Teatime - A Novel Of Twilight & Celestia

by bigbear

Chapter 19 - A Difficult Conversation

The world went white, then faded into view. The horizons were dark, while above was a sky full of stars and below a city of lights. The warmth of the sun still blazed hot inside her, and the tips of her horn, wings, and hooves all tingled.

Gravity asserted itself and Twilight felt like she was falling.

Because she was falling! Twilight gulped and flapped her wings to recover control. She hovered and glanced around to orient herself. She was in the air, high over Canterlot.

“But I can’t teleport this far!” Twilight thought. She felt the sun flare within her in reply. It felt like the sun saying, “You’re welcome”.

The warmth pulsed in her right front hoof. Twilight instinctively looked down in that direction. Canterlot Castle was below her and Celestia’s Solar Tower was directly in view.

Golden magic enveloped the doors to the Solar Balcony and flung them open. Celestia rushed through, her eyes looking up and riveted on Twilight. A moment later, Celestia was enclosed in a golden bubble and then disappeared. The bubble appeared in the air before Twilight, and Celestia emerged. “Twilight, are you alright?” she called.

Twilight spoke from the heart before her head could intervene. She blurted out, “I want more from our relationship!” Mortified, she put her hooves over her muzzle, but the words had already escaped.

Twilight’s ears swiveled and she heard the snap of wing beats, fast and getting louder by the moment. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She looked up to see a quartet of fanged, bat-winged, Night Guard pegasi, diving toward her from above.

Before she could speak, Celestia called out, “There is no emergency!” The quartet split into pairs and diverted to either side of the princesses. The wind from their passing buffeted Twilight. They looped back up and established an aerial perimeter. “There has been great magic worked here. Maintain discretion at a safe distance,” Celestia ordered. The guards all nodded. They retreated and initiated protective patrols around the princesses at a distance. In their dark armor, they disappeared against the night sky.

Celestia's horn lit, and she cast a privacy ward around herself and Twilight. The ward would divide up any speech into tiny fragments and cast it to the far winds. No one would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation. The Night Guard would keep any flyers away. Twilight and Celestia were effectively alone, hovering in the night sky over Canterlot.

Twilight’s heart was still hammering in her chest from the near misses. When she focused back on Celestia, she saw the princess hovering before her. Celestia’s great wings beat majestically; slow strokes were all she needed to maintain her position. Her voluminous rainbow mane and tail billowed behind her, framing her silhouette in a glorious display. From above, the light of the full moon cast her white wings and coat in silver hues. From below, magical illumination from the city sparkled rainbow highlights on her lower surfaces. Hovering in the darkness, Celestia was the most magnificent vision Twilight had ever seen.

And she was naked. Twilight blinked once, then again. Celestia wore no crown, torc, or boots. “You’re naked,” she said.

Celestia started at the non-sequitur. “I had retired for the evening and was reading for pleasure.” She recovered her composure and smiled. “I could summon my regalia if it would make you more comfortable.”

“No, you look fine,” Twilight said. “Wonderful even.”

Rather than allow the conversation to slide off topic, Celestia bore in. “Twilight, you said you want more from our relationship. Can you tell me what’s bothering you?”

Twilight took a deep breath. It would be easy to not say, to divert the conversation, to delay until later. But every good thing in her renewed relationship with Celestia had come from not hesitating. “I don’t know what kind of jokes make you laugh,” Twilight replied sheepishly.

“What made understanding my preferences in humor so important that you appeared in a burst of sun-fire over Canterlot in the middle of the night?”

Having started, Twilight found it easier to continue. “I was having a… difficult night. All my friends were away, and I was alone in the castle. I learned something that made me… sad. And while I was on the balcony looking at Canterlot, I thought of you, and our relationship, and how disappointed I was.”

Celestia’s countenance grew very still. “I thought our relationship had improved since you started coming back to the castle on a regular basis.”

Twilight recognized Celestia’s ‘court face’ for dealing with a petitioner who’d disappointed her. “It is better. Learning to be Princess of the Day from you is amazing. It’s like being your student again.”

“In for a bit, in for a bushel,” Twilight thought. Aloud she said, “But my expectations for what I want in relationships with friends is higher since I moved to Ponyville.”

Celestia’s face softened. “And you don’t know what makes me laugh.”

“And I thought we’d share things like that after what we went through the night of the symphony,” Twilight continued. “But once I started serving as Princess of the Day we stopped talking about who we really are and just focused on... ‘Princess Lessons’. Those are important, but I don’t want them to be the only things between us.”

Celestia sighed and looked down, saddened. “I haven’t been a very good friend to you. I make you come to me, on my schedule. I force you to fly under your own power when I could visit you in the blink of an eye.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Twilight snapped. “And I seem to have teleported to Canterlot from Ponyville, so it might not be relevant anyway.” Twilight shook her head to clear it. “I think you’re stalling.”

“You’ve grown more perceptive,” Celestia looked up and smiled weakly. “I used to be able to divert you from subjects I didn’t want to talk about.”

“Is that what ‘Princess Lessons’ are?” Twilight asked. “A diversion?”

“Partially…” Celestia’s voice trailed off. After a moment, she continued. “Being the teacher again made it easier for us… for me… to continue our relationship.”

“But why?”

“Because I’m scared.” Celestia’s voice was raw. “In all my relationships save with my sister, there is a distance. It may be an illusion but I use that distance as a barrier, to avoid painful subjects.”

Celestia’s weak smile returned. “I’ve been fond of you since our first days together.” Then her countenance grew colder. “But I was a teacher, an alicorn, a ruler, and a controller of celestial bodies. And you, for all your brilliance and later your heroics, were none of those things. So it was easy for me to keep a safe distance between us.

“You’ve been removing those barriers, one by one. You graduated my school with every honor it could bestow. You earned wings to go with your horn. You stepped up to hold court and help rule Equestria. You raised the sun.”

“I couldn’t have done any of those things without you,” Twilight cried. She quieted herself, and then whispered, “Did they displease you?”

“Not a bit,” Celestia said with finality. “I’m immensely proud of you. Never doubt that. I have instructed you, prodded you, even dangled challenges in front of you, for most of your life. It is my great joy to see you achieve more of your infinite potential.”

“If you’ve been pushing me to reach these goals,” Twilight said. “Why is it hard for you when I achieve them?

Celestia’s guilt was clear on her face. “Because the distance between us is collapsing. I’m scared that without barriers, my deficiencies, my pains, will be laid bare. Reasserting my role as a teacher was a way to protect myself.” Celestia recovered for just a moment. “To say I’m of two minds on this subject would be an understatement.”

The admission made Twilight smile weakly. There was still a chance to salvage this situation - to get the two of them on the road to building a better relationship. “In one of her more philosophical moments, Pinkie told me that pain shared is lessened and joy shared is increased. As the embodiment of laughter, she knows about both.”

“Pinkie is surprisingly wise,” Celestia commented.

“She really is.” Twilight smiled. “This is going to work,” she thought. Aloud Twilight said, “So what are we going to do to make this better?”

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.

“Spike taught me a good way to make progress is to select a concrete next step as soon as you decide you want to change something,” Twilight said. “It doesn’t have to be the perfect thing, it just has to move the process forward.”

“I see why he’s your number one assistant.” Celestia smiled. “For our next teatime and dinner, I will come to Ponyville instead of you coming to Canterlot.”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t see how that addresses the problem.”

Celestia’s smile grew wider. “We will break old habits. The change of venue will remind us, will remind me, not to fall into old ways of interacting.” Twilight nodded. Celestia continued, “But I don’t want any anxiety or unusual preparation for my visit. It should be as if any of your other friends were dropping by. The opportunity will be wasted if either of us falls into our old ways.”

Twilight repressed the urge to shudder. This would be a hard pledge to live up to on her own. “OK, send a message to that effect to Spike and say I agreed to it. That takes the decision out of my hooves.”

“I’ll send it as soon as I get back to the castle,” Celestia said. She crossed necks with Twilight and gave her a light airborne nuzzle. “I’m looking forward to the change of pace.”

Comments

[Stahlseele]

The SUN of all . . "people" . . is playing matchmaker . .
God damn it ponies are stupid and stubborn sometimes.

[TheLastBrunnenG]

Thank heaven for shipping goggles. They're barely needed for Teatime, but they do fill in some gaps.

[KTPony]

[Archlyn]

I can just imagine the Sun rolling its metaphorical eyes at them and muttering an equally metaphorical "Oh for f sake you two, get a room already!" ...and Teleporting Twi to Canterlot.

Nice chapter!

[Mlpcookiefan]

Now we know how celestia became a troll. The sun has been giving her lessons.

[Purple-Smart Heart]

8166846

The density of the Sun's core is 150 times that of the density of water.

And it still isn't as dense as a couple useless lesbians

[Venlinelle]

I really like the semisapient sun.