• Published 7th Feb 2017
  • 3,491 Views, 63 Comments

Friendship 101 - BlazzingInferno



Twilight Sparkle’s cute-ceañera is on Friday. Finding some guests is proving harder than Twilight Velvet expected.

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Party Planning

“Twilight, honey, are you still in there?”

Twilight Velvet nudged her daughter’s nearly-closed bedroom door. The swinging door abruptly knocked against one of the many stacks of books littering the floor like sprouting trees. She stuck her head through the gap and spied the edge of purple tail sticking out of the rumpled bedsheets. “Twilight Sparkle, are you still asleep? It’s almost ten!”

The lump in the sheets began to stir. “Hnn, huh? Mom?”

“The last time I checked, yes. Come on, honey. You’re going to sleep the whole day away.”

Twilight Sparkle jolted up to a sitting position, sending the three books draped over her flying. “Oh no! M-my library books are due today, and I didn’t finish them last night!”

“We’ll go renew them after lunch, but only if you pick up this room. If you’re going to turn this place into a library, the least you could do is organize it like one. Borrow your dad’s slide rule and drafting paper if you have to.”

“Ooh, could I get my own card catalog? Please?”

Twilight Velvet couldn’t hold back a small smile. “Maybe for Hearth’s Warming… let’s just worry about your cute-ceañera first. Are you excited?”

The books covering the bed arranged themselves into a careful stack in the middle of the mattress, a feat that took all of young Twilight’s concentration. When the tower was complete, she glanced at her new cutie mark gave a resolute nod. “Of course I’m excited… but nervous, too. There’s just ten more weeks, and I’ve got a whole lot of studying to do before then!”

“Ten weeks? Your party is this Friday.”

“Party?”

Twilight Velvet shut her eyes. “We’re talking about your cute-ceañera, not school, remember?”

“Oh… right. Maybe the four of us can play Ogres and Oubliettes. It’ll be fun.”

“Yes it will, honey, if I have anything to say about it. Brush your mane and come downstairs, okay? Dad can get you something for breakfast. I’ve got an errand to run.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Twilight Velvet shut the door, but didn’t back away until she heard her daughter’s hooves echoing across the floor, a sign that she hadn’t gotten sucked into another book. Not yet, at least.

“So you’re really going?”

She turned and found Night Light standing behind her. She shut her eyes tight and nodded. “It’s a crazy idea… but I’m doing it anyway.”

He stepped forward and nuzzled her neck. “You said the same thing about trying to get published the first time. Remember that?”

She pushed him away with a giggle. “Remind me later. I’ve got an appointment in central Canterlot.”

---

Twilight Velvet pressed her ear to the door, wondering if anyone had heard her knocking. Five more minutes and she’d let her back hooves have a go at it.

“Can I help you?”

She turned around and found a wizened unicorn stallion, his neck bent under the weight of a lengthy beard and a thick set of spectacles. She put on her best business smile, the one reserved for her agent and publisher. “Yes, I’m here for a parent teacher conference. Could you let me in to the school, please?”

The stallion scratched his chin. “Parent… what? The fall term doesn’t start for ten weeks, Miss…”

“Twilight Velvet, and I’m well aware of the date.” The school handbook materialized next to her, opened to the section on student-teacher conduct. “It says right here that a parent can request an emergency conference with their child’s teacher at any time, and that the teacher needs to honor that request within a week. I filed my request six days and twenty three hours ago, so here I am. There’s nothing in here about waiting for the school year to start.”

The stallion stepped closer and leaned towards the book until his glasses nearly touched it. “Huh… Has that always been there?”

Twilight Velvet just kept smiling. “I’d like to see Princess Celestia, please.”

The stallion raised his eyebrows. “The Princess… Your that Twilight’s parent or legal guardian?”

“I prefer the term mother.”

He nodded. “Right, right. I guess I can take you in… I doubt anypony’s keeping up with the mail this early on.”

His horn lit, and the door’s lock clicked. “Ha, I can’t wait to hear what ol’ Task Master says when he finds out I met our star student’s mother before him. Maybe he’ll finally get that coronary he keeps whining about in the teacher’s lounge.”

Twilight Velvet followed him through the open door and into a barely-lit interior. Cool, dry air rose up from the polished stone floors, scented ever so slightly with chalk dust. In the dim light she could just make out the sweeping marble staircase that dominated the main hall. Seeing it again added some genuine mirth to her smile; poor little Twilight Sparkle had nearly walked right into it on her way to her entrance exam, thanks to the book she’d been trying to read at the time. The whole school had been packed then, a wall-to-wall circus of parents chasing school officials with their prospective student in tow. Today the place was empty. What would it be like on Twilight Sparkle’s first day? Would the older students be kind? What about the ones in her own class, assuming there were any? There wasn’t anything in the handbook about being the Princess’s personal protégé, an oversight that she intended to squeeze for all it was worth.

“How’s young Twilight liking her summer break?” Her guide was leading her to a set of doors to the left of the stairs.

Twilight Velvet blinked at the question. “Oh, she’s spending it just how she wants to: studying, studying, and more studying.”

“That’s a good filly! I was the same way… just couldn’t get enough books.”

“What subject do you teach, sir?”

“History. I’ve been alive for most of it, you see.” He looked back at her, his grin youthful.

She chuckled. “And here I assumed a strapping young thing like you would be over the hoofball team. Twilight loves history.”

“Ah, to be young again… I’ll never forget the day I got my cutie mark… the thrill, the excitement, the cheers from my friends… But here we are, the head-princess’s office, as we like to call it.”

The door before them was unremarkable, save for its being two heads taller than its neighbors. A small plaque just above eye level read Headmistress Celestia.

“And she’ll be in here?”

He nodded. “The summer sun is up, and the nobility are out hunting for royal favor and proverbial back-scratches. Where would you go to avoid them?”

“The principal’s office in a locked up school.”

“Very good, my dear.”