You walk the dirt paths of Ponyville with a soft footfall. Your objective, the Castle of Friendship or whatever Twilight is calling it, is just a few houses away, but you hesitate before you get too close. Its size isn’t what bothers you – after all, there are some pretty huge buildings on Earth, and you see those every day – it’s the “castle” part. Sure, you’ve dropped in to your friends’ houses before, but this is the kind of place that makes people feel like they need an appointment. And possibly a lordship.
You’ve just begun to wonder if maybe you should leave, when you feel a hoof tap you on the shoulder. You totally don’t jump and squeak as you turn around. Twilight’s standing behind you, and she quickly covers a giggle with her hoof.
“How did you know I was here?” you ask in confusion. Normally you visit on weekends, so there’s no way she could have been expecting you.
“You’re standing right in front of my house.” Twilight gestures to the towering castle just twenty meters away. “Were you looking for me?” She looks up at you with her head tilted in a silent question.
You open your mouth and try to think of an excuse, but nothing comes to mind. You bite your lip a little as you close your mouth. Your feelings must show on your face, because Twilight leans into you for a moment before pulling away.
“Why don’t you come in? I’ll make us something to drink.” She gives you a tiny smile, her adorable pony eyes softening in understanding. You hesitate for less than a second before following her back to her castle. An aura of magenta magic holds the doors open for you, and you walk up the golden steps into the main hall. Twilight turns to face you. “You can find the dining room on your own this time, right? I need to go get some things from the kitchen. I’ll only be a minute.” You nod and smile, although the smile’s a little forced. Twilight smiles back before trotting away, but you know she knows you’re faking it. You jog up the stairs to the dining room, where you’ve met Twilight and her friends for brunch a few times. You still look forward to the day ponies invent elevators, because Twilight’s castle has a lot of stairs.
You’ve been waiting in the dining room for a few minutes when the doors open. Twilight walks in carrying a tray in her magic. “I got us… some…” She tries not to smile as you guiltily set down the Power Ponies action figures. “I see Spike left those lying around again,” she comments as she sets down the tray and sits in the chair to your left. She floats the toys over to the center of the table and lines them up. “Now, did you want to talk about something?”
You reach out for the cup nearest you and look into it. It’s your favorite. You can’t help but smile a little. “You remembered my favorite drink.”
Twilight smiles and levitates her own drink to her lips. “Of course. I, uh, also made my favorite tea, if you’d like to try that too.” She gives half a grin and points to the tray. There’s actually a couple of teapots there.
You take a sip, closing your eyes and enjoying the flavor. Food in Equestria just tends to taste better. The quiet moment is interrupted, though, by the sound of Twilight’s chair moving across the hard crystal floor. She laughs awkwardly when you open your eyes and look at her, rubbing a forehoof against the back of her head. “So, what brings you here today?”
You sigh and look down into your drink before answering. “I had a bad day, Twilight. I thought maybe I could talk to you about it, but I don’t want to bring you down too…” A long gulp of your drink helps with your nerves, but only a little bit.
The lavender mare scoots a little closer to you, so she can rest one hoof on your arm. “It’s okay, I promise. I can take it. If you don’t talk about it, you’ll just feel worse and worse. And what kind of Princess of Friendship would I be if I let my friends bottle things up like that?”
The hand holding your drink moves seemingly of its own accord to set the cup down. You look at Twilight, and then look away. You feel her hoof still on your arm, warm and comforting. “I failed a test today.”
Her sharp intake of breath is exactly the response you’d expected. Her hoof twitches a little, but doesn’t leave your arm. “That’s- that’s awful!” You look back at her, seeing her eyes widen (as if pony eyes weren’t already adorable enough) and her ears go down.
You sigh. “I don’t know what to do. I feel so- I feel like I’m not good enough.” The last part comes out as a whisper, but she hears you. She opens her mouth like she wants to say something, but you go on. “You’re absolutely brilliant, Twilight Sparkle. You were the student of a princess, and now you are a princess. I’ll bet you’ve never failed a test in your life.” She blushes and mumbles something as she ducks her head. “I’m not like you. I keep messing up, and doing things wrong and- I don’t know if I’ll ever be good enough.” You pause, and look down, feeling the pain of failure worming around your chest.
Twilight jumps on the opportunity. “You're already good enough!” she insists, horrified. “Tests are – tests aren’t that important. I mean, yes, they’re important in your classes, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from living in Ponyville it’s that there’s more to life than studying.” She takes her hoof off your arm and reaches out to you. You meet it with your hand, and then you’re holding her hoof as she pulls you out of your chair and into a hug. With you standing and her on a chair, you’re almost the same height. She holds you tightly between her front legs, resting her chin on your shoulder. “I’m so sorry you feel this way.”
“You don't understand, Twilight, school is really important on Earth,” you mumble into the comforting purple softness of her shoulder, arms reaching up to hug her back. “If I mess up… what will I do with my life? No one wants to hire someone who flunked out of…” You trail off as Twilight pushes you away and holds you out in front of her.
“You are a strong po- er, a strong person.” She looks seriously into your eyes. “I used to constantly worry that I would make a mistake, or fail a test, and Princess Celestia would send me back to Magic Kindergarten or something. I still worry about that sometimes. But one test isn’t the end of the world.” The lavender alicorn pauses for a second to think. “Well, for me there was that one test in the Crystal Kingdom, but I don’t think that applies to you. Anyway, my point is that you can succeed if you have faith in yourself. And even if you don’t do very well on your tests, you can still be successful in life. Lots of successful people didn’t do very well in school.” Twilight grimaces a bit at the thought, but starts listing. “The famous mage Starswirl the Bearded, earth pony scientist Albert Limestone, wealthy philequupist Gold Gates…”
You look down. “Two of those are people in our world too, I think. And I guess… maybe you’re right.”
She smiles a big smile, the kind only ponies can manage, and pulls you back into the hug. You’re looking over her shoulder, so you can’t see her face, but you can hear the smile in her voice as she says, “You’re stronger than you know. … And if you want, I’ll help you study.”