//------------------------------// // Ch7 - Race to Canterlot - Part 2 // Story: Ponyville's Tiny Librarian // by CommanderX5 //------------------------------// Ponyville’s Tiny Librarian - Chapter 7 Race to Canterlot - part 2 Twilight looked around in disappointment as she approached the castle. The huge stone temples were now mere buildings, the ponies all around her were level with her head, and the mighty castle itself was nowhere near as impressive and mighty. Too focused on her surroundings, she didn’t look ahead as she felt something bounce off her while she herself barely felt the impact. Slowly, Twilight looked down upon the pony she had accidently bumped into, his face oddly familiar. “Sorry,” she said as she moved her foreleg in an attempt to help the noble stand. “Hmn, next time watch where you are going, young lady,” the noble said with his head held high as he felt the hoof grab him, but to his surprise, it threw him two meters upward. “Oops, sorry!” Twilight shouted as she lit her horn and caught the falling noble in mid air, attracting the attention of several other ponies as she accidently spinned him before stabilizing her fountain of magic. “What is wrong with… you…?” The noble’s eyes opened widely as his mouth went agape, his entire body started sweating in fear. “T-T-Twilight Sparkle, her Royal Highness’s protege…? But how? You were supposed to stay tiny.” Twilight took a closer look. “I remember you. You’re the noble who was being mean to me when I fell from my mentor’s tower many years ago. You’re the one who convinced the nobles of Canterlot to chase me around.” Every noble stood stunned and shocked as their attention focused on the personal student of Princess Celestia herself. A powerful battle mage who could levitate a few ponies at once while herself weighing less than a kilogram, the very pony whose raw power could rival or even surpass a normal size unicorn, the same very important and powerful mare was now standing in front of them in her full glory. Twilight could hear the noise of ponies running around in all directions, and in a moment, she saw as every single noble moved to the sides of the street as if leaving a clear passage for her, some even bowing from fear and respect as others stood on their trembling legs. Twilight looked back upon the noble she was levitating who now looked down at her in terror while begging her for mercy, and apologising for making every pony chase her around. Twilight smirked as she put him on the ground and looked down at him proudly. “To be honest, escaping from many big clumsy ponies like you was quite entertaining, and a good exercise too. So no big deal,” Twilight said as the noble in front of her bowed and repeated ‘thank you’ several times over. In response, she simply patted him lightly on the head while trying to restrain her strength. I think I prefer nobles when they fear me rather than shower me with fake praise. That way they’re far more bearable. Plus, it was about time I had my little payback for all those hours they annoyed me and wasted my mentor's precious time. She passed the ponies without paying any more attention to them, finally entering the castle as two guards let her in the moment she introduced herself. Every noble looked at the closing gate while still trembling in fear. They all knew that Twilight wasn’t a pony to mess with when she was small enough to be stomped on by their hooves, but now at her normal size she was a walking juggernaut. Celestia sat on her throne during her day court as nobles stood in line in front of her with various petitions, though the princess’ mind was elsewhere as she couldn’t wait to see her student in all her glory. Next to the throne sat her sister for two reasons: to see how the court was performed in the modern Equestria, and also to wait for Twilight’s arrival as it was something she had been looking forward to ever since their encounter in the dream. To both princesses’ surprise, a Royal Guard ran in and took off his helmet as he made a half-bow. “Permission to speak, Your Highness.” The sun princess nodded as the guard reported, “Your student, Twilight Sparkle, is on her way to attend your day court, Your Highness.” Celestia smiled and glanced upon her sister, who looked at her, smiling back even more cheerfully. “It seems that she has finally arrived, Luna.” Both alicorns’ attention focused on the huge double doors that were closed by unicorn guards just a moment ago, only for them to be opened violently in a purple aura as they slammed against two guards who stood at its sides. Everypony who stood in line looked back in astonishment and awe as Twilight walked into the room and, with the help of her powerful magic, closed the door, only to look upon the two almost flattened unicorn guards who were now pinned against a wall. *** “Oh, I am so sorry!” Twilight apologised in panic as she, with more care, gently levitated the guards onto the floor. I had been smashed by a giant door more than once, but I never expected I may do the same to any pony one day, she thought, looking upon the guards in pity. After ensuring that the guards weren’t injured, she turned towards the throne, only to see a line of petitioners now forming a double line, giving her a clear passage towards the princesses. Twilight rolled her eyes while the alicorns chuckled. Wasting no time, she walked towards her mentor and noticed Luna by her side. The moment Twilight was close enough, she took a closer look upon her mighty mentor who was at least twice her size. Next, she glanced at Luna, who, even if not as big, was no longer the filly alicorn she was when she left Ponyville. Not wanting to keep the princesses waiting any longer, she bowed. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” she whispered humbly. “Rise, my faithful student,” Celestia said encouragingly as Twilight stood and looked at her. “It has been only a few weeks, and I’ve already missed you. How was your time in Ponyville?” Celestia asked calmly, no longer bothering to act formal or authoritative as she used to. Twilight smiled. “I missed you too, though I must admit that the craziness of Ponyville kept me distracted and entertained!” Many ponies flinched from the strength of her voice. She glanced upon Luna who just looked back at her in silence and half-bowed. “Greetings, Princess Luna. How are you adapting to your new environment?” she asked politely, wondering if adapting to modern Equestria for Luna was as hard as adapting to living in a giant world for her when she was shrunk for the first time. Luna smiled cheerfully. “We fare fine, Twilight Sparkle. There are many unknowns everywhere we go, but we learn fast,” she stated before smirking. “Also, we would like to congratulate thee for mastering the Royal Canterlot Voice.” Twilight looked at Luna in confusion. "Royal Canterlot Voice?” Luna nodded as she approached Twilight and looked her in the eyes while being only a bit taller. “Wouldst thou allow us to demonstrate ours?” The moment Luna saw a hesitant nod, she took a deep breath. “THIS IS OUR ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE IN ITS FULLEST GLORY!” the night princess yelled, pushing Twilight several metres away with the strength of her voice while a group of nobles put their hooves on their ears to protect themselves from the quite literal vocal assault. Twilight stood up and shook her head, the voice volume not hard to endure as her ears were no longer tiny and fragile. The no longer tiny mare walked towards Luna and gave her a smirk of her own before taking a deep breath, and this time instead of speaking loudly as she always did, she yelled as if trying to catch the attention of a giant pony who was far away. “AND THIS IS HOW I CATCH ATTENTION FROM PONIES FAR BIGGER THAN ME!” The force physically pushed the night princess away and she flew through the air before making an impact with the wall right behind the throne. Celestia merely rolled her eyes at the amusing interaction between her student and sister. Twilight’s smirk turned into panic as she ran towards Luna who was just falling out from the newly formed alicorn-shaped hole in the wall. “I am so sorry, I overdid it. Please, don’t hate me,” she whispered, looking down at the night princess in sorrow with drooped ears. Luna just looked up at her in excitement. “Thou hast made us proud once again. Mastery of thy voice shall bring many foes to their knees. Hast thou ever considered educating thyself to make a battle cry?” she asked before standing back on her four hooves and spreading her wings while shaking a few pebbles from her body. She chuckled upon noticing a blush on her savour's cheeks. “Thank you, Princess. You’re not a-angry, are you?” Twilight asked, a bit of panic still in her voice. The princess shook her head. “Whatever for? Thou wouldst have to push an enchanted dagger through our chest or betray our most solemn trust to make us angry at thee.” Twilight shivered at the very image of doing something as horrible as assassinating the princess. Luna continued, “But let us not distract thee any longer. For thou hast come to seek the assistance of our sister.” Twilight nodded, thankful for Luna’s understanding. She turned towards her mentor who kept staring at her in silence and with a cheerful smile. “Oh Twilight, you have grown into a wonderful and strong mare, I am so proud of you,” Celestia stated, not daring to look anywhere but in her student’s eyes. “You even dispelled the effect of the shrinking spell from yourself to defeat an Ursa Minor and saved an entire town, a feat bigger than defeating the beast as I know how much you feared to do this.” Twilight nodded and gave Celestia a curious glance. “I see you wish to ask me something. Please do.” “How’re you doing this?” Celestia blinked. “Doing what?” “Restraining yourself. I know that your power is far greater than mine, and after our adventuring, your strength has improved as well. How can you keep it all under control, how are you capable of restraining yourself in front of your subjects?” She took a few steps forward and gave Celestia a ‘please tell me, I have to know’ look. “How did you manage to restrain yourself when you took me as your student? Back when I was tiny and fragile, when you could crush me with one false move?” Celestia sighed and looked upon the holes in the wall in the shape of two unicorn guards before raising her foreleg towards Twilight. “Would you shake my hoof, Twilight, as you normally do?” She nodded and did as was told, and instead of the hoof, she somehow managed to shake the princess who was at least four times heavier than herself. The gold-like shoe shattered into pieces. Celestia reaserted herself in her throne. “Now I understand what you mean, but there is no need to worry, my faithful student. You just returned to your original size a day ago while I had hundreds of years to learn how to keep my power in check.” Twilight lowered her head and said humbly with restrained strength of her voice, “I see… I was so caught up in fun of adventuring and improving myself through challenges that I started to push aside… to delay learning how to restrain myself.” Her ears drooped as silence overtook the room. “I kept telling myself that I still have time, that my services as a full-size unicorn won’t be needed yet, or that in times of emergency I won’t need to restrain myself.” The sun princess smiled warmly. “However, as boring as it may be, I think it is time for me to learn how to limit my power and strength, just like you did, princess.” Celestia stood from her throne and approached her student as she raised her head gently. “I hoped you would figure it out and admit it on your own, Twilight.” She placed hoof against her chest and said warmly, “To be honest, Luna and I know better than anypony what it means to restrain ourselves, and I at some point even forgot the pleasure of just unlocking the chains of self-control and… ‘let it loose’, as my subjects would call it.” She lowered her head closer to Twilight’s ear and whispered, “Adventuring by your side as a tiny princess was quite enjoyable, one of the rare opportunities I could let my self-control slip. I am very grateful for that.” Twilight blinked in confusion before asking hesitantly, “Does this mean… that I should stay at normal size?” Noticing fear in her student’s voice, Celestia shook her head and spoke, “And make you sad, once again taking you away from your comfort zone as I did when you could not control your surges? There is no need for that. Baby steps, Twilight, baby steps.” A large smile appeared on the unicorn’s face as she stopped herself from squeezing her mentor with a hug while alicorn's horn lit with power. “It is best if you return to the size that everypony and you are the most comfortable with. Practice at your own pace and feel free to change your size whenever you see fit. I will always be here to shrink you again,” Celestia ordered authoritatively with motherly voice. “Or you can send a letter and I will find a window in my schedule to visit you. I will gladly rediscover the secrets of long range teleportation and practice it.” Twilight nodded. Now that I think about it, wasting my mentor's precious time to run back and forth from Ponyville to Canterlot seems very inconvenient. I should certainly avoid that. Every noble in the throne room looked toward the throne in admiration and relief as a powerful aura of magic surrounded Twilight. Slowly, the walking juggernaut was once again shackled by her tiny size, becoming smaller and less dangerous every second, finally leaving a tiny unicorn that they could deal with without fear, at least without fearing her too much. Celestia and Luna looked down at the small unicorn once the aura of magic faded. *** Twilight opened her eyes and to her relief, in front of her instead of two normal size princesses, she saw two very long white legs, one with a huge golden horseshoe. Slowly, she looked up into the faces of two mighty alicorns towering over her, who radiated power with their presence. Wasting no time, she jumped towards her mentor’s foreleg, climbed up above her peytral and hugged her mentor’s exposed neck, now free to hug it with all of her strength. In response, Celestia hugged her gently with her giant bare hoof. “Thank you princess.” “There is nothing to thank me for, my little pony. I will always be there to shrink you back, as long as you will not hesitate to return to your original size when your power is needed,” Celestia said with reassurance in her voice. Twilight opened her eyes and looked to her right as she noticed the smaller but still giant alicorn looking at her and her mentor with a hint of jealousy. Not wasting a moment, she pushed herself from Celestia’s neck onto Luna’s and repeated the hug. “Don’t worry, princess, my hugs are enough for everypony.” Luna blushed. Being hugged by a tiny pony while being in a room filled with nobles certainly wasn’t something she was comfortable with. “S-sorry,” Twilight said as she released Luna’s neck and landed next to her mighty hoof, hanging her head low in apology. The alicorns looked down upon her with a forgiving smile. “How about you and my student hang out together?” Celestia whispered, causing Luna and Twilight’s faces to turn red. She giggled and added, “I mean, my student can show you around Canterlot as Cadence did, and she can introduce you to her friends.” Twilight looked upon her mentor and beamed with a jump, almost reaching the alicorn’s head level. “Thats a great idea!” she said as she climbed up, this time on Luna’s foreleg. Oh, right, I came here with the same idea in mind. Princess Celestia, you know me so well. Once done with climbing, she sat on the alicorn's neck and pointed towards the exit. “What do you say, Princess Luna? After all, I promised to spend time with you when we meet again, and that’s what I’m going to do.” Luna chuckled cheerfully and gave her sister a farewell nod. “Please excuse us, dear sister; we will have to learn how to run a modern court next time as we will now spend valuable time in the presence of our savior. Farewell.” She walked proudly towards the exit, ignoring the curious and confused eyes of the nobles while Twilight put her tiny hooves on her head in panic. “Oh no! You have been learning how to run a court and I interrupted. I can wait, Your Highness, as you…” Twilight didn’t finish her sentence as Luna jumped lightly, almost causing her to fall off, had she not been holding Luna’s neck strong enough. “Hush, Twilight; we have been waiting to spend time together with thee, and that is what we are going to do,” Luna said in determination as she opened the door. The two unicorn guards were now standing out of its slamming range, both wary. “Hast thou come with thy little dragon and guards?” Twilight panicked again. “Oh, I completely forgot about them! They were coming here on the train.” Luna, now walking in the empty halls of the castle towards the nearest window asked in confusion, “Wait, didst thou not ride the train with them?” Twilight rubbed her back as she still sat on Luna’s neck, while the princess jumped from the window and flew towards the train station, Twilight right away grabbing and holding it more tightly before answering, “I kind of raced the train.” That made Luna miss a beat of her wings before hovering in place. “W-what?” “I just couldn’t stay in one place in such a small room with so many little ponies, so I decided to run directly to Canterlot and make a challenge out of it,” Twilight explained. “But… how? We understand that thou art a very athletic unicorn, and thou even hast earth pony magic in thy veins; but racing a train for so long would bring even a strong stallion to his knees,” Luna stated with disbelief in her voice. “At least, this is the impression we got when Cadence introduced us to this modern way of transportation.” Twilight giggled. “Well… my very tough life, diligent training regime written on my checklists and a powerful amount of magic that pony bodies can use for self-improvement, let me face the train in a long race on an equal ground…” She coughed and added hesitantly, “And the fact that the train had to go through tunnels and circles in order to get to Canterlot while I ran straight and climbed up on the way might have worked to my advantage.” Luna laughed. “So we take it thou hast won the race,” she asked between laughter, feeling her little friend’s strong hooves holding her neck. “I beat it by almost fifty minutes,” Twilight stated as they both laughed while many pegasi gave them odd glances, for the first time noticing another alicorn other than Celestia fly around Canterlot while having the famous little Twilight Sparkle riding her.