The Questions
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle
I will be in Ponyville for a brief visit later this evening. Do not fret, I only have a quick question for you, best asked in person.
I look forward to seeing you,
Cordially,
Celestia
“Spike! She’s coming! Tonight! And we didn’t get any cleaning done! And the girls are still here! What are we going to do?” Twilight gasped while running in circles and darting between tables in the library downstairs.
“Oh, come on, Twi! You read the letter! She said not to fret,” said Spike.
“Now is exactly the time to fret! She’s coming to ask ‘a question best asked in person’! That could be very, very bad! Oh no, what do I do?” Twilight stopped running, only to sink to the floor and cover her head with her hooves.
Spike cantered over to her and ran a claw through her mane, patting her head softly. “Come on, Twilight. It’s nothing serious, or she would already be knocking on the door!”
Three knocks on the door, metal on metal.
“Or she already is, Spike! What kind of shoes does Celestia have? Golden. What is the new door made of? Gold. Metal on metal, Spike! That can only be her! AH!” Twilight skidded to a halt and took several deep breaths, steadying herself.
She opened the huge double doors wide, revealing a tall alabaster pony with a flowing pastel mane.
“Hello, Twilight,” Celestia said. “Do you mind if I come in?”
“N-Not at all, Princess,” Twilight stammered. She shuffled to the side, allowing Celestia to walk in.
Celestia looked around and spotted the staircase up to the main area. As she took the stairs, Twilight shut the doors and climbed after her. By the time she reached the throne room, her friends had finished bowing and saying their greetings.
“My little ponies, there’s no need to bow on my account,” Celestia offered. She curtsied and turned to Twilight. “I thought this might be a little more private than downstairs, but I wasn’t aware you had guests. Is there some place private we can talk?”
Twilight nodded and pointed to the second set of spiral stairs leading up to her quarters. “Up here, Princess.”
“Please, Twilight, call me Celestia. You have more than earned that right.”
“OK, Cel-Celestia.” She tried, but Twilight found saying her name without her title just didn’t come naturally. Still, she led the way up the stairs and pushed open her door. It was decorated much the same as it was in her old library: the same star-pattern bedsheets, bookcases lining the walls, and a telescope pointing out the window.
Celestia ducked because of the low doorway, but returned to her full height as she gazed around the room.
“So...” Twilight began. Her hoof rubbed her other foreleg gently, and her eyes darted around Celestia, trying not to make eye contact out of fear that it may draw whatever wrath was impending.
“Twilight Sparkle, I—” Celestia started. She raised a hoof, gesturing like she was asking for a moment to gather her thoughts. She sat down on her haunches and beckoned Twilight to do the same. “Twilight, I have come to—”
“Take me away?” Twilight interjected, her lips drawn into a frown and her eyes pulled wide.
“Not exactly, my little pony. I have come to ask you—”
“To leave Equestria as punishment for my crimes?”
“No, not that either. Twilight, please, allow me to finish. I’m not here to punish you. I have come to ask you... on a date. I would like to have you come to Canterlot and spend an evening with me, this Friday, Hearts and Hooves Day,” said Celestia. She quickly followed with, “Unless you have other plans, of course.”
Twilight still looked shocked, but the frown was quickly replaced with a smile. “Oh, thank heavens. I was worried for a minute there.” As she composed herself, though, she realized what Celestia had just asked her. “Wait, a date. With you. In Canterlot. On Hearts and Hooves Day, the most romantic day of the year.” She inhaled sharply. “And you want to take me, your former student and a pony barely out of school, on a date with you, the Princess of the Sun and Equestria’s ruler for almost since its founding?” Twilight wavered and braced herself. “I, uh, find that a little hard to take in right now.”
Celestia reached out a hoof and placed it on Twilight’s shoulder. She lowered her head and brought herself face to face with Twilight. “Yes, Twilight, I know it seems, shall we say, unusual. But as my dear sister Luna put it so... delicately, I have not had a date in a number of years. We, that is to say, I, feel like I should get out and find somepony.”
“And you choose me?” Twilight asked, brow raised.
“Well, think about it. You’re a Princess, too. A young Princess, yes, growing into your role,” said Celestia. And already grown in a number of others. “But a Princess nonetheless. Not to mention, you’re one of the few ponies who I could really call a friend. So dipping my hooves into the water again would be so much easier with somepony who already knew me. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Twilight nodded, swayed by Celestia’s logic. “So, like a practice date then?”
Celestia inwardly cringed, but nodded in agreement.
“Great!” said Twilight. “I didn’t have anything else planned, myself, so helping you get back into the swing of things ought to be fun! What did you have planned?”
Celestia chuckled. “I hadn’t gotten that far yet, but I will write to you once I have something in mind. Thank you, Twilight, I’m really looking forward to it.” She wrapped Twilight in a one-foreleg hug and ducked back down the stairs. She waved goodbye to Twilight’s friends still assembled in the throne room, chatting amongst each other.
Once Celestia left, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy all exchanged concerned glances and poked their heads up the staircase to Twilight’s room. They heard the door open again and scrambled back. They tried to return to a normal conversation but glanced at the staircase far too often to not be obvious.
As soon as Twilight entered the room, though, all pretenses of being otherwise occupied were dropped, and she was surrounded by inquisitive fillies.
“Well?” demanded Rainbow, hovering just above Twilight, forelegs crossed.
“You are going to say what happened, won’t you?” mumbled Fluttershy.
“Come on, Twi, just let us know what in the hey went on up there. Y’all weren’t up there long, and ya don’t like yer about to break into tears...”
“Girls, girls, let her speak. I’m sure she’ll tell us what that little discussion was about.” Rarity nodded to Twilight.
“Yeah, get on with it!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing behind the other ponies.
“Well, I don’t really know how to say this any other way...” Twilight beamed, then bit her lip, and then couldn’t keep it in any longer. “Celestia asked me on a date!”
Happy gasps rang out and Rarity looked ready to faint. “Oh my stars, darling! How wonderful! When? Where?”
Twilight giggled. “This Friday, Hearts and Hooves Day. And I don’t know what we’re doing yet. She’s still getting things ready, it seems.”
“Aw, yeah, that’s my Twilight. Baggin’ a Princess like it ain’t no thang!” Rainbow said, waving her hoof like a ‘gangsta’. That earned her two glares—one from Applejack and one from Rarity.
“Really, Rainbow, could you be more crass? This is important! We have so much we need to get done!” Rarity said.
Applejack nodded. “Yeah... wait, what? What’s all this about ‘we’, Rares? We don’t need ta do anythin’. Twilight’s the one going on the date, remember? Not us.”
“We have to throw her a ‘Just Got Asked Out By A Divine, Immortal Princess’ party, duh!” Pinkie offered.
Twilight facehoofed, and Rarity almost joined in that.
“No, what we need to do is help Twilight get ready. After all, she is going on a date with a Princess! Wahaha!” Rarity could no longer contain her enthusiasm and just hugged Twilight tightly. “Oh, how I wish it was me, but I can’t begrudge you your happiness, darling.”
“Not to interrupt this little planning session, girls, but what exactly do I need to do to ‘get ready’? Celestia hasn’t even told me what we’re doing yet,” said Twilight, trying to head off more uncomfortable conversations about her potential love life.
“Well, for starters, you’ll need to look your best, so a spa visit is a must,” said Rarity, glancing at Fluttershy. She nodded in agreement and Rarity continued. “Second, you’ll need a dress. Something lovely, but not formal or showy. So the Gala dresses are right out, and so is your coronation dress. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t know if you have anything in your wardrobe that would work.” She put a hoof to her chin and paced briefly, parting the rest of the group surrounding Twilight.
Rarity raised her hoof in the air and shouted, “Aha! Twilight, do you recall that dress I made, long ago, the one from the curtains of Trixie’s wagon? That blue ensemble with the yellow trim and gold saddle?”
Twilight nodded, but pulled her head back and narrowed her eyes. “I do. And I’m surprised you kept it, considering she also, well...”
“Twilight, dear, I can’t possibly let that little brat’s malicious joke overshadow a great work of fashion,” she said, starting pleasant, but she hissed at the mention of Trixie. She softened. “At any rate, that dress would do wonders for your date!” She paused and looked over Twilight, focused on her wings. “Naturally, we shall need to make some alterations to accommodate your figure.”
“My figure?” Twilight questioned, her eyebrow raised and head tilted. A meaningful second glance from Rarity and Twilight looked back at her wings. “Oh, right, I keep forgetting...”
“It’s fine, dear, I’m sure becoming a princess is not something one ‘gets used to’ overnight.”
Twilight chuckled nervously.
Rarity waved her hoof dismissively. “At any rate, darling, we can take care of the alterations later tonight. For now, it’s time we hit the spa!”
Luna had been sneaking around Canterlot Castle ever since Celestia returned from Ponyville. She kept an ear out for anything out of the ordinary. At the risk of being caught, she threw caution to the wind and pressed her ear to the door of her sister’s chambers. All she heard was almost uncontrollable giggling. Luna quickly raced down the halls, away from Celestia’s chambers, to find Cadance. Skidding to a halt in front of an unused office being occupied by Cadance for her visit, Luna swung open the doors.
“She’s back!” she shouted, singsong. She then whispered, “And she’s giggling.”
Cadance beamed and jumped up from behind the desk. “Oh, excellent news, Auntie Luna! We ought to see her at once!”
“Nay, first we must confirm the cause of the giggling...”
Cadance nodded, and both alicorns slipped out of the office. They tiptoed through the castle corridors, avoiding guards until they reached a wide, sweeping balcony following one of the corridors. They lept off the balcony and flew silently to Celestia’s balcony, hiding just out of sight but still within earshot.
Luna peaked her head up briefly, just long enough to see Celestia prancing around her room, beaming and giggling.
“She said yes! She said yes!” Celestia continued to prance around the room, full of laughter. “Now I just need to find a place to go! Things to do!” She suddenly stopped. “I haven’t the faintest idea of where to start. What do ponies do when they go on dates now? What do they wear? Oh, pony feathers.”
Celestia stared at the ground, and Luna and Cadance exchanged bemused glances before covering their mouths with their hooves and giggling uncontrollably. In their fit of giggles, neither mare noticed the clink of metal on stone as Celestia stepped onto the balcony.
“Good evening, ladies. I take it you’re both overjoyed at the marble texture here?” she said. She looked down at the pair of giggling alicorns and frowned.
Luna composed herself first, straightening up and landing on the balcony. “Apologies, dear sister. We were, uh, just...” She trailed off, unable to think of an excuse for their presence.
Cadance landed on the balcony next, still smiling. She tried and failed to suppress her giggles. “I’m sorry, too, Auntie Celly.”
Celestia bristled at her nickname being used when her patience was already tested with the eavesdropping, but let it slide. They’re of no use to me if I’m actively angry at them and they shut themselves off to me.
“Well, since you’re both here, perhaps you could help me,” she said, her tone calm and even, though she lost the mirth and happiness present only moments before.
“We’d be happy to!” shouted Cadance, seizing the opportunity as soon as it presented itself. She quieted down when she continued, “Although, it’s kind of odd, trying to set you, my aunt, on a date with Twilight, the filly I used to babysit.”
Celestia simply turned to her and said flatly, “You raised no objections earlier when Luna first suggested Twilight as a pony I should ask.”
“We thought you would brush us off,” Luna said. “And this sounds far more... sincere, than mere practice, ‘Tia. Art thou sure Twilight is not a serious interest of yours?” She grinned. She sashayed past Celestia and threw a few too many exaggerated winks.
Always relishing the opportunity to tease. Celestia rolled her eyes and chuckled. “I can be excited for a practice date, you know. And it’s always nice to be able to spend time with Twilight, a luxury neither of us have had in some time.”
Some small part of her mind, however, wished to contradict her words. It would be lovely to actually date Twilight Sparkle, no? Luna’s words were right on: Twilight has grown into a beautiful, intelligent young mare, worthy of anypony’s affections. Why not yours?
“At any rate,” she said firmly, again seeking to control the conversation, “I still need help. As much as I am loathe to admit it, Luna was correct. I haven’t been romantically involved, pretend or otherwise, with a pony since before her banishment.” She reached over and nuzzled Luna, draping a foreleg across her back. “So I do need help understanding the changes in etiquette and dating since then.”
“Sister, you know we would do anything and everything.” Luna returned the nuzzles, then gestured to Cadance. “However, I am just being reintroduced to all of these changes myself. Perhaps we would do well to consult with a princess who is tasked with spreading love?”
Cadance beamed and nodded quickly. “Absolutely! I would love to help in any way I can. So let’s get started with the basics.” Cadance sat back and gestured like she was lecturing a class. “You and Twilight will need somewhere to go and something to do. Once that’s established, we can decide on what you’ll be wearing, and then we can into the details on ‘etiquette’.” She winked, and then broke out into giggles. Luna quickly followed suit, and Celestia allowed herself to join in with a few good chuckles of her own.
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I don't know why, but now I can't get the picture of Twilight laying on a giant cake when Celestia walks in out of my head. And that wasn't even in here!
4845124
Good, wait no longer! There's more!
4846182
Not to spoil, but the title isn't exactly subversive. And some questions are rhetorical, and there can never be enough Twilestia.
4846676
And I will totally not be using that for some imagined fantasy of Celestia's later.
I can see it now...
Princess Cadence: You're dating a 16 year old?!
Princess Celestia: She's seventeen!
Cadence: You got out of college what, 1300 years ago?
Princess Celestia: I'm 23,000 years old!
4846715
"With the uniform and everything."
Ummm. I don't like it or hate it. The reason being it's to weird. But I'm still following it just in case it gets really good.
4846700
Wait, Celestia still has imagination? She's still mildly sane? My whole picture of her is wrong!
4846182 Because of course every story within a genre has to follow the same plotline, style and diction, and therefore cannot be anything other than uninspired. After all, because Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno are both religious epics attempting to explain the workings of heaven, clearly they're also both derivative drivel with no differences between them.
Twilestia intensifies.
Yes
At the risk of nitpicking, why is Cadance in Canterlot? Shouldn't she be in the Crystal Empire? You know, ruling it?
Liking it so far. I could go into details, but I'll reserve my judgment for a while.
Do you plan on finishing this before the contest is over, though? Not really sure how long this story could potentially go or when it will be finished, at the moment. (I noticed that another story of yours took about 3 years to finish, lol)
the perfect date...THE MOON!
4847302
I am sick and tired of all those damned mystery novels where someone dies. I mean, how cliche can you get? Surely that genre was done by, oh, the early bit of Agatha Christie's career.
Hehe. Twi and Tia fit together so well.
All I can say is that it is weird about this story is that apparently ponies know every other pony's preferences. Luna is like I know you are lesbian Celestia and we know Twilight is a lesbian, so maybe you should be lesbians together. It's like would Twilight ever spill the beans about her preferences, when she always had her nose in her books? I mean unless Luna is peeking into dreams...
4847602
Teleport capable alicorn who may have been called for her love expertise.
4848493
That's... pretty loose. Not very realistic at all. And, even if it were true, the author should probably denote it as truth, and write it into the story. Simply expecting us to suddenly believe that Cadance is capable of long-range teleportation to the level of possibly hundreds of miles is a bit ridiculous.
4848527 Fixed teleportation perhaps? Uses a pre-charged magical power source, like a rune, and several circles with runes that allow for teleporting in smallish jumps without using too much energy.
4847521 Can that be a phrase?
(Ship here) intensifies?
Excellent story so far, I can't wait for more.
And I really hope Princesses Luna and Princesses Cadence will be shadowing them on their date
i like this story hope to read more soon
4846182
Hows it going, mate?
Hahaha, both Twiluna and Twilestia got featured.
Which one will end more views, favs and upvotes?
Reads anyway.
4848726
Again, if something like that were the case, I'd deem it worthy of mentioning in the story.
4847052
I find imagination and sanity are like a poorly-coded integer - sure, imagination goes down with lack of sanity, but sanity is a long int, and imagination normal. After a certain point, it pops right back up to max.
I'm guessing this is a typo:
Probably intended to be
by maybe also
or
This isn't an error, but I thought the repetition of "balcony" was a bit awkward here:
Maybe remove the second one?
(also, "lept" should be "leapt", but this is the kind of change that I doubt will confuse anyone or cause a reader to stumble when reading the text, so it doesn't matter.)
And since I'm already editing this paragraph, you might consider changing "until they reached a wide, sweeping balcony following one of the corridors". This was a bit unclear to me. When I initially read it, I assumed the balcony was at the end of the corridor, or maybe that you simply meant Cadance and Luna reached the balcony by following the corridor. Reading it more carefully, I'm guessing the balcony is supposed to run along the length of the corridor.
Finally, and this is also very minor, maybe change "hiding" to "landing".
Keep up the good work!
there
_________
don't look
______________
Hey Rarity lost all rights to be mad and call Trixie a brat the moment she vandalizied her private property, tried ruining a show that she needed ofr money to survive, and further antagonized her along with Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack who should've known better being showmares themselves. In a huge way Rarity had it coming to her, and is lucky that all she did was get her mane turned green, rather than charges for destruction of private property / vandalism.
So far interesting story. Didn't like the Trixie bashing, and even then Rarity could do better than that assemble which wouldn't look all that good on Twilight's figure for a major romantic outing.
5424605 There is a Trixity ship in that animosity. Now for the author who could capture that duet.
5499162
But it never happens. If I remember correctly. Trixie gets saddled with contempt for doing her job, and Ponyville and everypony in there spread the word to destroy the victims life. Leading to her decnt into madness, which lead to the Alicorn Amulet, and Trixie being even more hated. All because Rainbow Dash couldn't stand being out of the Limelight for 5 seconds ... well that and Equestria's tradition of horrible parenting skills.
Other than Nom_deChavel's Who Rule's series I don't think I've ever seen an Twixity ship. Know of any good ones?
Nice chapter! I also noticed "peaked" should be changed to "peeked". I look forward to reading more!
7212037
I mean, think about her track record.
Celestia showed up in Ponyville for parasprites, for Nightmare Moon, for her dead pheonix, for Twilight's want-it-need-it incident... statistically the odds of a disaster are frighteningly high.
The only time I can remember something didn't go wrong was when Twilight embrassed herself at dinner while Starlight ran off with Trixie.
Luna peaked her head up briefly, just long enough to see Celestia prancing around her room, beaming and giggling.
Now THAT'S a picture I can't seem to mentally create.