Another Twilight

by AleaJactaEst

Explorations and Explanations (part 3)

I fidgeted back and forth a bit, trying to find a comfortable position atop Celestia’s back. A pitiful whiny escaped me once I realized that I have already chewed through the entirety of the perfection that was the hayburger Talon made for me.

Squashing my grief over the fact and finally settling in, I promptly found myself with nothing to do. So, I went with the most logical solution. What is it? Start bugging Celestia with questions, of course!

“So,” I dragged the ‘o’ out, “what is this all about?” I accompanied the question by poking Celestia with my hoof in the back of her neck.

“That is a secre~et,” Celestia practically sang her answer, which only made it that much more suspicious. Alas, I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Right… And where are we going?” but at that moment, the answer presented itself to me, as Celestia turned the corner and stopped.

We stood in front of a large, golden oak doors. Well, we would have, have they not been opened wide. Dozens of ponies were on the other side, in what could only be a throne room, looking at us. More specifically, at me. And from the looks of it, they all were nobles, or at least in an important position.

Celestia started moving again, towards dais and the metaphorical throne - a biggest and fluffiest cushion I have ever seen, that is - resting atop it, ponies parting before her, as murmurs and whispers rippled outwards throughout the crowd.

“...little, what, five years? Six, perhaps...”

“...lor scheme is just magnificent!”

“...ee why Celestia decided to take this filly up as her protégé…”

“...eady on friendly terms with Blueblood…”

I leaned in, and hissed into Celestia’s ear so that nobody besides her could hear, “This is the retribution for the morning, is it not?”

I could feel Celestia’s smile grow just a tiniest bit larger as she whispered back, “Oh, it is no such thing, Twilight. To think that you would accuse me of something like that, woe is me!”

If glares could kill, Celestia would have dropped dead then and there.

As we passed by noble after noble, one of them caught my eye. It was Blueblood’s father! I quickly dropped my gaze lower, to search for Bluey. Aha, here you are! Oh, this is just too good to pass up. I snickered inwardly, my mood raising slightly with the thought.

I pondered few possibilities - thankfully, Celestia was walking slowly - and decided to go with the easiest one. I pulled one of my forehooves from under myself, and waved it at Bluey, “ Heya, Bluey!~” I called out in the sweetest voice I could manage.

His face was just priceless, as were the reactions of ponies present - ranging from slightly puzzled, to a bit amused, to outright grinning - and I totally could feel Celestia holding back her laughter, sitting on her as I was.

As we climbed the dais, Celestia took me in her magic, and - handling me like a foal, which prompted a blush from me - sat me down on the much smaller cushion, evidently laid out for me, before settling into her own.

Celestia cleared her throat, and the room momentarily fell silent. She swept her gaze across the crowd inquisitively, and nodded, apparently satisfied, “Now, that everyone is in attendance, I believe I have an important announcement to make. As of today, I, Princess Celestia of Equestria, am taking on one Twilight Sparkle as my protégé,” I waved meekly.

A few seconds passed by without any serious reaction, and I could see Celestia’s smile curl upwards a little, “So it seems, the palace gossip mill has beat me yet again,” this elicited a number of chuckles from the gathered crowd.

As the laughter died down, Celestia tapped her hoof on the floor once, and started talking again, her voice taking on an authoritative tone, “Okay then, let us just skip the boring parts and get to what is important. The evening court session is terminated for an indeterminate period of time. As such, I would likely not be able to attend any events that are set in between eight to eleven pm as well, and would like to not receive invitations to them. All the meetings that require my personal attention will be rescheduled accordingly as well. This court session will last until six o’clock. Any immediate objections?” Nobody voiced any concerns, “Very well. Than, I declare this session of High Court open.”

White unicorn stepped to the front first. He was wearing a dark suit without any pants, “Your Highness,” he tipped his head in greeting.

“Ah, hello Fancy Pants,” I tried not to snicker, to not so much as smile at the irony, but I think small twitch of the corners of my muzzle gave me away, “What may your concern be?”

“I wish to inquire about the stipend of your protégé. You see, Princess, I did a little historical research about the position of your personal protégé some time ago, out of curiosity. Quick check with the Royal Treasury archives showed that the documented stipend of the position was always exactly zero bits, yet the last protégé you had, Astral Mark, was known for having, for lack of evidence otherwise, limitless pockets, so to say.”

Celestia hummed for a second, probably contemplating her answer. After a moment, she spoke up, “I can assure you on my word, Fancy Pants, that not one bit was or ever will be taken from the Royal Treasury to sustain the one in position of my protégé, so me taking on one would in no way affect neither economy, nor budget, if that is what your concern is,” she looked at him slyly, “and if you are interested in where exactly the money comes from… well, let us just say that I lived a very long life, and leave it at that. Anything else you wish to be addressed?”

“Nothing else, Princess,” he tipped his head again, and retreated back into the crowd.

Next came a unicorn mare, her coat light amber and mane and tail a mix of crimson with yellow, “Celestia,” she said curtly.

“Archmage Shimmer,” Celestia answered in kind, “if you are going to inquire about Hollow Shades incident - do not. I will personally discuss it with you tomorrow.”

Mare snorted, “If that is your wish. But we have another question, actually. She is already over five years age. What should we expect?”

“A-level magical hazards,” Celestia answered without so much as batting an eye.

I let loose a little whiny, “Only A-level? I would think you to have a better opinion of me, Celestia,” I whispered so that only she could hear me.

I was surprised when not only Celestia cracked a smile at that, but Shimmer as well. After that, the mare turned away and walked back into the crowd. I traced her with my gaze, to see her stopping near two other unicorn mares. Other archmages, I assume...

Suddenly, she whipped her head around, and looked me directly in the eyes. My instinctive reaction was to shrink back under her direct gaze, but I caught myself and met it full on.

I was forced to break our little staring contest first, as I had to answer a question from some noble.

~~~

The time went by fairly quickly. Only the first fifteen minutes or so were dedicated to me, as the ponies in attendance ran out of questions. After that, it was just Celestia taking care of what must be her usual routine during the High Court. Despite the lack of anything to do, I wasn’t bored out of my mind; some of the things brought to Celestia’s attention were fairly interesting to me as well, and I thought that learning who was who and how Celestia handled them might prove useful in future.

As the meeting finished, I found myself once again on Celestia’s back, as we trotted through the castle halls.

“So, how was your time with,” snicker, “Bluey, Twilight? Did you enjoy it?” Celestia asked me rather cheerfully. What could’ve brought her in such a good mood… I wondered, feeling the spring in her step.

“It was great, actually! Bluey,” another snicker from Celestia, “and I even seem to be on the same shelf right now, metaphorically saying, despite him being a bit weaker than me. It is so exciting, really,” I squealed a bit, “to have someone of my age who can keep up with me! I never had anyone to practice magic with me back at… home. Foals my age were barely able to, say, levitate something bigger than they were, and I was not really interested in anything besides magic, so... I never really had any friends” I finished dejectedly.

Celestia chuckled before responding, “But now you do have one, do you not, Twilight?” I nodded, than remembered that she can’t see me. It seemingly didn’t faze her as she added, “Knew you would take a liking to each other,” another chuckle. Few minutes after that passed in a comfortable silence.

“Now thought, Twilight,” Celestia said, all humour gone from her voice, kindness remaining thought, “Could you, please, tell me where you learned that technique you used to… minimize damage from your surge?”

I tensed up momentarily, “Shh, shh, Twilight. I do not ask you to talk about incident itself, or anything about your past you do not want to tell. Only how or where you learned to do it,” Celestia said in a soothing tone.

I could understand where Celestia was coming from; while it was by no means banned or repressed, it wasn’t something you would be taught in a small town’s school, or could find in a public library of said town. After all, if you didn’t surge, you didn’t need it. To even have a risk of surging, you will have to be exercising your magic day in and day out, pushing it to its limits, and if you happened to do that, you have also - very likely - already enrolled into a nearest magical school, where you will be taught how to do it in a special class. As such, for a filly that definitely never attended said school, to be able to perform the technique would be unlikely, so to say.

Even despite it all, I still felt reluctant about telling it to Celestia, “I… found a book, a week before The Incident. I went to my usual training place in the forest to work out my magic, and it was just laying there, as though waiting for me,” I shuffled on Celestia’s back, recounting the story from my memory, “I was wary at first. Even my love of books could not quite override my suspicion,” I giggled lightly, “So I ignored it, and just proceeded with my self-imposed training. In the end thought, when I was about done, I decided to maybe take a little peek inside it, and then be on my way. Needless to say, when it turned out to be a book about magic, titled 104 Things a Magus Should Know no less, I just could not stop myself. The technique was in that book, and first chapter was dedicated entirely to it, so I decided it must be important. It did not look overly hard either. I mean, it was always easy for me to concentrate on something, so the technique was not a big stretch. Took me two days to perfect it. As you can guess, it did not actually produce any results until I used it during my surge.”

“I see,” Celestia mused, “You seem to have not known about emotions dampening effect thought. Mind telling me what exactly was written in the book?”

I nodded eagerly. This was something far more enjoyable than where the topic would’ve led with the right questions, plus it was about magic, so I didn’t mind, “Of course, Celestia. It said that the technique allowed for a finer control of one's spells under stress, amplified accuracy and blocked any wild spells from escaping the caster via converting them back into pure energy which then is radiated outwards, through caster’s aura. I wasn’t sure what ‘wild spells’ part meant at the time...”

“Very well. As you can imagine, some information was missing,” Celestia said, “The first thing you can guess yourself. The second one, is that it was the reason your surge was affected by your emotions, and as such became a dark oriented one,” I gasped, ready to launch my question, but Celestia beat me to it, “No, Twilight, it would not have been better if you decided not to use the meditation. If you did not, you would be dead as well, and the entirety of Hollow Shades, large chunk of the forest included, would be gone from the face of Equus altogether.”

Celestia let the implications hang in the air. After a minute or two, she started talking again, “On the other note, I am very proud of you. It usually takes at least two weeks to master it for someone your real age, and you did it in two days. That is an impressive result, even for a talented unicorn.”

My cheeks lit up bright red at the praise, “Erm... thank you. What had you in such a raised mood when we left the throne room, thought?” I changed the topic rather blantly.

“Oh, it is nothing,” Celestia said in a sing-song voice after a giggle, “Just a little imagery.”

I didn’t expect her to elaborate on it, but was still disappointed when she didn’t.

“By the way, we are almost there, Twilight,” she said cheerfully.

I looked at the back of her head suspiciously, “There - where?”

“Where you will live from now on,” Celestia almost sang it as she rounded another corner, opened the door with her magic, and stepped inside, with me still on her back.

Once I got a good look at where we were, my jaw promptly hit the floor. From the curve of the walls, and a spiral staircase leading up, we were in a tower. A damn tower! The fact that as Celestia’s protégé I will be living in a personal tower somehow eluded me for the whole day.

I sputtered incoherently trying for the words. Celestia only laughed out loud in response, setting me down on the cushion beforehoof.

Once I more or less got a hold of myself, I shrieked, “A whole tower?”

Celestia chuckled a bit more, but her mirth was short lived as I pouted at her, “Yes Twilight. A whole tower, all to yourself. The first floor is open to servants, but all the others are privately yours, so plan accordingly; nobody except me can go there without your express permission,” Celestia let loose a chuckle or two more at my perplexment, “I think I will leave you to explore it for now. Would you care to join me for dinner later, or should I just send it there?” she asked, obviously teasing me.

“I would love to, Celestia,” I answered without hesitation.

“Great!” Celestia clapped her hooves, “See you in an hour than, in the personal royal kitchens, Twilight. Have fun.”

Author's Note:

This is the end of the chapter, just so you know.

Since it was overdue for explanation of the meditation technique; here it is, right in this chapter. Originally, I was inspired by this art. After the fact, I remembered about Zecora actually meditating once or twice in the show, the Magic Duel episode, and, finally, Cadence's Royal Breathing Exercises. From here, the idea of pseudo-magical school of meditating techniques sprouted.

Number 104 instead of 101 is actually a joke from some other fic, but try as I might, I couldn't remember where it was from.

Archmage Sunset Shimmer was a spur of a moment thing, to be honest. I needed some plausible candidate for the position, so why not? She won't play any major role in the story, but she will make more cameos in future, now that she's here.

I still feel like this part is too much, too fast, but eh, it just didn't read right any other way I could come up with.

So, now that there's some basis to work with and I feel like I will stick with this for some time... I'm looking for a proofreader. Someone, who will read the chapter before it is posted, ask me why I added one thing or another, and then beat me over the head with a spiked club because my idea is dumb and unnecessary. Any volunteers?

On that note, bit for your thoughts, people? Something I should work on improving and pay a bit more attention to? Dialog, or description, or I don't know. Anything, really.

Comments

[AleaJactaEst]

7735774 Thanks you I'll make sure to pm you once I have something to show

I believe I can use more than one, so if there's anyone else interested - feel free to say so

[AleaJactaEst]

7735823

“Archmage Shimmer,”

Odd, no record of Sunset Shimmer

the archmage is likely Starlight Glimmer

Excuse me? Now, to clarify the situation. The description should be sign enough that she never was Celestia's student in this AU. Why? As far as I remember, all we know about her, is that she was Celestia's student. We don't know how important or hard to get this position is in canon. We don't know how strong Sunset was as a unicorn; stronger than Twilight? Weaker? Equal? Absolutely no clue. Based on this, I decided to just remove her from the protege position altogether, and make her an archmage instead. Oh, and I have no plans of adding Starlight whatsoever so far.

Twilight not asking about her parents (acting like she doesn't have any, despite remembering where she is from),

It is pretty clear that she voided whole town, her parents included. Of course she wouldn't want to talk or so much as think about it, especially so given that she can't even grief over losing them.

no Spike as of yet

And there will be no Spike at all. If that rubs you the wrong way - excuse me, can't do anything about it.

and an implied statement suggesting that the lavender filly is not who she seems in terms f age.

"On the other note, I am very proud of you. It usually takes at least two weeks to master it for someone your real age, and you did it in two days."

W-whaaaaaat? I thought I edited them all out! Seriously thought, you're half right. She's a five and a half years old filly. But, between her insane affinity to magic, her hunger for knowledge and her strive for perfection, her mind develops at about twice the speed of a normal pony. In other words: MAGIC. And Celestia have already deduced this all. Because Celestia is second best pony

To top it all off, Celestia is covering up her student's involvement with the deaths that occurred in Hollow Shades (probably the whole town)

Now, this is a very serious point, and now I feel bad for leaving it to be covered in the next chapter. Eh. The thing is, while technically Celestia indeed is covering Twilight, in truth, she doesn't. By all accounts, and according to the word of Equestria's law Twilight will bear no serious consequences for what happened, unless the court has the goal of making her guilty. Reasons? First, magical surge, while can only happen to overly strong unicorns who regularly exercise their magic to its maximum, is not something you can predict, and it isn't strictly tied to casting magic. It can happen if our hypothetical unicorn feels some very strong emotions, even without said unicorn casting any spells at that moment. Or it can't. Look, just imagine, say, that the surge is a jackpot in a lottery that you have the slightest of chances of getting only if you fit some prerequisite criteria. Sounds about right. Thus, she can't be responsible for that. Second, if she didn't use the meditation technique, she would not have just killed the townsponies. She would have erased Hollow Shades from the face of Equus, killing herself in the process and taking a large chunk of the forest as well. In the most strict and cynic terms, she did, indeed, tried to control the damage brought upon by her surge. As such, the worst that will happen to her, is that she will be assigned as a student to someone strong enough to watch over her and control her magic in case something bad happens again. As such, Celestia doesn't cover her in the way of protecting her from the law - she merely bypasses all the formal procedures, directly taking care of the matter, all according to the word of law.

You made me realize thought; I probably should rewrite the first chapter a bit, I wrote some rather off-putting things in here

while another mysterious figure planned that particular event from behind the scenes.

Who would you place your bits on?

Thanks you for the comment. The picture looks a bit more clear to me now

[AleaJactaEst]

7735967

Anyways, while your explanation of the surge, and how devastating it is, does explain a few things, it wasn't that clear in the story. It was briefly mentioned, but not talked about in great detail.

Yea, I was planning to go into it head first in the next chapter, in which we will be seeing Celestia's meeting with the archmages. Now that I think of it, I do need two more characters for the positions of second and third archmage Maybe I should just make it dialogue between Sunset and Celestia...

Between the events in the prologue and the mysterious book left conveniently there, it seemed like someone wanted Twilight to perform the meditation and release a dark magic burst that killed several people. Again, none of this was her fault, but the impression I had was that she was tricked into doing it. Like if someone wanted to introduce dark magic to her on purpose.

Nooo, it isn't that. Well, okay, it partly is. The point is, she didn't slip into the surge because of a book, she managed to survive the surge because of the book. I think I alluded to it several times, that Twilight used meditation technique after the surge started. I even blatantly stated that Twilight performed it few times before the incident, and there was no result. Although yes, the one who left the book has indeed had ulterior motives, introducing Twilight to dark magic being one of them, their intention was ultimately to make Twilight survive in case surge does happen. I can assure you, killing the entire populace of Hollow Shades with Twilight's hooves was in no way their intention. Of course, I could spin the tale so that the surge was specifically provoked in Twilight, and not just being her rotten luck... but that's not the image I want to create for miss I-like-leaving-magic-books-in-the-forest-where-random-fillies-can-stumble-upon-them.

Again, thanks you for the comment. This provided quite a bit of insight on what I am doing

[AleaJactaEst]

*Rereads the whole thing*
I'm barely 9k words into the story, and I already want to kill myself

[Commander Darklight]

7738443 why i love this its funny and has its own charm and while the story has been done a million times yours is diffrent

[Jest]

“Now thought, Twilight,” Celestia said left the throne room, thought?” I

DId you mean though instead of thought?