//------------------------------//
// Love the New Style, Twilight 
// Story: Purity 
// by LightStriker 
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	Two ponies sat down in the waiting room of the castle, one white and one bright green. A dozen other ponies were sitting around waiting for their turn to plea their requests to the Princesses.

The white mare pushed her purple glasses up her nose. "Vinyl... Why her?" she whispered to the green one.

"Well, you are both white. It was easier that way," the pony that looked like Lyra Heartstring replied.

"It didn't look like you had problem with your..." Her face showed a bit of disgust. "... green color."

She smiled. "Don't tell me you don't like someponies because of their colors?"

Rarity's eyes went wide in horror behind the huge glasses. "I would never!" She lowered her head. "But you know I don't particularly like green."

"So I heard," Twilight whispered back with a playful smile. She sighed. "The last six months have been great."

"Azure?"

"She's amazing, in many ways she reminds me of myself," she explained. "Well, myself when I was her age. She understands perfectly what type of magic I'm good at and vise versa. We bounce ideas at each other so easily. I've designed spells for her just as she did for me." Twilight had a wide smile. "She still has a lot to learn! However, she is tackling challenges in a way no unicorn would. It's giving me a view on what could be a whole new branch of spell crafting and..." Twilight stopped midsentence. "I'm babbling again," she said with some red showing up brightly on her green cheeks, something that wouldn't show as brightly on her normal purple coat.

Twilight's smile was contagious. "I'm happy you found a friend that shares your passion, dear. I'm just a bit surprised you never really talked about her. And that red is great on your green coat, you should do that again in winter," Rarity cheered.

Twilight frowned. "Well, I know how... the books and magic research kind of bored you and the others too. We have such different passions from each other." It wasn't the first time Twilight thought about how strange that friendship turned out to be with the five other mares; fashion, agriculture, sport, animals, party and magic. All kind of passions that would hardly mix with each other, and yet she would never trade her friendship.

"How about your relation with her?" Rarity asked.

"Well... it's... I..."

Rarity sighed loudly. "I see. You only talk magic with her?" 

Twilight nodded back in shame. "And I thought I learned that lesson with you guys, to not focus only on my passions but to also go out with my friends."

Rarity smiled back. "Not as easy when the other one is sharing the same passions, right?"

She nodded slowly. "She is still a filly. I could be here to prevent her from making the mistakes I did when I was her age."

Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder. "Now, you got that wrong too!" She pushed her glasses over her head.

"What?"

"A filly needs to make mistakes, otherwise there is no real learning. Life experiences need to be lived to be learned. What you need to do is to be there when she will make some. Not to be around for her passions... or yours, but be there for her," she explained.

Twilight stared at Rarity. "Since when are you so knowledgeable of fillies?"

She let out a small laugh. "Dear, you would be surprised how much I've learned while taking care of Sweetie Bell."

Twilight laughed back. "I take it wasn't easy?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Rarity claimed. "Metal doesn't become strong by being soft with it, bounds between ponies are the same. By the way, don't you know some secret passage in this castle? Why do we have to wait like that?"

"You want to do it safe. We are doing it safe. Besides, it hasn't been that long." It was the moment a guard chose to enter the room and call their number. "See? Already our turn." 

They stood up and followed the guard as he walked them to the audience chamber. 

Rarity got close to Twilight. "You never told me how we are supposed to make the princess understand who we are."

"You will see."

The ponies walked up to the large chamber that hosted the two thrones of Equestria's rulers. At this moment, Luna was most likely sleeping in her tower, so Celestia was alone on the large seat at the end of the room that represented the Sun. Ponies always had the option to talk to the high council in case of business problems or anything that wouldn't require the princess approval. Considering the size of the pony population, it was a good idea to have this extra layer, otherwise the princess would pass all her days and nights answering queries from all around the land about every possible topic. There were also the ponies that found the princess presence a tiny bit too intimidating and would prefer to talk to somepony of their size.

However, the princess insisted to always offer her time to the population, so that they could come ask her directly anything they had on their minds. As Rarity and Twilight entered the room, the later noticed that the princess didn't appear to be well rested. She tried to remember a moment from her past where she wasn't fully rested and failed to find one. No doubt that for other ponies it wouldn't noticeable, but Twilight had lived most of her life with her. The way the guards were giving small glances toward her was enough to make the her understand that she wasn't well.

They came as close as the protocol required and bowed before the large winged unicorn.

"Good morning my little ponies," Celestia said with a smile. Twilight always loved that voice, and right now she had to fight herself from jumping forward and hugging her. "How can I help you?"

Twilight took a step forward. "Good morning princess. We would like to acquire a crate of bananas."

Surprise showed up only a fraction of second on the princess' face, quickly replaced by a caution frown. "I can understand your problem, we are out of season," she replied.

"We heard our majesty could maybe part with some of her own reserve considering it is for a cake in her honor," Twilight countered with a weird smile.

Celestia fought very hard not to roll her eyes. "Very well, follow me," she said as she stood up and walk down the throne. "Guards, I'm sorry, but the audiences are over for today." She was walking out of the room and made sign to the two mares to follow her. Another quick sign toward the guards was clear enough that she didn't want them to follow. Rarity and Twilight trotted behind her as the princess walked down the corridors of the castle in silence. After a while, she stopped in front of a door that looked like any other door of the palace. She lowered her head and touched it slightly with her horn. The air flickered as protection spells were released and the door unlocked itself. The princess and the two mares entered the room. Celestia closed the door and the spells reactivated themselves.

It was a small room without windows at the heart of the castle. There was a large table with seats surrounding it, in all appearance a standard meeting room. It was the very center of the palace, a place where every detection or protection spells would overlap. In the thousand years of existence of Canterlot, nopony ever managed to enter this room without Celestia being aware of it, at least none that she was aware of.

Celestia faced the two mares. "Love the new style, Twilight." She turned to look at the white mare. "And you would be?"

"Rarity, your highness," she said while bowing down.

Celestia raised a hoof. "Please, leave the formality outside this room. Twilight wouldn't have used the emergency identification system without a good reason."

Rarity looked at Twilight. "The weird dialogue about bananas and cake?"

Twilight smiled. "Secret keywords that change every few hours and every few days. Only a few know about it..."

"And I'm afraid this circle won't expand anytime soon," Celestia interrupted Twilight. She stared at the green mare. "I'm pretty sure I know why you are here, but not how you came to know about it."

It reminded Twilight why she was here. "They will try to kill Azure!"

Celestia nodded slowly. "They did try." Twilight and Rarity's eyes went wide in surprise, they were too late. "Don't be alarmed," Celestia continued. "Azure is safe and sound." The two let out the breath they were holding.

"How?" Twilight asked.

"If it was only me, the assassin would have succeeded, but it is without counting on my sister," Celestia explained.

"Luna? But..."

Celestia smiled. "She is not the princess of the night for nothing. What I would fail to do with brute force, she always succeeds in subtlety."

"I... princess... I don't understand," Twilight replied.

Celestia sighed and looked at the roof. "I guess there is no helping it. You both need a little history lesson." Twilight and Rarity looked at each other, puzzled. "However, what will be said here must never leave this room, understood?"

The two mares slowly nodded, unsure what kind of information the princess was ready to reveal.

"It is the story... the story of how I and my sister came to be the rulers of Equestria. And... Why there is no queen or king of Equestria."