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// Librarian Twilight Plans For Everything Except Regrets 
// Story: Librarian Twilight Commits Abduction, Extortion, And Treason To Solve An Inconsequential Friendship Problem 
// by SoloBrony 
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Celestia tracked the guard's movements through the air carefully; this one had been a great thorn in her side, and she would see him fall before day's end. The pegasus guard arced his movements around projectiles from Celestia's allies, Cadance and Shining Armor, and went into a high-speed dive; now was the time to strike! Celestia stomped on the catapult, hurling a projectile with deadly accuracy at the guard's target; the Crystal Heart! Forced to make an impossible choice between allowing the Heart to fall to the ground, or allowing himself to be struck, the guard chose to clasp the heart to his chest and take the full brunt of the impact upon his back.

The resulting pie splatter was spectacular, and elicited an uproarious laugh out of everyone gathered. The guard stood up, chuckling to himself as he held up his Crystal Heart – or, more accurately, a rock-candy replica of the Crystal Heart. Shining Armor trotted up to the recruit with a wide grin, offering him congratulations for being the last pony standing – and a member of the only team to have its Crystal Heart go unshattered; naturally, they celebrated this accomplishment by cracking it open and handing out the pieces. Celestia chuckled at the display as she stepped away from her artillery station, coming to a rest beside Twilight on the sidelines.

"I must admit, Twilight, that when you said there would be pie today, I had thought of an entirely different sort of vacation."

Twilight smirked as she jotted down a few final notes on the soldiers' performance.

"I know better than to structure a day out around trying to one-up the Canterlot castle kitchen staff."

Celestia adopted a smirk of her own, quirking an eyebrow down at her former student.

"I see I have indeed taught you well, Twilight."

Twilight snorted in amusement at Celestia's unexpected tone, nearly ruining her page in the process.

"Oh, yeah, several years of magical tutelage that amounted to just knowing how to plan a day off! Though I suppose... getting to know a pony well enough to know what they'd like to do on their day off, and that they need a day off, qualifies."

"But I didn't teach you that, Twilight."

"You stuck me in Ponyville. Near Pinkie Pie. Just living near her is like a compulsory party planning course!"

Celestia smiled at that, and the two lapsed into companionable silence as Twilight finished her notes. Celestia watched the soldiers pack up and begin leaving the station, Shining Armor and Cadance among them.

"It was truly a pleasure to get a chance to spend time with those two, Twilight. Thank you for arranging a day for us."

"Oh, they day wasn't just for that."

Celestia glanced at Twilight, quizzical expression turning to more sincere puzzlement when she realized that Twilight was serious.

"There's more planned?"

"Of course! It's only mid-afternoon, after all."

"I see. Well, I look forward to it, then. Given the arrangements, I had simply assumed you organized all of this just so I could see my niece again."

"Oh, that was a nice bonus, but like I said, Celestia, today was just about getting you a day off."

"And so giving me a chance to show Luna I trust her, by letting her take over my duties for a day?"

"Bonus."

"And getting a few hours in with your brother and Cadance?"

"Bonus!"

"... And what of what's still planned?"

"Well... have you ever come up with a plan where the bonus stuff ends up being sorta the focus?"

Celestia looked back out across the field, a somewhat surprised, amused expression taking hold.

"Oh my. It seems you've put quite a lot of thought into all of this, combining all of these little tasks into one plan."

"Oh! I'm sorry, that wasn't a mistake, was it? I mean, I didn't want to give the impression that your day off was unimportant enough that I'd try scheduling it with other stuff, I just figured it worked better this way, and I—"

Celestia looked over at her student, her amused expression taking on a slightly sympathetic aspect as she saw Twilight scramble to explain herself. Celestia took the first pause she heard.

"That isn't what I meant, Twilight. I was simply reflecting on how... aware you are of the needs of your friends. You know that there are some friendship problems that can be wrapped up neatly, all at once..."

Twilight knew a prompt from her teacher when she heard one.

"But most of them aren't like that. Most of what drives ponies apart is... well, it's just stuff like time, distance, other priorities getting in the way..."

Celestia nodded, her gaze growing distant and regretful.

"It's very easy for ponies to lose sight of what's important, even when it's right in front of us. We can miss the most obvious signs that something is wrong... or we can just let something go by inches, letting the crisis-of-the-day take away each and every day we should have spent with our loved ones. Few regrets bite home like looking back and realizing how dismissive we were of those we cared about. How dismissive we were of those who cared about us."

Twilight nodded, her gaze falling to the ground.

"I know. I thought I missed Shining Armor and Cadance, but... I didn't really know how much guilt that carried until I restored my friendship with Moondancer."

Twilight sighed, pawing at the ground a bit as she turned their conversation over in her mind. She began to wonder if her plans for the rest of the day were a terrible idea.

"... Celestia? Is there any way to keep that from happening?"

Celestia looked over, eyes sliding back into focus, and then closed her eyes and smiled warmly at Twilight.

"Twilight, wasn't that the idea of what we're doing today, my apparent need to take a day off aside?"

"Well, yes. I figured it was a good chance to let everypony strengthen those bonds."

"Exactly! You're wondering what can keep ponies from drifting apart, but that's silly, because"—Celestia tapped the tip of Twilight's horn with a hoof as she spoke—"the answer... is you."

Twilight went for a smirk, but her smile ended up far more genuine than that. She silently decided that her plan was worth pursuing after all.