up.
In Celestia’s case, she ended up in an opulent room, filled to the brim with commendations of achievement awarded throughout the ages. She knew, because she had awarded some of those herself. Trophies lined the shelves, plaques and diplomas hung from the walls, and even the floor couldn’t get away from displaying some of the proudest moments of House Blueblood.
It was appalling to look at, but the room held the one thing she was looking for, or rather, the one pony. Splayed out on an expensive looking couch was Duchess Blueblood, and she wasn’t alone. A stallion that Celestia was sure wasn’t the Duchess’ husband, was feeding her grapes. He blanched whiter than Blueblood’s coat when Celestia appeared, and a simple “Out,” was enough to send him scrambling from the room, leaving a confused Duchess behind.
Until she turned around and noticed Celestia glaring at her.
“P-princess!” The Duchess almost rolled off of the couch in shock, but quickly gathered herself, getting up and bowing as respectfully as she always did. “W-what brings you here?”
“Oh, I’m just here to talk, Duchess,” Celestia replied in a conversational tone. “Do you mind if I sit down?”
Blueblood warily eyed her mane for a while, as if she expected it to burst into flame at any moment before it occurred to her that she should reply. “Of course, Princess. Uhm... Please, make yourself comfortable,” Only after Celestia had done just that, and Blueblood had, cautiously, sat down as well, did she ask: “What... brings you here? If I may ask?”
“I’m here to clear up a few things, actually...” Celestia picked up the plate of grapes that had been left on the table after the stallion had fled, and plucked one from the bunch. “Do you mind?” she asked, not deigning to wait for a response before popping it into her mouth.
“Like..?”
“Well first of all, I wanted you to know that I’ve made my decision. The duel will take place the day after tomorrow, in the guard’s training grounds.” Celestia picked up and ate another grape. They were good grapes, although Celestia aim had less to do with trying to get any enjoyment out of the eating of the grapes, and more looking for a way to cope with and manage her anger. Had she not, the Duchess would likely have been little more than a soot stain.
“So she isn’t...?” Blueblood coughed and nodded in what looked like an appreciative manner. “I’m... very glad to hear that, Princess. Some ponies were starting to wonder if you had regrets about promising something as dangerous as a duel or if young Twilight would be capable of...”
Celestia glared at her until she shut her mouth. “I wasn’t done, Blueblood.”
The Duchess didn’t quite manage to hide the frown that flashed across her face, but was all smiles again within a fraction of a second. “My apologies, Princess.”
“Secondly, I had a surprise visit from my student’s mother, not to mention a rather emphatic declaration by my student that she wanted to go home.”
“Oh the poor dear, I can only imagine how dreadfully frightmhhbmh” The Duchess’s eyes widened as her muzzle was closed forcibly by a golden aura.
“Forgive me, but I have no more patience for you today. I know what you did, and why. To be perfectly frank the only thing keeping me from stripping you of your lands and titles and sending you off to Yakistan, is that I would rather not weather the diplomatic storm that would result from it.” She looked up with a thoughtful expression. “They might even see it as a declaration of war... You will get your duel, if only because I want Twilight to know that she is leaps and bounds ahead of your sorry excuse for a son.”
Celestia took a deep breath and, very deliberately, blocked the flow of magic to her mane and tail, causing the buildup and exothermic release of magic that made them catch on fire. She then channeled her magic into her voice, amplifying it in a manner that has not been heard for... Has it really been 500 years? It was, perhaps, a tad theatrical, but no less effective. “But make no mistake, if you ever try to manipulate me or those around me ever again, I will burn you to cinders, and erase your entire bloodline from the annals of history. Is that understood?” Having said that, she released the magic holding the Duchess’s mouth closed.
“Y-you... you...” Blueblood didn’t get much farther than that before her eyes rolled back in her head and she toppled over sideways, falling off of the couch and landing with a smack loud enough to make Celestia wince.
It was only then that she realised that she had subconsciously put more magic into her surroundings than most ponies could handle. A strong odor wafted up to her nose and she quickly and delicately got up. It seemed like fear, rather than ambient magic, had been the reason for Blueblood’s loss of consciousness.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she told the unconscious mare, restoring the flow of energy to her hair and letting the flames die down before she stepped out of the room and into the hallway. Seeing Blueblood keel over like that had done wonders to reduce her anger, and she actually smiled at the stallion who was cowering behind a statue depicting her likeness. “You can go back in now,” she said to him, and watched as he cautiously made his way back into the room before setting a course for her own, a skip in her step.
Her troubles were far from over, but at the very least she had taken care of the biggest one. Now all she had to do was convince Twilight that what the Duchess had told her was wrong, convince Velvet that the Duchess would no longer pose a problem, and convince her guards that she would do terrible terrible things to them if they ever frightened young fillies with such silly notions again.