30-Ruined Relationship
So, TD is getting married.
I stare at Twilight's letter, still hardly able to believe it. Yes, him and Cheerilee clearly love each other, even a blind pony could see that, but it is still an odd thing to actually see in front of you. Knowing TD like I do, and seeing how far he's come, it is like... hmm...
Now that I reflect on the matter, I do not know how to compare an alien being that I brought here who has punched me in the face twice and is now marrying one of my subjects to anything. Even with my vast amount of experience I do not know what to make of it.
But there is one thing that I can say with certainty: I have put off my heart-to-heart with TD for far too long. He's been here ten years and I have not truly spoken to him the way that I should have not long after he came back from his travels. I know I spoke with Luna a while back and indicated my desire for a stronger relationship with him, but...
The right time never seemed to come along.
Or maybe that is me being cowardly. I am on occasion capable of such a fault. I do not know why, but TD brings out another side of me that I have not felt for centuries. Who knows? Maybe Luna is correct and it is a slight crush on him. Given that he is about to be happily married, I do hope that is not the case.
Still, I must have that talk with him. It is far past time for that.
I sit down at my writing desk and begin drafting a letter to TD, requesting that he meet me at the castle for a talk. I doubt that he will refuse, but I am unsure. At first I feel that it is best to write some long letter explaining what this will be all about. It will be eloquent and TD will really understand me, and will desire to come to Canterlot to speak to me. We will have a good talk about our relationship.
TD, I would like you to come to Canterlot so that we may have a small talk the Sunday after next at five. Here is some money for the train ride. I look forward to speaking to you,
Celestia.
Or that too, I suppose.
I put twenty bits into a small bag and put the bag inside of the letter before igniting my horn and sending it off to TD. When he gets the letter, I imagine that he will send a prompt reply. It would be nice to hear from him sooner rather than later.
It is not more than ten minutes before I see a scroll materialize before me. I pluck it out of the air with my magic and unroll it. As expected, it is from TD.
Sure. See you then.
* * * *
The days between his reply and our meeting go slow, but somehow fast at the same time. During the week and a half of waiting the days seemed to move at a snail's pace, but once each day was over I felt as though it had gone by in a blur. It is odd how that works, I think. Still, the day of our meeting has arrived, and I find myself standing in the middle of my throne room, Philomena perched on the back of my throne. I begin massaging one of my forelegs with the other to prevent myself from pacing. I am still unsure of why I am this nervous. It does not hurt when TD strikes me, nor will he this time.
At least, I'm fairly certain of that. He was so brash that he swung his Clovevellian Staff at Discord, though as far as I'm aware neither of us have told him whether or not he actually made contact.
I am taken out of my thoughts when the doors to the throne room open, and TD walks in with Oswald perched on his shoulder. Oswald looks behind me, and takes wing. I follow his flight and see him land next to Philomena, who nods at him, and both of them spread their wings and fly out of the room. Well, at least our phoenixes get along.
I turn my attention back to TD, who has stopped just in front of me and is looking at me with a hint of suspicion. I would gather that he would like to hide such thoughts from me, but being me, I can read even his expressions.
"Good evening, Celestia." He gives me a single nod. "You wanted to talk?"
I return his nod. "Indeed I do. We need to have a conversation that may be as much as ten years overdue, TD."
He raises one eyebrow and crosses his arms. "Ten years, huh? That's a long time to put off a conversation, Celestia."
"Well to be fair you were absent from my country for six of them." I give a slight wing shrug and beckon him onward. "But we are having it now. Have you eaten yet?"
He shakes his head and follows me toward my dining room. "No, I haven't. It's not quite my dinnertime yet, though if you're offering I'll eat something."
I nod and open the door to my private dining room. "Well I do have some food if you wish to partake. Mostly fruit and some pastries. A cake as well."
I could see a hint of a wry smile on TD's face as he takes his seat to the right of mine. I put a plate in front of him and he takes a few apple slices and pastries as I take a slice of cake for myself. As I set it on my plate, I glance up at TD, who is munching on an apple slice.
"So," I begin, "you are to be married to Cheerilee. Congratulations."
He nods and finishes his apple. "Thank you. We've set the date at five months from now." TD smirks and pours himself a goblet of orange juice. "Or five months, three days, eleven hours, nine minutes, and fifty seconds, but who's counting, right?"
"Indeed."
Before I can stop myself, I play my hoof a little early, I think. I want to ease into this, but even I sometimes say some foolish things.
"I can pay for your wedding if you desire."
Neither my comment nor the supposed subtext behind it goes unnoticed, and TD freezes with his goblet halfway to his mouth. He blinks once and slowly lowers it, his eyes fixed on me. He puts his goblet down and gently clears his throat.
"Is that what this is? Is this whole meeting just to get on my good side, Celestia?" He quietly scoffs. "If it is, that's a rather... interesting start, I'd say."
"TD..." I sigh and shake my head. "Do not think that I have this compulsive need to be liked. I am fully aware that there are ponies out there who are highly critical of me and do not hide their opinions. It's a super minority, but it is there." I pause for a moment to pour myself some tea. "But, there are some out there who I do wish that I was on better terms with, and, despite our history, you are one of them, TD."
"Hmm." TD leans back in his chair and tilts his head. "Interesting. So you want to pay for my wedding as a way to get on my good side, is that it?"
I groan and wave my hoof. "No, TD, that is not it at all!" His look of disbelief tells me all I need to know about his thoughts on that, and I grimace. "Well, I admit that that was part of it, I suppose, but I also feel that I owe you many favors, and if paying for your wedding helps you out even a little, then I would like to."
"Favors." TD clicks his tongue and leans his head against his hand. "Well, I can't deny that yes, you do owe me some favors, and that is why Cheerilee and I were talking. As a sort of peace offering..." He glances up at me. "Do you want to officiate our wedding? Like I said, we've already paid for it for the most part, but do you want to be the one who marries us?"
A wide smile threatens to split my face, and I reach out a hoof to touch his forearm. "Yes, TD! I would be absolutely honored to officiate your wedding."
TD nods, and a slight smile crosses his face. "Good. That's good, then."
"One thing did stick out to me, TD..." I retract my hoof and my smile fades. "You called it a 'peace offering.' Does that mean that you too wish that we had a better relationship than the one that we have?"
TD takes a deep breath and shrugs his shoulders. "I'm still not sure, you know? I mean, yeah, ten years is a little long to have a grudge, especially since I've become quite happy here, but at the same time there are still..." He hesitates a moment. "Things, you know? Like that thing you pulled with me and Cheerilee and Discord. You used me as a chess piece and, I know you didn't intend to, you then came into the bar to gloat about it."
My mouth curves down in a subtle frown. "TD, I did not go into that bar with the intention of gloating."
"Yeah, well..." TD raises an eyebrow for a moment and picks up his goblet. "You didn't mean to pull me into Equestria and yet... Luna didn't mean to snap my spine and yet... I didn't go into Griffonia expecting to get pulled into political drama and yet..." His gaze flickers up to me. "Cheerilee and I have talked about that many times, and we both agree that, whether you intended it or not, there was a little gloating in there."
I could not argue with him. Now that I reflect on the matter I can see why he said that. Though in my defense, had Twilight or Fluttershy come in and said that to them they would not have seen it as gloating. Having said that, however, they were not the orchestrators of my plan, merely...
Well...
TD would see them as pawns, I imagine.
Maybe he was not so far off from the truth.
I flatten my ears and grimace while taking a deep breath. "TD, I did what I felt I had to do. Was coming into the bar gloating? I suppose that it was, but involving you and Cheerilee was the best way for me to reform Discord. It was the lesser of two evils that helped a long term good. I think I was just... giddy that everything had worked out the way I had hoped and let my excitement get the best of me."
"Yeah, he taunted Cheerilee and I during a perfectly nice date, then taunted us by changing our species for kicks to rub it in our faces that we can't really get physical." TD rolls his eyes. "Yeah, really good for everybody there."
"TD, he has improved since then. He is not so antagonistic to you or your fiancée now, is he?" I cross my forelegs. "He is doing a lot better."
"He turned my fiancée into a human knowing exactly which button that would press," he says through gritted teeth. "That's not something either of us have forgiven him for."
"TD, I'm not saying that what he did was right, but he has improved." I sigh and take an apple slice off of the platter in front of me. "Discord's magic has also been used for many good things since he was released from stone, good things that have improved the lives of Equestrians everywhere." I eat my apple slice, not for a moment missing his glare and grimace in my direction. I swallow my apple and give TD a small smile. "TD, I understand why you would be upset about that, but I inconvenienced you for a few minutes to better the lives of everypony for centuries, maybe millennium to come. I'd count that as a fair trade-off."
TD scoffs, but he doesn't retort, so I can see that he agrees with my reasoning on some level. I gently put a hoof on his shoulder, and he glances up at me, not returning my kind smile.
"TD, I do not like manipulating ponies or humans. I do not want to be seen as a chessmaster, even though there are many times that I have to be. I feel that it is dishonest, and I do not like that. I care deeply for each and every one of my little ponies."
* * * *
Earlier that day
I swallowed the bite of my pancake that I had just been chewing and glanced over at Luna, who was reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee in her magical grasp and a pair of pince nez glasses balanced on her muzzle. I sighed, looked down at my plate of half-eaten pancakes and shook my head.
"I don't care for Fancypants."
To my left I heard a coffee mug shatter.
* * * *
I push that memory out of my mind and focus on TD, who is strangely silent. I decide to press the advantage that I have been given.
"TD, our relationship is not a good one. You have obviously forgiven me enough that we can have a cordial conversation, but..." I sigh and take my hoof off of his shoulder. "TD? May I be frank with you?"
"I earnestly think that would be a good idea."
"Good." I take a moment to refill his water goblet before continuing. It gives me a moment to collect my thoughts. "There are very few beings on this planet who treat me the way that you do. I do not mean in the sense that other beings hit me, you are the only one in the history of time who has intentionally done that and not been obliterated, but you are refreshingly blunt around me. You don't grovel when you see me and you do not fear me in any way. You are one of the few around who is like that."
TD is frowning, but his frown is one of uncertainty. He hasn't interrupted me, nor has he begun laughing or ranting, so I take that as a sign that he is interested and continue.
"In an odd way, were our relationship better, you would likely be one of my closest friends. You do not treat me as Celestia the princess, you treat me as Celestia the pony, regardless of what happens between the two of us. I... I do wish that we had a better relationship, TD, and I realize that I have not done enough to make things up to you. My mistakes regarding you far outweigh the positives, and I highly regret that. I want to try, TD, I want to try to make it up to you."
TD stares at me for a few moments, his expression rather blank. I have said my piece, so I will wait for him to respond.
"So..." His voice cracks and he clears his throat. "So you want to make it up to me. Do you want to make it up to me so that I'll like you and you'll have a new friend, or are you doing it because you actually care about me and are upset that you hurt me?"
"Honestly?" TD nods. "Both, TD. The former is more selfish than the latter, I'll admit, but the answer is both."
"Hmm..." TD leans back in his chair and crosses his arms, an eyebrow raised. "Interesting. I... believe you, strangely enough."
"Oh?"
He nods. "Yeah. If you were trying to hide something you would have just said the second one, but you said the first one, even though you knew it was a little more selfish, thereby showing that you're honest, making me more likely to believe the second option." TD deeply exhales and runs his hand through his hair. "So yeah..."
"And what do you wish to do with that information, TD?"
TD shrugs and sits up. "Well, I guess... I guess maybe I can give it a chance. Like I said earlier, I don't want to hold grudges for ten years. I'm currently seeing firsthand how nasty that kind of thing can be for both parties involved, so I would like to try to move on a little more, yes."
My heart flutters, and a wide smile crosses my face once more. "Well I'm very glad to hear that, TD. If your future wife does not object, I think we should spend more time together as friends. Maybe she can join us as well."
"I'd like that, and I think that she would too." TD clears his throat again and stands up from his chair. "Speaking of that, Cheerilee and I have a date later today to do some more planning. I'll let you know about when the wedding is. Luna can come too if she wants."
"Well, I look forward to hearing from you about that," I say as I stand up from my own seat. "I wish you a good day and a wonderful time with your fiancée."
He tilts his head in a small bow. "Thank you. Have fun dealing with the nobles and court and whatever it is you do during the day."
My smile turns into a slight grimace as I remember that I have a rather nasty dispute waiting for me to solve after this, but I push the thoughts aside for the moment. I walk TD out of the dining room and back to my throne room where our phoenixes are perched on the back of my throne. Oswald notices TD when he walks into the room, and he takes a moment to nuzzle Philomena before talking wing and landing on TD's shoulder. As I thought before, I do like that our phoenixes seem to be good friends.
With that, TD gives me a two-fingered salute and walks out of my throne room to go back to Ponyville. When he leaves I take a deep breath and walk over to Philomena, who is staring at me with her head tilted slightly. I give her a smile and extend my foreleg, which she hops onto.
"That went as well as I had hoped, I suppose. He is a good man, and he did not deserve the things that I did to him." Philomena chirrups and I nuzzle the top of her head. "But hopefully things will improve between us. I am excited to officiate his wedding. That should be a good time to fix some of the mistakes at least a little bit."
I turn my head and look at the door to the throne room. "Or at least I hope so."
* * * *
It is many hours later before I re-enter the dining room after a rather taxing day in court to see my sister already there with a plate of food. She looks up at me when I come in and the two of us exchange a smile, though mine has a touch more exhaustion behind it. I quite look forward to being done for the day.
"Good evening, Tia. How did your meeting with TD Powell fare?"
"It went very well, Lulu, thank you for asking." I sit down and pour myself a cup of tea. "I think him and I are going to be on much better terms from now on. The events of today are a good first step."
"Oh?" Luna raises her coffee mug to her lips. "And what happened today that gave you that perception?"
"Well, I think it was about the time that we went back to my room and, oh what's the expression, 'passionately made out' that gave me that idea."
Revenge is a sweet thing. It may have taken me over a year and more victories on her end in that time, but I finally got Luna to spit-take.
"T-Tia!" Luna sputters, ignoring the coffee that was now all over the table. "He... he is to be married! He is betrothed to dear Cheerilee! That is adultery!"
I shrug and take another sip of my tea. "Well, it was just a one-time thing, Lulu." I click my tongue. "Maybe. It's up to him. I for one enjoyed it immensely. Besides, Lulu, me having a physical relationship with him was your idea. If you recall, you were the one who suggested that we make out. Well, that’s what we did."
Luna's eyes shrink down to pinpricks, and her jaw is nearly on the floor as she tries to think of something to say. I cannot help myself, and a wide smile crosses my face. The smile does not go unnoticed, and Luna slowly puts the pieces together. After a moment, her expression turns into a scowl and she wheels around in her chair and roughly grabs the coffee-stained newspaper in front of her, her next words coming as a growl.
"Shut up."
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More from the eyes of the Solar Princess. Can she make up for years gone by, and the mistakes that have been made? Find out in another exciting installment!
And, of course, she's gotta get that revenge. Luna should know better than to say things like that, shouldn't she?
Oh Celestia, you and your antics. Glad they finally made up, for the most part.
haha xD
that cheered me up after a long day at work i must admit x)
This Celestia.. I like her.
Trollestia Strikes again. XD
Ah that was great XD.
That'll do, Celestia. That'll do.
What was the Francypants thing?
whew!, you heh, you had me there for a couple seconds with that title
kudos
Seems awkward. Maybe "moving to massage" or "begin to massage".
Also, the Fancypants comment killed me.
4147561 A chance to be funny and expand Celestia's character a little bit. Also a reference to one of my favorite TV shows.
4147590 They're trying to fix their relationship, which despite Celestia's best efforts, keeps getting ruined.
Chapter names like this are gonna become a regular thing, aren't they? You know everyone expects things to turn a particular shade of brown and you're just gonna play it up.
My dear writer I must know details about this. Was it a joke or is that really the only pony she doesn't care about. Poor fancy but I can see him with a stoic expression and he speaks as if it's a everyday thing and says "Well I was never too fond of you either"
Oh I see a tease war between the 2 sisters, in the future, after all Luna is yet to meet TD, she only meet him for what? 10 sec and she only break his spine and say sorry, I imagine she would like to see if she can have an actually friend too…and in the process mess up with Celestia a bit more, perhaps
Celestia: Lulu, were did you went?
Luna: Oh you know, since you and TD are friends I decided that I want to get to know him a bit better, patch things up, between us, really talk and not leave just the spine incident
Celestia: So…you went to talk to him?
Luna: Better, I made a deal so we can be even
Celestia: You did? and what was the deal
Luna: Well since I spit him in 2 I let him do that to me…metaphorically speaking
Celestia: Lulu! he is marry!
Luna: Oh don't worry Cheerlie got spit in 2 as well, lucky mare now I'm starting be jealous of her
Celestia: Lulu!
Curses! Foiled again by the troll writer!
Seriously though, the moment I saw the chapter title, I... Let's just say that my neighbours don't appreciate midnight screaming.
"In other words, he went 'YOU SADISTIC SONOFA- I'M GOING TO DESTROY YOU AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE FOR THIS! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE TD AND CHEERILEE BREAK UP BEFORE THE WEDDING?! I WILL NUKE YOUR-' I didn't hear much of the rest. I think It involved a lot of screaming. And cursing."
"I don't believe any language could have invented Vulgarities that contained as much raw Hatred as those words."
"True dat."
I can't blame Celestia for wanting to at least try to help reconcile some differences with TD, but I have some sneaky feeling that despite her attempts someone or somepony might make it a bit more of a hassle or issue. One of witch might be Discord, because despite being good he will love to bring chaos. But who knows? Man I can't wait to see what happens next!
I read that chapter title in my email inbox and I was basically like "He had BETTER not have done what I think he did".
Glad to say everything went much better than expected. :D
Luna:
"TO THE F***ING MOOON!!!"
4147658
same thing, holy crap dude you scared me worse then some of those creepy pastas!
4147658
I was just getting my pitch fork ready too before I read the chapter.
4147647
I thought the exact same thing.
I wonder what Oswald would say if TD was suddenly friends with the white devil? He'd probably think about how much more time he'll spend with Philomena.
I'm liking this Celestia, she isn't that "ALL-POWERFUL" omniscience omnipotent chessmaster character that other stories use too often and I feared this one might become like that too, but she has flaws that don't feel like they were added later to just make her weaker and serve the duel purpose of making her more interesting. Hell, maybe with some more chapter I may drop all prejud-
Ok, I'll ignore that comment Celestia because it made me laugh with its timing. I watch and wait.
Nice chapter update. The part with Celestia and Luna at the end as funny.
>Reads title
>Gets slightly enraged
>reads chapter
>finds out meaning behind the title name.
static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130618231949/mlp/images/thumb/8/84/FANMADE_Lyra_Oh_you.png/580px-FANMADE_Lyra_Oh_you.png
personally i'm kinda hoping for a celestia x TD thing to happen in one form or another. :P maybe cheerilees parents dont like TD and forbid her from marrying him and in an effort to salvage her relationship with her parents begrudgingly doesnt marry him or maybe ANOTHER spin off story. since you already have so many, why not have more?
4147900
they are goddesses... but yet not. more like demigods. they have long maybe immortal life spans, and are immune to most forms of damage. but they are not gods, they don't know everything and see all. they a pretty much just your average pony with an extremely long life span and put on a throne.
i.imgur.com/iDWqU.gif
I DON'T LIKE THAT TITLE WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!!!
*reads*
That was amazing. I don't know why but I enjoyed this chapter immensely. Probably mainly because it was such a nice chapter :3
Well... that was certainly interesting. I wonder how long it will be before she tells him of her crush.
Hmm... if he can still change his changeling arm, and he turned into a phoenix wing... would he be able to understand Oswald?
4148384 what anime? By the way great chapter
So I read that chapter title and I was incredibly worried. Then calmed down when I realized it meant THAT relationship.
Which made me realize.
A while back I noted I didn't particularly care for the whole TDxCheerilee thing.
That's obviously not the case now. Welp, like when I first fought entering this fandom, to when I reached my breaking point...
"Dammit, I might as well just embrace it."
WOOOOOOO!!! GO TDXCHEERILEE!!!
How much you wanna bet Cheerilee was outside the door or something?
4148688 Evangelion 3.0, Google it
Why would anypony have anything against FancyPants?! He's such a pleasant stallion!
Luna, you just got trolled.
4147900
"I don't like bananas"
"I don't like cake"
Might of been funnier if she said
or
Luna: To the therapist!
***
Thera. V. L.: So Celestia, what is this I hear about disliking Mr. Fancypants?
***
Celestia: I really don't like therapists.
Luna: I know what you mean.
Is it wrong that I kind of want to see an AU story where Celestia acts on her crush and tries to pursue a relationship with TD?
At a point in time before TDlee became a thing, obviously.
"TD, I'm not saying that what he did was right, but he has improved." I sigh and take an apple slice off of the platter in front of me. "Discord's magic has also been used for many good things since he was released from stone, good things that have improved the lives of Equestrians everywhere." I eat my apple slice, not for a moment missing his glare and grimace in my direction. I swallow my apple and give TD a small smile. "TD, I understand why you would be upset about that, but I inconvenienced you for a few minutes to better the lives of everypony for centuries, maybe millennium to come. I'd count that as a fair trade-off."
This was never about if it was a fair trade, it's the fact that Celestia used TD and Cheerilee like tools or pawns without permission or informing them of her plan.
4149173 Like this?
4148290 They're kinda like the Greek gods: mostly immortal, but flawed as all hell.
*Chuckles* Oh how I do love this story!
Hmm... I wonder though... There are many months before the wedding... And Celestia... Hmm...
I... Just... Don't... Know... Its hard to figure out how this story will travel at this point... But it is indeed exciting!
I wonder if Celestia will push more in the months to come. Perhaps try to do some drastic things with TD... Maybe trying to get into his pants...
Who knows but its some intersting ideas all the same... Just random thoughts...
In other words I really want to see what happens next LOL!
I hope there is a follow up chapter where Blueblood was the one who dropped his mug, takes things out of context and has Fancy Pants beaten up to suck up to his Aunt.
Prediction: A maid heard Tia making the claim and the gossip will get out and damage the wedding