A talk between princesses
Nopony would question that Princess Celestia was anything but a very dutiful ruler. Managing an expansive, continent-wide kingdom took effort, to say nothing of her less secular tasks, such as raising the massive, life-giving mass of incandescent gas currently shining down on her beloved subjects. Thankfully, these days she had her sister to shoulder a part of the burden, along with her own sky-orb – a fact that Celestia was very happy about, as the moon had never been very agreeable with her – along with her ever dedicated former student, Twilight Sparkle. And Cadence, of course, mustn't forget her.
So now and then she enjoyed a little break, a moment of peace away from chores and duties. Usually involving tea and cake. Or coffee and cake. Or some refreshing fruit juice and cake. Or a chilled white wine and cake. She would be the first to admit she had a sweet tooth, but in the grand scheme of things, there were worse things for a grand ruler to indulge in.
She was contemplating the grandeur of her sun (though some days she considered their relationship to be more in terms of her being its pony rather than the other way around) in the company of a pot of black tea and an absolutely delicious blueberry cake, when there was a burst of magic and displaced air before her and her student-turned-princess Twilight Sparkle appeared.
“Celestia, we need to talk,” Twilight said simply. She was frowning.
Celestia stifled a sigh. Rarely did anything good come from that phrase. It usually meant whoever said it had bad news, or criticism, or a scolding for some misdeed. “Of course, Twilight,” she said, taking care to address Twilight as an equal. The young alicorn sometimes forgot herself. “What’s on your mind?”
“I’ve been thinking…” Twilight began, before trailing off hesitantly.
“You usually do,” Celestia joked. “I would say it’s one of your most regular pastimes.”
If the attempt at levity improved Twilight’s mood, she did not show it. “I mean, I’ve been thinking about… about the past. About when I moved to Ponyville… when you sent me there. The festival, Nightmare Moon, everything. And… and it seems so convenient.”
“Convenient?” Celestia asked. She took a sip from her tea cup as Twilight continued.
“You sent me there on the very same day Nightmare Moon returned,” Twilight clarified. “You said I needed to make friends, when those same friends were just right for stopping her. You trained me as your own student of magic, and I turned out to be the Element of Magic! And then there was that thing with the Crystal Empire, and the unfinished spell, and, and… it all seems so planned, like…”
“…Like as though I had planned it all?” Celestia suggested. “Masterminded everything down to every little detail?”
Twilight stared at her mentor with wide eyes. “You mean, you… I…”
“I’m not surprised to see you reach this conclusion, Twilight. I did train you to be analytical, and the analytical mind seeks patterns. Even when those patterns don’t truly exist.” She gestured to the spare seat across the table from her. Her horn glowed golden and a second tea cup appeared. “Sit down and have some tea, dear. This could take a while.”
Celestia remained silent as her friend and fellow alicorn sat and helped herself to some refreshments. She noted with some relief that the familiar routine of teacher and student seemed to calm the girl down. “Okay, Twilight,” she continued eventually. “Tell me. What do you know about the Elements of Harmony?”
Twilight looked understandably surprised by the sudden inquiry, but that didn’t stop her from falling back on old behavior. “Well, there are six of them – Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty and Magic – they need to be used by ponies exemplifying those qualities, they can purge and defeat some of the greatest evils and forms of disharmony… um… they came from the Tree of Harmony…” Twilight bit her lip nervously. “That’s, um, pretty much everything I know for certain. Even the reference guide didn’t have anything else concrete, just lots of hypothesizing and guesses, such as how they were forged in the Fire of Friendship by Starswirl the Bearded, and stuff like that.” She looked severely disappointed at what she perceived to be a very lackluster answer. “I’m sorry. I never got around to really study them before we had to return them to the tree.”
“That’s quite all right,” Celestia said consolingly. “You’ve pretty much summed up everything we’ve ever known about the Elements. I’d go so far as to say that you’re Equestria’s foremost expert on the subject, sparse as it is. I certainly didn’t make an effort to study them much. Which, in retrospect, was a mistake on my part.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked. From her wary demeanor, it was clear that her initial concern still weighed on her mind, but she was nonetheless curious about any topic Celestia could educate her on.
“Back when Luna and I first plucked the Elements from the tree, we didn’t think much on what they were,” Celestia explained. “We needed something that could stop Discord, and our hasty studies suggested that the Elements were the tools for the job. That’s what we thought of them: Tools. Weapons, even. Something you pick up, point in the right direction, and use. We didn’t think they were so much more. We didn’t know they were… aware.”
Surprised, Twilight sprayed tea across the table. “The Elements are sapient?” She blushed in embarrassment and tried to mop up the mess with a napkin.
Celestia politely ignored the accident. “Probably not in the way you think. Not like a pony, or even a simple animal. But there is something there, I think. After all, they… resonate, you could say, with certain qualities. Honesty, Loyalty and so on. Though I don’t know for certain.”
“Yes, yes, that makes sense,” Twilight agreed. “After all… yes, they would have to…” Her eyes grew distant as she began to consider the ramifications of this new idea.
“Not that we considered that at the time,” Celestia continued. “Again, they were just tools to be used by Luna and me. It may have been simple plain luck that we took the ones that resonated with us – I don’t even remember which ones I carried. Or maybe the Elements were aware of what we needed them for, and relaxed the requirements a little. Given their inherent nature, they probably wanted to put a stop to Discord as much as we did.”
“So they helped you along, since your wishes and theirs coincided?” Twilight suggested.
“Quite,” Celestia said. She busied herself with another slice of cake, before continuing almost reluctantly. “The same… could not be said of when I had to deal with Luna.” She shook her head. “Isn’t it fascinating that none of the virtues the Elements represent can exist in a vacuum? You can’t be kind without being kind to somepony. Loyalty is nothing without somepony to be loyal to. And so on.”
“Interesting…” Twilight mused. “So…”
“So when I stood against Luna—” Celestia began.
“Nightmare Moon,” Twilight interrupted. “You fought Nightmare Moon, not Luna.” She sounded very determined to make the distinction.
Celestia smiled softly. “Thank you, Twilight. But it’s important to remember, regardless of how I feel about it, that Nightmare Moon was Luna. Because that was how the Elements saw it, I think. On that night, I took up the Elements of Harmony against my own sister. Besides the fact that three of them were hers by right, what I tried to do to her was an affront to everything the Elements stood for…”
“But you tried to save her!” Twilight protested.
“Perhaps, but I also tried to fight her,” Celestia said gloomily. “It was an act of cruelty and betrayal, dishonesty and disloyalty, and much more. And the Elements disagreed with my decision, and betrayed me in turn.”
Twilight stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“My bond to them was broken,” Celestia said. “They rejected me, permanently. Sealed themselves in stone to keep me from touching them again. And the harmony, which I had hoped to purge Nightmare Moon with, failed. Perhaps it was simple spell failure, a spell going off by half or somesuch. Or perhaps the Elements were spiteful and wanted to punish me by taking away what was closest to my heart. Either way, instead of returning my sister, she was banished to the moon.”
Twilight didn’t know what to say as her mentor and friend hung her head sadly, the memory of the event hurting all over again. “Um… well… at least it’s all better now, right? Luna is back and you’ve forgiven each other, so…”
“Yes, thank you, you’re quite right,” Celestia said, perking up considerably. She wiped away a few errant tears from the corners of her eyes. “But only because you and your friends used the Elements properly.”
“Yeah…” Twilight frowned suddenly. “But you knew we would. I remember, you said ‘I knew you could do it’. You planned it…” She stared accusingly at Celestia. She had been distracted for a moment by the history lesson, but she was here for another reason.
Celestia sighed and shook her head, a slight smile on the corners of her mouth. “Not quite. I certainly had faith in your ability to complete the task once you had taken it upon yourself, but I did not actually assign that task to you. You did that on your own, as is your nature.” She tapped her hoof against the table thoughtfully. “Perhaps I should point out that I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient. A lot of ponies seem to have gotten that idea for some reason…”
“You do raise the sun every morning,” Twilight pointed out, sounding as though she explained something to a child. “That’s actually not very easy at all. I should know, because I had to do it once.”
“Yes, but I do have a cutie mark for it,” Celestia said, patting her flank like a filly showing it off for the first time. “Everything’s so much easier when it falls within the purview of your own special talent. That doesn’t mean I can do everything, nor does it mean I see and know everything. Oh, sure, I’ve had centuries upon centuries to hone my admittedly considerable magic, and I’ve had the same time to gather experience and knowledge in order to develop a certain degree of wisdom. But I’m not perfect. I fail now and then. I didn’t expect Discord to fall victim to Tirek’s temptation; I overlooked the infiltration of the changelings, and disregarded your suspicions in a truly unforgivable way; and I failed to understand how the Elements would react when I used them against my sister…”
“But… but if you knew there was a chance you’d fail, why didn’t you make plans for that?” Twilight said. She was starting to feel a little unsteady now. The idea that everything had just been part of a larger scheme had just made so much sense. “Contingency plans! Expect the unexpected! Are you saying you just let things to chance?”
“Twilight, you can’t plan for everything,” Celestia said, shaking her head softly. “Nopony has a brain big enough for that. Not even you or I. And the more you focus on the details, the less you look at the big picture. And then you blind yourself to the random factors that risk changing everything. No, I’ve found that it’s generally a better idea to make a few rough sketches and make adjustments on the fly, as it were.”
“That sounds like something Rarity would say,” Twilight pointed out.
“Is that so?” Celestia said. She took a deep sip from her tea cup before continuing. “At any rate, as I said I’m not all-knowing. But I knew a few things. For one, the spell sealing Nightmare Moon away would not last forever. According to my calculations, she would be able to break free during a very precise astronomical confluence, after a thousand years of gathering her power.”
“Right, the position of the stars would aid in weakening the structure of the spell enough to break it apart,” Twilight said, recognizing the concept. “As the old story said, The stars will aid in her escape.”
“I thought it sounded rather poetic,” Celestia agreed. “Furthermore, she would return within range of the site of her defeat – the castle in the Everfree Forest. And finally, only the Elements of Harmony could defeat her properly, and only when borne by true bearers.”
“And the Elements were the only option?” Twilight asked. “I mean, you’re still very powerful, and maybe with the right assistance…”
“Against my sister, who is my equal?” Celestia asked. “During the night, when the moon was giving her its full support, whereas my sun was kept well out of my reach? To say nothing of what the Nightmare might have supplied her with. No, not likely unless I got very, very lucky. And even then, my only choice would have been to strike a killing blow…”
“Oh,” Twilight said in a small voice. “You… wouldn’t have wanted to do that, I suppose.”
“Not against my sister, or any other living, feeling creature, unless there was absolutely necessary,” Celestia said. “Honestly, I don’t think I could have brought myself to do that even if it had been necessary. This was my sister. Could you slay Shining Armor? Or one of your friends? If you thought you had to?”
“I… well… no, I don’t think I could,” Twilight admitted. “Not when push comes to shove, I think. I mean, it’s easy to think you’d be able to, when you consider it intellectually, but…”
“Don’t let it get to you,” Celestia consoled. “It takes a certain kind of heart to willingly end a life. I don’t think you could ever have that heart.” She cleared her throat. “At any rate… I knew the place, and I knew the time. And I hoped that if a group of sufficiently compatible ponies could confront Nightmare Moon with the Elements, they might be able to succeed where I failed. I’ll admit, I was putting some hope to the idea that the Elements were amenable to it as well – that they wanted to bring harmony to Luna and restore her, saving Equestria from the neverending night in the process. As long as I kept my sullied hooves well away from everything, they probably wouldn’t object.”
“You really think the Elements would have ruined things just to spite you?” Twilight asked doubtfully.
“Who knows? I wasn’t taking any chances.” Celestia gazed thoughtfully at the sky, where the sun had climbed higher. “Of course, neither was I taking the chance that six compatible ponies would just happen to blunder into a dangerous forest and just save the day on their own accord. So I decided to improve the odds a bit by ensuring that there were ponies on hoof already.”
“So you did prepare my friends and me?” Twilight asked, bringing up her initial accusation.
“No,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “Not as such, no. Oh, I considered a plan along those lines at one point, yes. I toyed with the idea of training a special group of ponies, possibly a military company, to operate under the concepts we knew the Elements as. But I discarded it when I realized how fake it would feel. The Element of Kindness wouldn’t take a bearer who was ordered to be kind, only a pony who was kind from the bottom of their heart. If I were to micromanage things, it would just go wrong. It had to happen naturally. So instead I allowed Ponyville to be founded.”
“To… get element bearers from?” Twilight asked skeptically.
“In a way, yes,” Celestia explained. “It was a bit of a stroke of luck, really. When those ponies came to me and asked for a piece of land… I could see it in their eyes. Fire. Determination. Indomitable spirit. I offered them the land by the Everfree Forest, and I told them of the dangers in there. They promised me that they were more than enough to deal with anything the Everfree could throw at them. When I heard about the Zap Apple harvest, how that sweet Smith filly had challenged the timberwolves for those seeds, I knew I had made the right choice.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about those, they’re really…” Twilight blinked. “Wait, ‘sweet Smith filly’? Granny Smith? She… how old is she? I thought this was centuries ago?”
“That’s really not important, Twilight,” Celestia said pointedly. “Anyway, it was my hypothesis that the Elements expected a certain spirit from their bearers. They had accepted Luna and me when we were the only ponies driven to brave the dangers and confront Discord. They wanted determined, motivated ponies. Freethinkers, radicals. Ponies who didn’t shy away from a challenge. So I encouraged ponies with that kind of attitude to move there. It wasn’t difficult – once the first ones got settled in, word got out and like-minded souls followed.”
“So it’s your fault everypony in that town is crazy,” Twilight muttered.
“Hah, yes, I suppose,” Celestia laughed. “But haven’t you wondered why Pinkie Pie feels so comfortable there, where everypony is her friend? Why Rainbow Dash has taken to it so well? Why Rarity finds such inspiration there?”
“So, what, all of Ponyville is a plantation for potential element bearers? Everypony could have taken up an Element?” Twilight asked.
“Possibly,” Celestia said. She shrugged. “I have no idea for certain. All I could hope for was that at least some of them would have the determination to fight back when Nightmare Moon returned. Like you and your friends did.”
“Yes… my friends and I,” Twilight repeated. She bit her lip nervously. “So you at least admit you trained me for the role?”
“Twilight.” Celestia sighed deeply. “Twilight, Twilight, my dear precious Twilight. You are a very special pony, in so many ways. But… no. I did not train you because I knew you would be the lynchpin in my elaborate scheme. I trained you because you were an exceptionally gifted filly who held promise of going very, very far. Not to mention a filly in dire need to training to control her exceptional magic. You even hatched a dragon’s egg, Twilight!”
“Yes?” Twilight asked. “So? It was the entrance exam, after all. I was supposed to hatch it, wasn’t I?”
“Ha ha ha,” Celestia chuckled. That knowing grin played on her lips again. “Actually, no, you weren’t. That wasn’t the real purpose of the test. Tell me, Twilight, how many baby dragons live in Canterlot? Not counting Spike?”
“None, as far as I know,” Twilight replied, a little confused.
“And how many students attend my school?” Celestia continued.
“Well, during my last year the roll was… oh. Oooh.” Twilight’s eyes lit up with realization. “Why didn’t I ever think of that? If that was the actual test…”
“Indeed,” Celestia said. “If that had been the actual entry exam that every student would have to succeed on, we’d have a lot more dragons, or a lot fewer students. No, the real purpose of the dragon egg was to test the student’s way of coping with failure in the face of an impossible challenge. Anger, resignation, doing their best, blaming others – how would a young unicorn respond when they fail? It says a lot about their character. Twilight Sparkle’s response was to do the impossible. How did that not mark you as truly exceptional?”
“I had no idea… I…” Twilight blushed deep red. “I know I was powerful, but… besides, that was because of the Sonic Rainboom.”
“Yes, you told me about it,” Celestia said. “Another intriguing thing that only reinforced my belief that you are destined for great things. But I didn’t know about it at the time. After all, I had a little filly in serious magical trouble to help – I wasn’t in a position to contemplate mysterious rainbow phenomena. Regardless, you quickly proved that my assessment of you was correct and grew into an outstanding student. Unfortunately, your habit of shutting yourself off from others bothered me. I was actually considering sending you to Ponyville for a while, hoping that the town’s unconventional attitude and friendly nature would help you open up at least a little, but I never got around to it until the Summer Sun Celebration. I’m sorry, but the thought that you could have been an element bearer never crossed my mind.”
“Oh,” Twilight mumbled, feeling disappointed. “I guess I was a little… well…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Celestia reassured her. “You still had growing to do, and you’ve grown splendidly.” She smiled. “Not that I didn’t try to make use of you in another way, mind. You see, even if there had been some ponies trying to fight back, they wouldn’t have been able to do anything at all if they didn’t know where to go. I had planted a few books on the subject around town – in the mayor’s office, and in the library – so the subject wouldn’t be a complete surprise, but I thought it would help if I sent somepony to guide them in a more direct fashion. Then you wrote to me and revealed that you knew of the prophecy, and I realized I had the perfect pony for the job.”
“But you told me not to bother with it!” Twilight protested.
“Yes, I did,” Celestia replied with a knowing, almost smug grin. “I knew you quite well, after all. If I dismissed something you considered to be a serious concern, you’d do everything in your power to prove that you were right. You’d never let it leave your mind, and when Nightmare Moon appeared, you’d know just what to do. You’d be able to tell the others what needed to be done. If this meant you’d gain the appreciation of others and get more comfortable with them, so much better.” She grinned. “And again you exceeded my expectations. Instead of just pointing them in the right direction, you spearheaded the group and took control, and proved yourself worthy of the Element of Magic. I was so…” Tears glittered in the royal alicorn’s eyes. “...So very proud of you.”
“Wow,” Twilight mumbled. She sank back in her seat for a moment in quiet contemplation. “So… it was all a gamble. You didn’t have a plan, just… just a hooffull of tricks?”
“Yes. Admittedly, I hedged my bets as much as possible and did everything I could to improve my odds, if we’re to continue the metaphor,” Celestia said. “But as I said, I couldn’t risk getting involved directly. All I could do was to put all the important pieces in place and hope things would work out. A lot of it hinged on the idea that the Elements would want to play along as well.”
“Huh,” Twilight muttered. She looked up. “Actually, I did wonder why you had just left them in the Everfree Forest. You knew they were priceless artifacts, after all. Why not keep them in Canterlot until they were needed?”
Celestia shrugged. “Disregarding the fact that they wanted nothing to do with me and I wanted nothing to do with them after they banished my sister… it was the safest place to keep them.”
“What, moldering away in a forgotten castle?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, of course,” Celestia replied. “Nopony would think of looking for five ugly lumps of rock lying around some ruined castle in the middle of the most dangerous forests in Equestria. Well, perhaps that meddlesome Daring Do, but I convinced her to leave them be. ‘They belong in a museum,’ hah. Could you imagine that? Putting them on full display, letting everypony know of their importance… I would’ve had to wade through a sea of red tape to get them back to where they’d need to be in time. Even locking them in a vault would have been risky. The last artifact I had that I made a big show of got stolen and vanished for centuries.”
“Really? What artifact was that?” Twilight asked.
“The Alicorn Amulet. Remember that little thing?” Celestia said. “If you see that troublesome unicorn friend of yours again, tell her I’m actually glad she managed to dig it out from wherever it had gotten to. This time I’m keeping it locked up tightly, let’s see if it helps…”
“Uh, yes, I’ll remember to do that if I see her, yes,” Twilight said. She sighed. “I’m not sure how to feel now, honestly. I thought you had a plan for everything, but…”
“It is comforting to believe that those in charge have everything taken care of, yes,” Celestia said. “But as a pony who is very often ‘in charge’, you should know that you can’t expect everything to go all according to plan every time. Sometimes you just have to put your faith in the ponies involved and hope things work out anyway.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Twilight muttered. She much preferred when her carefully laid out plans worked out from the start. “So… was it the same thing with that ‘test’ you put before me with the Crystal Empire and Sombra? Even if I failed, you hoped things would just work out anyway?”
“Ah, yes, the ‘test’,” Celestia said with a chuckle. “Oh my, Luna was so mad with me that day for pulling that, did you notice?”
“Well, yes! I was too!” Twilight replied angrily. “The crystal ponies’ lives were on the line, and you tell me I have to do it all alone? Seriously? Did you honestly think…”
“Oh, Twilight, you’re really too adorable,” Celestia mused.
“...What?” Twilight asked in surprise. She didn’t expect that reply.
“First…” Celestia fell silent as she realized that her tea had grown cold, and heated it up again with her magic. “First, I had every conviction that you would do everything in your power to succeed, no matter what. After all, it’s what you always do. Every time. I set up expectations, and you exceed them. Second, the ‘test’ wasn’t to see if you could do it alone. Not really.”
“It wasn’t?” Twilight asked. “Then… it was another ‘dragon egg’?”
“You could see it as that, I suppose,” Celestia said amicably. “Really, now. Practically every success in your career has had friendship as its basis, Twilight. Every time you’ve learned the importance of relying on others, standing up for others, drawing on the strength of others and helping others, and suddenly I ask you to work alone? That doesn’t strike you as the slightest bit incongruous?”
“Well, now that you put it in those terms…” Twilight admitted, embarrassed. As usual, she didn’t enjoy missing things that seemed, in retrospect, blatantly obvious.
“What I wanted to know was how willing you were to go against my instruction if you thought another action would be necessary,” Celestia continued. “I wanted to see if you were able to deliberately fail a test – and risk disappointing me – if it was necessary to help others. I wanted to see, simply put, if you’d put their needs above mine. And that test, you passed with flying colors.” She chuckled a little. “If it’s any consolation, I had complete faith in you. After all, I think I know you fairly well. I wouldn’t have put you up to it if I ever thought you’d doom the crystal ponies over stubborn pride.”
Twilight again stared at her mentor in bafflement. “But… why? What was the point? If you knew I’d succeed, why even make a test of it to begin with?”
“I was planning on making you a princess, Twilight. Remember?” Celestia pointed out. “It wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment thing I came up with once you completed Starswirl’s spell. It was something I had considered for quite a while. From the moment we met, I had known that you had a special destiny, but up until a certain point, I expected it to be that of a scholar, or a hero, or whatever you chose. But you showed such promise, so many admirable qualities, I soon realized you could possibly be worthy of joining me, Luna and Cadence as a princess. Not that it’d keep you from realizing your full destiny in any way. Nopony would question your qualities as a hero, after all.” She regarded Twilight thoughtfully; the latter had fallen completely silent. “But I needed to be sure. And that test was essential. In a way, it was a lesson.”
“To teach me what?” Twilight asked hesitantly.
“To teach you to think for yourself,” Celestia said. “If you were going to be a princess, you would have to stand on your own hooves. I wasn’t going to make you some kind of secondary princess, standing beneath me and being subservient. That sort of thing has always bothered me with our subjects, anyway. And you’ve always been somewhat obsequious towards me, despite everything I’ve tried. An unfortunate side effect of our teacher-student relationship, I suppose.”
“I didn’t think it was that bad…” Twilight sighed. “But you can’t fault me for looking up to you, can you?”
“Of course not,” Celestia said. “Given our past, it’s to be expected. Hence why you felt so hurt when you thought I had manipulated you all your life.” She frowned. “Of course, I have manipulated you on occasion, as I’ve just said. It’s something you have to do sometimes, whether or not you’re a princess. The important thing is to ensure it’s for the best of everypony.”
“Being a princess isn’t easy, it seems,” Twilight muttered.
“No, it’s not,” Celestia replied with a shrug. “At least you have us to help you along. Me, I had to figure it out as I went along, alone. You do what you think is best, fix things when they go wrong, learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat them – and if, at the end of the day, things are still holding up, you’re doing well.”
“I suppose,” Twilight said. She looked her mentor – no, her fellow princess – straight in the eye. “I’ll still try to plan ahead as much as I can, though.”
Celestia nodded. “If that’s how you want to do it, then go ahead. Perhaps for you, it’ll work out. After all, I have complete faith in you. Just be prepared in case something goes wrong anyway. After all, you do live in Ponyville.”
Twilight sighed and cradled her head in her hooves. “Believe me, I know. There’s no way we can undo all the craziness, is there? I mean, since we don’t really need it anymore?”
“I doubt it,” Celestia said. She grinned impishly. “But it’s more fun that way, isn’t it?”
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Meshes with my headcanon very well. (From Green Grass: When I worked at your school’s entrance exam for the last few years, we always used a ceramic dragon egg for the final test. How the student reacts to their failure to hatch it tells a great deal about how they will react to failing in school.)
A nice, introspective piece on how much we think destiny controls us.
Wonder what brought this on with Twilight, though. She just have an epiphany on how structured her life was? Whatever, it lead to an interesting conversation.
Nice job!
Headcanon blog post fic on a massive scale.
That said, probably the best of its kind. Very JLU!"Epilogue." I wouldn't mind this being a special hidden episode on the final season's box set.
Kill all the headcanons. They were meant to die. I say this as someone fully in the Chessmasterlestia camp.
I think the best part of this fic, is that Celestia is still manipulating all of us the whole time. She never lied, she didn't leave anything out, she merely presented the information in such a way that your interpretation is most likely to line up with what she wants it to be. That's why it's so hard to detect. She doesn't move the pieces on the chessboard, she just convinces them to move where she wants them to and lets them think it's their own idea. She can't touch the pieces, so she manipulates the board instead.
Your fic about how Celestia is not the Chessmaster has actually made me doubt my conviction that she isn't. I'm not sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that may have actually been what you were going for.
A lovely, enjoyable little story
Great story, it flows nicely and builds on the well believed thought that Celestia secretly controls everything while also disproving that. I just have two hang-ups about events that aren't so convincing.
The first would be Ponyville supposedly being a town filled with thrill seeking adventurers, when we've seen that there all pretty much chickens with their heads cut off even at the smallest of terrors. And that's not even including the whole Zecora thing.
Secondly it still seems very wrong that Celestia would use a living creature for an entrance exam for children. Especially after she herself admits that things don't always goes to plan, and that she adjust things on the fly. What would she have done if something terrible where to happen to the egg? Replace it with another dragon egg? This also brings up the question of where is she getting all these disposable dragon eggs from.
That's the line where this headcanon goes a little too far astray for me. Twilight has the Element of Magic as her Cutie Mark, surrounded by five other stars. Unlike the other elements, from what we have seen, Magic has always taken that shape. The six-pointed star of Magic is emblazoned on the Tree of Harmony itself, as Celestia well knows. So the idea that the connection would never cross Celestia's mind seems disingenuous at best.
Now, we know that Twilight isn't the first or only pony to have that mark... Shining Armor has the Magic symbol as part of his Cutie Mark as well, and potentially others out there. (Of course, Celestia kept Shining close and eventually made him Captain of her guard...) So there is certainly room for her to say that she didn't know that Twilight would be the one to become the future bearer of Magic, and Twilight's solitary nature indeed could have dampened any hope she might have had, but I can't believe that she never would have entertained the thought.
In any event, an interesting case for a more hooves-off Celestia!
6239895
Considering how nearly indestructible dragons are it would probably extend to their eggs as well. My guess is even Celestia wasn't able to do much with the egg herself and it'd be an interesting story where Celestia got the egg from in the first place.
Maybe a bit about how Twilight would be shocked at how she possibly could have crushed and/or destroyed the egg and Celestia explaining how she pretty much considered the egg one of the most inert things and safe for using in the tests was would be interesting.
6239954
That would make sense but It still doesn't seem right, after all it is still someones child in there.
I feel there's three ways of looking at this.
A) Celestia thought the egg of being impossible to hatch and just kept it around for students to practice magic on. That's pretty morbid.
B)Celestia thought the egg was capable of hatching, but only under conditions she never imagined a student meeting. Much less morbid but still pretty dastardly toying with the life of a creature like that.
C) Celestia had no idea about the exam proctors using an actual dragon's egg in the test.
This would certainly be the funniest option out of all of them.
6239994
Option B would probably be the best because it fits into the rest of the story. Remember the whole story is about how Celestia never knew for sure but did what she could that to the best of her knowledge would allow things to work out positively. There is no reason why that wouldn't extend to a dragon egg. She admits that she has made mistakes but she has also shown that she does everything in her power to do what she does as informed as possible so my guess would be she had studied the egg, probably abandoned and would never hatch, for a long time. I think she figured if she was unable to hatch it and/or damage it it was unlikely anyone else could so thus why it was a surprise.
Basically her actions are not inherently evil or abhorrent, merely what motives and or though/lack of thought we attribute to the decision to use it as part of tests.
6240036
But it was also an unnecessary risk. That's what I think makes it unethical. There was no need to involve the dragon egg in the examination. If it really was like you said and Celestia never expected the egg to hatch period, then having a bunch of kids play with it for a test is wrong.
6240083 6240036
How about "The dragon egg would only hatch after it had absorbed enough magic"? Dragons have extremely long lifespans, and so long gestation periods would fit and keep the populations down. Considering how long dragons hibernate, a mother dragon may incubate an egg for centuries or more.
In any event, imagine the egg to be practically indestructible and that it absorbs magic to advance the development of the dragon inside, either as a natural function or from a clever bit of spell work applied by Celestia, Starswirl or such. The egg no longer having a mother and Celestia, knowing that dragons won't devote themselves to hatching an egg that isn't their own, entrusts it to her school of gifted unicorns to keep it developing with a regular supply of magic.
So all of the students were trying to hatch the egg... They were simply hundreds of years from being successful until Twilight Sparkle poured an unbelievable amount of magic into it.
Nicely done, despite hitting two of my least favorite tropes: Manipulator Celestia and Unreasonably Ignorant Twilight. I don't believe a word of what Celestia says here. Despite her protestations she still sounds like she's playing Chessmaster. I can't help but feel like every tear here is calculated, every chuckle timed perfectly. I think this is what 6239762 was getting at: she's still at it. Maybe she doesn't even realize it; maybe she can't help it.
I also can't picture Twilight never having considered the possibilities surrounding her accomplishments and how they relate to Celestia: Was the egg actually meant to be hatched? Where were all the other baby dragons? Even if she'd never considered it, Spike would have. Was she really meant to confront Sombra alone? No, and Celestia all but told her as much when she returned victorious. Why is little Ponyville a magnet for monsters and disasters, when the rest of Equestia doesn't seem to be? I can't accept that Twilight never looked into any of those, and more, and certainly not that she'd never have brought the subject(s) up with Celestia previously.
Headcanon wars, I suppose. It's like talking politics or religion: if you're not already on board, one more speech (or story) won't convince anyone. Still, readable and pleasantly written. It does feel like the sort of exchange they'd have, whether or not I liked the contents.
6239994
D) Dragons are magical beings, and their eggs need to be supplied with magic, usually provided by the parents (just like regular eggs need to be kept in the warmth). Because there were no parents, students were used as a magic providing incubator. Spike may be different from other dragons because his egg got pony magic instead of dragon magic during his incubation period.
Not far-fetched at all.
6240392 Yeah... I'm not entirely coherent at 3:00am.
That is what I mean though.
This story reminds me a lot of RealityCheck's "Parting Words", in which Twilight calls out Celestia during the Crystal Empire event, and quits being her student. Eventually Celestia explains what she had been doing in regards to Nightmare Moon, and except for the Elements being aware her reasoning is very similar.
My headcanon for the Crystal Empire is that Celestia genuinely didn't consider the possibility that Twilight might fail until Luna shows up and asks "WTF?!" Not so much due to stupidity, but from confidence in Twilight's abilities and character.
6238716 She doesn't really need to come up with it on her own. Just a passing comment from one of the girls or Spike while reminiscing on past adventures could make her see how the coincidences and "coincidences" lined up. And it really is an easy result to come to.
Loved it!!! Headcanon accepted!!!
I like it while I can't believe Celestia was ignorant of certain things like Twilight not being an element Bearer, or that Twilight would ever become a "Yes" man kind of princess and think for herself even if it meant going against Celestia. I can see this approach totally working out, loved the reasoning behind why she sent Twilight to Ponyville in the first place too. Also I agree with some of the other commentators that Celestia isn't saying everything. I could see Celestia helping certain families and ponies who have unique traits, personalities, or abilities, and guiding them towards Ponyville directly or indirectly over the centuries in the hopes of being element material or producing offspring with the same intention. Aside from that I like the idea of a semi-hands off Celestia that's not always planning or doesn't know everything, it makes her more fallible which many can relate to.
6239994
Did you saw "Game of thrones"? Daenerys got three dragon eggs that stayed non-hatched very large amount of time. And btw they are eventually hatched.
you read Reality Check, don't you?
Twilight makes for the better princess.
6240392 Manipulator Celestia is hardly a meme. She does it. We know she does it. She sometimes says she was doing it afterward.
A few problems:
1."They were safer in an abandoned castle." Really Celestia? Really?
2.Making Twilight a princess. You know, we went to WAR about not having a representative government.... but no, let's grab the unqualified unicorn and give her absolute power over a nation. Yay, Tyranny! Huzzah, nepotism! Oh, and never mind that **you never asked her if she wanted it...**
3. If Celestia was responsible for her ascension to alicornhood, that makes it worse. Come on, 99 percenters, you seethe at rage about rich men merely keeping the money they actually earned. How would you feel if you discovered that some circle of self-anointed elites had stumbled across an elixir of perpetual youth and power-- and were hoarding it to themselves? But Celestia's sitting on the secret to instant alicornhood and only doling it out to her hoof-picked inner circle? Either alicornhood is just as much a mystery to her, or she's effectively a sociopath.
4. She didn't make any revelation about the Crystal empire that wasn't made on the show. It was a horrible decision that nearly doomed thousands of innocents--- her "test" basically consisted on trusting that her slavishly devoted and fanatically obedient student would break her OCPD conditioning and disobey her teacher. By all rights Celestia should have woken up in chains with Sombra cackling at her from her own throne.
5. NOT making an order of Element Bearers because they wouldn't be "sincere." Well then the elements wouldn't have bonded with anyone who WASN'T, would they? Celestia, you dumb cluck.
So, as always... Celestia, WTF?
6243059 It's hardly accurate to call it "instant" alicornhood, considering it requires years of preparation, being some kind of prodigy on Starswirl's level. and a near-death experience. Celestia won't find a lot of test subjects she can send down this path. As for you going to war over representation...the Equestrians didn't. They aren't Americans. They aren't even human. They're a bunch of aliens, and if you stop and think about how fundamentally weird Winter Wrap-up is, they are psychosocially different from humans in very significant ways. It should hardly come a shock that Equestria has both an aristocracy and a millenia-old benevolent dictator. We knew that from that start and apparently it usually works for them even though it wouldn't work for humans any more than the degree of ecological micromanagement would.
That being said, it hardly matters whether Twilight "asked for it". Celestia is a head of state, and is going to make some decisions based on larger priorities than the contentment of one pony. And Twilight's new political power isn't even remotely absolute. In fact it's virtually nominal. As for the Crystal Empire that kind of assumed that it matters whether Twilight succeeded. Luna and Celestia handled Sombra when he was fully in control of his powers and his sensibilities. Neither was true here.
6238585 I've read at least one fanfic where the egg was actually a painted rock, and Twilight still hatched it.
Star Trek has the Kobayashi Maru scenario, which is unwinnable. Kirk won it anyway.
6238716 The implication was that she's been pondering this for a while now. Exactly when isn't specified, but it's clearly required her to get on equal footing as a princess to convince her to make a confrontation. Given Twilight's practically reverential respect for Celestia, I doubt she wants to be right about this.
6238930 No, no. Raise all the headcanons you want. Feed them, make them strong and healthy and sensible. Then release them into the story 'verse and see which ones die ignobly and which ones can stand on their own. Lots of headcanons can be fun. Especially when they compete against each other.
6239762 If that's your interpretation of the story, then that's good too. It's certainly as interesting as the face value.
Once one is convinced a person is a liar, one assumes their assertion that they're not must also be a lie. Right?
6239895 I can't really make a stance on the ethical ramifications of using the egg for the test. It's canon. It happened on the show. If we assume that Celestia is benevolent, then using the egg must be ethical in one way or another. If we assume that Celestia is malevolent, then all bets are off. Either way isn't relevant. Same with where they got it in the first place.
6243059
You make it sound like Dictatorships or Monarchies (or Diarchies as is the case in MLP) are unconditionally "bad things." They aren't. Sorry to burst the "Freedom and Democracy" thing Americans are brainwashed with (despite the fact that the US really has very little that can truly be called either) but that's not the case. A good King (or Queen or Dictator or whatever) can be a very good thing for a nation. If gives the nation focus, precision, quick and effective decision making, and speedy implementation of said decisions. Of course a bad King would be terrible for a nation. Despite what you might feel about her, looking at everything we can see from the show Celestia certainly appears to be a good ruler. Her country is prospering greatly (and certainly seems to be one of, if not the, major power of their world) and her ponies are deliriously happy with their lives and her (for the most part).
As for Alicornhood, there is no reason to think Celestia has any control over it (in Twilight's case it was really more like the Elements judged her worthy, and in Cadance's case I'm not actually aware of any "thing" directly judging her). It's instead a kind of ascension like you see with ancient mythology. A hero completing a godly task and in turn becoming a god themselves. Instead of a task however it's more coming to an understanding regarding aspects of life (Friendship for Twilight, Love for Cadance) so maybe a more philosophical example would be better, like Buddah. In any case Celestia can't just go up to Blueblood and say "Hey do what I say and I'll make to a god" so saying she's hoarding it and giving it out to her inner circle just makes you sound like a fool.
I used to think that. Then I joined this fandom.
After VinylEyeColorGate, I now have far less patience. :D
6243059 You're not saying anything you didn't say in your own fanfic, you know.
Yes. It obviously worked, didn't it? They were right there, untouched and ready.
In my eyes, being a princess in Equestria is far less about authority than it is about responsibility. Canon Twilight never uses her new position to get ahead. She doesn't use it to get things, she doesn't recruit guards to fight for her or ponies to do her work for her, and she doesn't use it to make other ponies admire her. Even when important things could have been sped along quicker by throwing her title around, she doesn't bring it up, because she's used to dealing with things on her own and with her own strength, and her friends.
Conversely, she takes her responsibilities very seriously. One of her first remarks after ascending is to find a book on the subject, because she wants to be the very best princess Equestria can get. Her grievance at the S4 finale is that she doesn't have enough responsibilities. Throughout S5 she keeps remarking on the responsibility of being the Princess of Friendship and the importance of doing it right.
Unqualified? If full dedication to responsibility and absolutely no desire to abuse power aren't proper leadership qualities, then I don't know what you're looking for in a leader.
As for the old "I didn't ask for this" argument (which, again, she's never once complained about in canon) goes, consider this: Your parents gave birth to you without (I'm assuming) asking for your permission. Are you holding them in contempt for bringing you into a world of responsibilities and possibilities?
This is assuming that a) alicornhood assures immortality b) everypony wants to live forever and c) everypony wants the responsibility that comes with alicorn powers.
Consider the fact that a lot of belief systems today (and in the past) espouses death as part of the natural cycle, often with the promise of a heavenly reward after your toil. In the case of Buddhism, the ideal existence is a complete separation from the cycle of life and rebirth. People who believe this isn't going to want to live forever. That's essentially getting trapped. You can't move on.
Personally, I don't believe that becoming an alicorn makes you immortal; my pet headcanon on the subject is that Celestia and Luna are so because they've tied themselves to the sun and the moon respectively. Cadence and Twilight could perhaps become immortal by some magic or other contrivance (and so could Applejack, Rarity, Scootaloo and Cranky) but they aren't by default (and I can't see Cadence marrying the love of her life if she had already made sure she'll outlive him). Since the show canon hasn't made any clarifications either way (and if you want to get technical, they haven't actually said that Celestia and Luna are immortal, only very old), it's open to each fan's interpretation.
I made my arguments about this issue in the story.
So spending a ton of government money on a project that you're convinced will provide absolutely no appreciable results - and wasting a bunch of ponies' time in the process - is wise and sensible to you?
Consider that Celestia feared that the Elements were intentionally rejecting her for her betrayal. She doesn't want to get involved directly.
6243059
I'm not going to bother with the rest, but I'm addressing your #4:
Remember that Luna and Celestia stomped Sombra down flat the last time? In the event of Twilight and the Elemental Harmony Squad failing, they were perfectly capable of going there straight away, stomping him flat again, and saving the day.
It's a gamble, for sure, but they clearly have a back-up plan to solve the situation in case Twilight blows it.
No, wait, I'm going to address #3, too:
Alicornhood is clearly implied to be kind of an enlightenment thing. You can lead a pony to the correct place, but you can't make them ascend. Twilight does so, because she's grokked the Magic of Friendship on a deep, deep level, and has the connection to the Elements and her friends bearing those to power her ascension, something wrought over years of friendship and shared adventures and experiences. Comparing it to elixir of youth that could be given to anyone, yet hoarded to a small group of elites, just shows that you don't understand the show.
Ah fuck it, let's see #2, as well. "Unqualified unicorn", eh? It's not as if Celestia picked Twilight randomly out of all the unicorns of Canterlot and boosted her into princesshood, you know. She's a powerful mage, a well-educated scholar, a capable organizer, a national hero many times over, and an actual leader of ponies. For all of her youth, Twilight is very well suited to being a ruler. And as we've seen in the show, she's being eased into rulership, as she keeps getting more and more important tasks.
And the whole "she never asked if Twilight wanted this!" thing is disingenuous, too. When the Elements activate and zap her with magic beams, pay attention to Twilight's expression there. She looks alarmed, then confused... and then, she relaxes and smiles. She's accepting whatever is happening to her, right there. And on the astral plane, Celestia never does anything. She explains to Twilight what's been going on, but the magic transforming Twilight is her own. The whole ascension is not something Celestia does or causes, it's all coming from within Twilight. Do you think ponies are asked when they get their cutie mark? It's an external manifestation of what they are within, and Twilight's alicornication is exactly the same thing,
Oh wow, this is almost exactly my headcanon! With one exception. I believe it was Starswirl's spell that made her into an alicorn, Celestia just guided the last step (the whole 'flashbacks in the clouds' scene). Yes, Celestia wanted Twilight to become a princess, after all she gave her the spell, but I believe Twilight would have discovered it eventually on her own. Celestia just guides Twilight, Twilight is following her own destiny. I mean, it may have taken Twilight years to figure out that spell, Celestia couldn't have known she'd solve it so quickly. This also explains why Celestia never asked Twilight if she wanted to become a princess, because if it was meant to be, it would be, if not, then Twilight would have never solved it. Anyway, just my thoughts on the matter, everything else in this story though is exactly how I've always thought of it.
6243522 That's actually a good point, yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Kinda wish I'd thought of that, now.
"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." - Lao Tzu
OMG. This is hilarious.
"The ponies in Ponyville aren't crazy, it's the rest of Equestria that is." - Unknown pony
6243687
"Go home and be a family man." - Guile
6243338 Didn't Kirk cheat, though?
6244023 Yup. It was considered legitimate, though, since they didn't have any rules against cheating. At least not before then.
So it's scoring a victory by thinking outside the box... while missing the point of the exercise.
Slimy, manipulative, forked tongued though maybe more than that, JUST short of back stabbing, at the very least quadruple faced and that's all I can manage to choke out!
I don't get this much bile in the back of my throat when I can force myself to listen to half of one of obama's speeches and he's going on about how much he has done, is doing and is going to do for America.
Well, except: WOW!
Twilight is SERIOUSLY indoctrinated by this hag
Some nitpicks:
- sapient
Actualy funny thing they might be sapient (thinking) and not be sentient (feeling pain etc.) at all
- and me
(before I got 'corrected' by well meaning commenter: this and that
tl;dr version is to make quick switch:
"ZZZZZ and I" = we (or they) "ZZZZZ and me" = us (or them)
and test sentence with "we" then with "us".
6244329 Thank you for catching those. Corrected. Twilight would definitely use that term accurately.
6244135 meany
6244329 Actually no. Sentient is the right word. "Sentient" actually means "aware". It has been used in the past in the right context to refer to refer to aliens who have a human-like self-awareness but that has fallen out of fashion. But in this case there's no particular need to think that the crystals actually possess a humanlike (sapient) consciousness. They may not think in words at all. But they are aware of the world around them and react to as they see fit.
6244563
You mean Star Trek ? And in the "wrong context"?
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3617321/1/Sapient-NOT-Sentient
:)
Well sentient mostly means "Experiencing sensation or feeling"
So IMHO the stones aren't sentient in the dictionary definition: they don't feel pain etc. nor experience any sensations .
And them being "sapient" is author's call here. If they have wisdom or (cough) awareness to choose theirs bearers they certainly qualify
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Sapient
6244563
6244625
Given the context, it would probably make sense for Twilight to jump to conclusions with "sapient" while Celestia sticks to the vague "aware". Neither pony has any clear idea how far it goes, so it's all conjecture anyway.
6244625 Actually I mean the science fiction of the era between 1950 and 1975. In that time frame "sentient" was used in science fiction to refer to creatures who were "self-aware", possessing the capacity for introspection and the recognition of ones self as a separate individual from the external environment. The reason "sapient" took over is that we became increasingly skeptical that, say, monkeys and dogs, really did lack a recognition of one's self as a separate individual so that sfnal meaning for sentient was lost leaving only the original meaning of "possessing senses and feelings". It's not just the sense of touch. Any sense at all qualifies for sentience. Since the elements can sense and react to certain things, (notably emotions and "disharmony"), they are definitely sentient, and not just rocks or even lenses.
6244717
Well "sapience" was used properly then too.
I would have to go through some old anthologies/Project Gutenberg archives to make any judgement how they compared to each other (numerically), no time for it so I will pass.
I would not go as far/low to classify sentience as "any sense".
As it would include practically every one living thing even plants (they do "react" if cut, sense sun etc.)
Headcanon...ACCEPTED!
I think this is the best possible explanation of Celestia. So I take up the battle cry,
HEADCANON ACCEPTED!