7: Back to Ponyville
Celestia stepped off of the obnoxiously colorful train and out onto the platform, letting out a massive yawn that she'd been holding back since an attendant had woken her up from the very pleasant nap she'd been having on-board. She glanced up at the sky, noticing dusk had swept in while she had slept. She gave a tired sigh and began walking towards the massive crystal object looming over the rest of the town. She had never seen Twilight's palace from the outside, but she would have bet a year's salary that the enormous structure had to be it.
All in all, her trip to meet her princess self had been far less helpful than she had dared to hope, though it had strangely made her feel much more accepting of the whole strange predicament. She knew she should be concerned that even a royal goddess couldn't help her to find a way home, but something about spending time with the Princess had managed to make her feel like no matter what, everything would be ok in the long run.
Much of their meeting had been spent just chatting of nothing important, enjoying ridiculously good tea, and finding commonalities in each other that neither should have been surprised by. Eventually, the Princess had been called away to attend to some duty or other, and left Celestia with a guard to escort her to the train back to Ponyville. She also assured her that Sunset would likely catch up whenever she and Princess Luna finished whatever it was they were off doing together.
She had left with a reassuring smile, a smile that had conveyed the same advice she had provided earlier, that Celestia should just lighten up and try to enjoy herself. She wasn't sure she was quite there yet of course. Just outright accepting everything that had happened at face value and vacationing as a horse was a tall order for her, but at least now the sense of impending doom had subsided.
This train of thought ended as she found herself already standing outside of a massive golden doorway set into the base of what looked like a crystal tree trunk. "This place is a little ridiculous..." She muttered to herself as she followed the trunk upwards to get a look at the palace itself. With a small shrug she trotted up to the door and gave it a few firm knocks with her hoof, an appendage she had to admit was absolutely ideal for knocking on doors.
It took a few minutes, but eventually she heard a scuffling, scratching noise somewhere beyond the door, just before it creaked open a bit and a reptilian head popped out. "Hello? Oh it's you, hi there! Twilight told me you and Sunset had gone to Canterlot but she never mentioned when you might be back." Spike said in a friendly tone, pushing the door open properly. "Come on in."
Celestia nodded while trying to suppress an involuntary gasp of surprise, still not totally comfortable with the concept of real live dragons. As much as it unsettled her, he seemed friendly enough, and she hadn't exactly left the best impression the first time they had met. After taking a moment to regain control of all of her faculties, she realized Spike had already turned around and was headed up a massive spiral staircase, so she hurried to catch up to him, pulling the door closed behind her with a bit of magic.
Spike glanced back over his shoulder as she approached, moving to the side so she could continue up the stairs next to him. "So, I never did catch your name," he said curiously.
Celestia gave him a sidelong glance, biting her lower lip pensively, trying to come up with a suitable answer for the little dragon. Keeping her identity from him likely wouldn't accomplish much, and it wasn't as though she had a reason not to trust him, but something just felt wrong about it. After meeting the Princess, she didn't really feel worthy of giving anyone the impression that she was at all connected to the kind goddess. Trying not to take too long to answer, she immediately jumped at the last thing anyone had called her besides her full name.
"My name is Tia," she said, while internally slapping a hand to her face. Euuuugh what am I doing, I HATE that nickname! Damnit Luna, how is it even the alternate dimension version of you manages to mess with me without even trying? she thought to herself, trying to keep an internal frown of defeat from infecting the friendly look she was trying to give Spike.
"Well it's nice to meet you Tia!" Spike responded enthusiastically. "I'm Spike, though you already knew that." he went on, giving her a goofy grin. "Oh, watch out, almost to the top of the stairs. Gotta pay attention or you might not realize the steps have ended, then you step too high, then you lose your balance...then it's a long way down..." he warned with a grimace, rubbing at the back of his head as if to soothe a nonexistant bruise.
"I'll be sure to be extra cautious." Celestia said with a quiet giggle as she tried not to imagine the poor little guy bouncing down the massive staircase. He must be near indestructible if all he got was a few bumps and bruises... she mused to herself, somewhat impressed as she heeded his warning and stepped carefully up onto the "ground" floor of the palace, though being on four legs made any sort of falling backwards a bit less of an issue.
As Spike started to make his way towards the opening to an unfamiliar hallway, Celestia looked around and realized she had no idea how to get to any of the rooms she was even slightly acquainted with. "Um, Spike? Can you tell me where I can find Twilight? I should probably tell her how my meeting with the Princess went."
Spike stopped walking before turning back to look at her, putting a hand to his chin pensively. "Hmmm, I don't remember why, but I think she said she was headed up to her bedroom, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you went up there to meet her."
Celestia nodded, then glanced at the various hallways branching off from the staircase landing. "Uh, I don't suppose you could give me some directions? This place is huge, and I don't really know my way around it yet."
"Yeah, you and Twilight both," he scoffed, chuckling brightly. "Lemme grab a scroll so I can write down the directions..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After what felt like hours but was likely maybe 15 minutes, Celestia came to the top of the final staircase that lead to the general sleeping chambers area of the Palace. She sat at the top of the stairs for a moment, catching her breath. "This is why I had my office put on the first floor of the school," she groused, before standing back up and heading down the hallway.
She passed her own guest room first, then Sunset's, and just a little ways further down the hall, she came to a much larger door with Twilight's butt tattoo thing carved into it. "This must be it..." she muttered to herself, reaching up and giving the door a good few raps. "Twilight? Are you in there?" she called, but there was no answer. "Twilight?" she called again before giving the door a harder tap. She still got no response, but the door quietly swung itself halfway open from the force of her knocking.
Not realizing she had pushed the door open herself, and assuming Twilight had opened the door with her magic or something, Celestia trotted into the spacious master bedroom and looked around for any sign of purple. "Twilight? Are you in here?" she asked the seemingly empty room, then waited for a response. As silence descended, she could finally hear the faint sound of running water coming from a door off to the side of the room.
"Ah, she must be in here," she mumbled to herself, walking over to the door and pushing it open. Behind the door was a large bathroom, befitting being attached to the equally large bedroom. It was adorned with various crystalline fixtures and furnishings, and in the back, in what looked to be a combination shower/jacuzzi tub, was Princess Twilight Sparkle, standing beneath a jet of water and levitating a loofah sponge over her back.
"Oh, there you are Twilight, I'm back from..." Celestia began.
Upon hearing a voice, Twilight's eyes snapped open and immediately fixed on Celestia with a thousand yard stare. "...WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!?" she howled, immediately exchanging the sponge for a towel, which she fumbled to cover herself with in a panic.
"I-I-I just wanted to let you know I was back!" Celestia stuttered, the panic in Twilight's voice causing her to suddenly feel on edge as well.
"Why would you come in here!? I'm. In. The. Shower! GET OUT!" Twilight shouted, shrinking into the corner of the tub, as if trying to disappear.
"I don't understand, what's wrong?" Celestia pleaded, feeling as if she had just sprung some kind of bizarre trap and they were both about to be pounced by some sort of bathroom monster.
"I'm naked!" Twilight hissed.
Celestia's expression switched immediately from panicked to utterly baffled. "Twilight, you're always naked. Since I got here, everyone has always been naked," she deadpanned.
"THIS IS DIFFERENT!" Twilight growled. "Do you just walk in on people in the shower where you come from?!"
"That's not the same thing." Celestia scoffed.
"IT'S TOTALLY THE SAME THING! GET! OUT!"
Celestia was suddenly hit with the feeling of weightlessness as pinkish-purple light picked her up and deposited her outside the bathroom, then the same light slammed the door in front of her. She frowned at it for a moment before leaning forward to speak through the keyhole. "I'm sorry!" she whimpered, hoping she hadn't offended one of her only friends in this crazy place too badly.
"Ugh...I...I'm not mad, just...look just don't worry about it, I'll come find you when I'm finished in here." Came Twilight's voice back through the door, definitely not sounding "not mad".
"Ok..." Celestia answered meekly. "I'll be in my room, whenever you're ready..." she added, deciding it'd be best to leave the irritated alicorn be.
A moment later she stepped into her own bedroom, still trying to shake off a feeling of embarrassment and guilt that she couldn't properly justify. "I just don't get it..." she whispered to herself, casting her eyes around the room for something to do while she waited for Twilight. Her gaze landed on the open door to the bathroom. "When in Rome I suppose..." she said with a shrug, grabbing a large and fluffy towel from a cabinet and making a beeline for the shower.
It took a moment to figure out using the taps with a set of hooves, but before long Celestia was stepping underneath the blast of perfectly warm water, giving a long sigh as she relaxed almost immediately. She stood almost completely still like that for close to ten minutes, just enjoying the calm.
Her reverie didn't last however, as she was interrupted by the sound of the door to her room opening.
"Celestia? Are you here?" came Twilight's voice, just as Celestia realized she had never closed the door to the bathroom.
Celestia's eyes snapped open and immediately fixed on Twilight with a thousand yard stare, who was standing in the middle of the bedroom, staring back through the bathroom door, her mouth slightly agape and a deep blush on her face.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, now I get it... Celestia thought to herself.
"COULD YOU CLOSE THE DOOR FOR ME PLEASE!?"
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And Twilestia fans world wide scream in rage and frustration
6122498 we also laugh.
Well that was something!
The name's Tia. Tiny Tia.
Interesting bit of world building. It doesn't make much sense that walking about naked it fine but seeing somepony shower is taboo, but it's not like most human customs make that much sense after all.
6122596 I like to think of it as some sort of feeling of vulenerability
6122596
I guess is like the difference between being topless in the beach, or in the middle of the city town.
Sorry, but absolutely nothing about the two bathroom freakouts made even a lick of sense, beginning with Celestia not "getting it" and going from there.
and that is what I call 'insta-karma'
*Reads the chapter.* ...Is every chapter going to end with someone yelling/shouting/screaming? 'Cause it's starting to look like that.
6122764 I think that exposure to human culture has started to corrupt Twilight.
This isn't as common knowledge as it should be, apparently, but it's spelled dammit, not damnit. Either it's one word, dammit, or else there's an empirical pause between the two words, making it damn it. (Virtually NO ONE uses the latter, as it implies you're ACTUALLY calling upon God to Damn something to Hell, instead of just a generic curse.)
6122764 Actually, I'm pretty sure an almost identical situation happened in canon with Spike while the Mane Six were getting dressed. I think it was the the Gala, but I'm not sure. Basically the idea is that while they are naked most of the time, things like showering or dressing/undressing bring attention to the fact and are considered sexual to ponies.
(They didn't say as much in the episode of course, it was more or less exactly this. Like "Spike get out!" "Why? You're usually naked anyway" "this is different!")
6122857 By popular demand, yes, as long as I can keep making it work without it feeling too forced. I made a joke about it in the author notes of an earlier chapter and kept getting comments requesting that the Celestia yelling continue
FINALLY thanks for continuing to write this =)
6123038 Thanks! Not sure why I never got around to making some of those fixes when you mentioned them earlier, but anyways grammar and spelling help is always appreciated!
6123133 I'm happy to be back to it! Not getting a chapter up has been bugging me for ages, but up until earlier today, every time I had a moment to sit down and write, everything came out terribly for whatever reason. Today it finally felt like my normal writing again
To be fair, wet hair may make certain things visible...
6122764 ...
I think it's because something about showering allows you to see something not normally visible? (Like wet, clingy fur; or maybe they stand up?)
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
. . . . Nope! Still don't get it.
6122989 Yeah but that was just Rarity, and the others even told her she was being silly.
6122596
6122669
6122715
To be fair, a shower or bath does involve quite a bit more moving about and rubbing things than just standing around. Easy to see why (most) ponies wouldn't be comfortable having an audience for that.
Now, those privacy screens that keep popping up in the show, on the other hand...
LOL to the ironic ending.
No screaming Celestia this time... But still highly amusing lol!
6123407 When wet hair tends to cling and make things underneath more visible. Celestia probably saw how her privets where exposed when wet.
6122585
lol
6122098 nah, not creative, just a little number rearranging, thank you kindly, though
as for your headcanon...well, that's the beauty of headcanon, everyone thinks something a little differently, simple as that.
Thanks, by the way, for the reply and the good story
That was weird and hilarious at the same time.
Hands up everyone who thought that Tia was going to walk in on Twilight and Sunset having some 'personal quality time' together?
6123869 The last line was Celestia screaming for Twilight to close the door
Okay... *Switches Twilight's coffee with decaf* Calm down, kid. We don't need a Lesson 1.5 or something.
And yes, Principal. The castle is pretty gaudy.
6125341 *smacks self in face* Why did I not see that? I must have been tired
6125270 No hands here... only hooves.
Remember, folks, context is everything. It's one thing to choose not to wear clothes; it's quite another to be in a situation where you're forced not to.
At least, that's how I assume the logic works. Silly pastel horses.
Nudity. How does it even work?
6127177 nice picture you got in your profile
Very nice ! X)
The end of this chapter makes me impatient for the next one ! :D
Amazing again
6127177 actually, while that's one way to look at it, I think it's more something to do with the hygiene aspect of it. Much like you wouldn't clean anything else on your body in a crowded room with people already looking at you, showering is an inherently private matter, regardless of the rules of clothing.
6138907 There we go. Thanks.
I'm actually a little surprised that Principal has the same sun tattoo as Princess. It's pretty clear Principle isn't a morning person and doesn't have any known affinity for the sun.
Well at least now they are even.
OK, now that was funny.
Next chapter please!
I saw that end coming. Also, I think you lied.
You ARE gonna end every chapter with her yelling.
Yeah I still don't get it
Love this chapter though LOL
Poor Twilight, her privacy is invaded... LOL
On the other hand, Tia makes an excellant candidate for being Trollestia right when she doesn't know it.
6148558
Explanation four. 'Luna' and 'Celestia' are the tradition/family names of the family that run Canterlot High. Phantom-style immortality, if you know who that is.
6177109
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