A Lesson in Thinking
Rain thumped steadily against the windows of the palace, forming a constant beat in Twilight's ears as she pored over the text in the book before her. It may have a simple pleasure, to be curled up with a good book on a stormy evening, but still, she could think of no greater pleasure to indulge in.
"It doesn't get any better than this," she told herself, smiling and stretching out on her bed. Her relaxation was interrupted, however, by a pounding on the door.
"Twilight!" Spike said, sticking his head inside. "Sorry to interrupt you, but... well, Princess Celestia is here."
Twilight's eyes widened. Princess Celestia, here? It was a rare occurrence for the Princess herself to come visit Twilight—normally, it was Twilight who visited her. If the Princess was in Ponyville, then the circumstances must have been rather unusual indeed.
"Princess Celestia, here?" she asked, quickly setting down her book and getting to her hooves. "Did she say why?"
Spike shook his head. "She just said she wanted to talk to you about something important. Other than that, I dunno. She's waiting for you down in the map room."
Twilight nodded. "In that case, I'd better not keep her waiting."
Twilight and Spike left the bedroom and hastened down the crystal staircase towards the map room. Sure enough, Princess Celestia was waiting there, standing by Twilight's throne, her expression unreadable.
"Princess!" Twilight said happily as she approached her. "Good to see you!"
"Ah, Twilight," Celestia nodded. "I'm glad I caught up with you."
Something about Celestia's tone gave Twilight pause. It wasn't the friendly, motherly tone she was accustomed to. This tone was too clipped, too businesslike. A couple of hairs stood up on the back of Twilight's neck. That tone usually meant something bad—she'd heard it many a time as a filly when one of her experiments went awry.
"Ah, okay," she said, rubbing her foreleg with her hoof. "Um, can I get you anything? Tea, coffee...?"
Celestia shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't intend on staying very long, anyway." She turned to Spike. "Spike, could you give us some privacy, please?"
Spike swallowed. Evidently, he had picked up on her tone, too. "Ah, sure thing," he said, bowing slightly as he backed out of the room.
Once the two were alone, Celestia turned to Twilight. She didn't speak at first, but instead merely looked at Twilight. Observed her, almost, as if she were trying to find something in her that had changed since they last met.
By now, butterflies were beginning to prickle Twilight's stomach. What in Equestria could Celestia be here about?
"Um... Spike said you wanted to speak to me?" she said when the silence became unbearable.
Celestia nodded. "Indeed I did." She stepped a little closer to Twilight, still wearing that observant look.
"Earlier today," she continued, "I was speaking to Starswirl."
"Oh, really?" Twilight smiled. "Catching up with your old mentor, eh? How is he?"
Celestia did not smile in return. "He's doing well, thank you," she replied. "Still adjusting to modern life, but that's not why I'm here."
Twilight's own smile faded. "Well... why are you here, then?"
As she asked that, she swore she could see Celestia's face harden slightly. Her heart sank. It was definitely bad news, whatever it was.
"Well, to be more specific, he was talking to me about the circumstances under which you released him and the other Pillars from Limbo," she replied. "And he gave me some rather concerning news about how the Pony of Shadows was released."
She arched an eyebrow slightly as she looked at Twilight. "Is it true that you were responsible for the Pony of Shadows being released into Equestria when you freed the Pillars?"
Oooooh, boy. Twilight swallowed. She'd had a feeling that that particular mistake would come back to haunt her. "Well..." she began.
"Well what?" Celestia asked. "Is it true or not?"
"Well... yes, it is," Twilight admitted. "When I released the Pillars, the Pony of Shadows was released along with them. I didn't really see it coming, to be honest, I was so focused on..."
Twilight cut herself off as she saw that Celestia was giving her a new look. And this look was not a look she wanted to see from her. This was the look of a parent who'd caught their child scribbling with magic marker on the living room wall—a look of part anger, part disbelief.
"You released the Pony of Shadows into Equestria without taking any measures to prepare for it?" she asked, not even bothering to hide the disbelief in her voice. "Why in Equestria would you do something like that?"
Twilight's ears flattened at Celestia's harsh tone, and she instinctively took a step back. "Wait, it's not what you think!" she protested. "I didn't do it on purpose! None of us saw it coming! I just wanted to release the Pillars, not the Pony of Shadows, too! That's-"
"Twilight," Celestia said wearily, placing a hoof to her head. "I have never insulted your intelligence before, so please do not insult mine. Starswirl told me that you got the idea to release him and the other Pillars after you translated his journal, correct?"
"Well, yeah," Twilight replied nervously. "Why?"
"Would this be the same journal which talked about a 'last stand' at the base of Foal Mountain?" Celestia continued.
"Yes?" Twilight replied.
"And when you went there, you saw the imprints of the Pillars during said last stand?" Celestia checked.
"That's right," Twilight confirmed. "We saw them telling the Pony of Shadows that they came to contain it before sealing themselves away."
"Right," Celestia said slowly. "So... you read about how the Pillars were making a last stand. You read about the Pony of Shadows, which was clearly being built up as a serious threat. You saw the Pillars seal themselves away in Limbo, which I think we would both agree is a measure not to be taken lightly and not to be done unless it's considered absolutely necessary."
She gave Twilight that same disbelieving look. "And yet you honestly expect me to believe that a pony of your intelligence saw no correlation at all between the Pillars' sacrifice and the Pony of Shadows' imprisonment? It never once occurred to you that one may have been necessary for the other to continue?"
Twilight winced—the tone Celestia was using reminded her of the one Starswirl had used when he was chewing her out. "Well, when you put it like that, I guess it was a bit short-sighted..."
"A bit?" Celestia repeated.
"Okay, a lot short-sighted!" Twilight blurted, now sounding and looking thoroughly flustered. "I wasn't thinking straight, okay? I had a chance to release the Pillars of Equestria, for Faust's sake! Is it any wonder I was rushing a bit and overlooked something?"
"And what was the rush?" Celestia asked simply. "Equestria was in no mortal peril at the time. Certainly not enough that justified releasing a shadow monster into our world."
"But... but... it wasn't even that big a threat!" Twilight said, waving her hooves wildly. "The Pillars said it themselves, there's way more light in Equestria now. There was nowhere for it to hide."
"You didn't know that at the time, though, did you?" Celestia asked pointedly. "You aren't clairvoyant, Twilight. Even I'm not clairvoyant. For all you knew, you could have ended up releasing a threat on par with Discord or Tirek, without even making a cursory attempt to prepare for it!"
"But we didn't!" Twilight snapped, finally losing her patience. "Are you just going to get hung up on that and overlook how we saved your mentor? How we saved Stygian? How-"
"Twilight, I am well aware of what you accomplished, and I do not need to be reminded," Celestia snapped back. "That does not change the fact that at the time, you went ahead and released the Pillars without a second thought, despite having read about the Pony of Shadows beforehoof. A Princess of Equestria has a duty to keep the ponies safe, Twilight, not put them in potential danger by acting without thinking. Frankly, I thought this sort of acting blindly was something you outgrew after the Want It, Need It incident."
By now, Twilight was looking thoroughly upset and agitated. Celestia looked at her with not just anger, but something far worse—disappointment.
"Twilight... what in Equestria were you thinking?"
Twilight had heard Maud ask Pinkie that exact same question once upon a time. And she had a similar answer as she bowed her head, tears pricking at her eyes.
"I... I guess I wasn't," she muttered. "I was just... I was so excited at the idea of getting to meet Starswirl in the flesh, and b-between that and the chance to bring more protectors into Equestria... i-it just... it impaired my judgement." She let out a sob. "You're right, it was stupid and short-sighted. I wasn't thinking, I was charging ahead when I should have slowed down. I was an idiot. Just a big, stupid..."
"Twilight."
Twilight looked up and saw through tear-filled eyes that Celestia's demeanour had changed completely. She gave her a gentle, reassuring smile as she placed a hoof beneath her former student's chin.
"Twilight," she said again, "don't say that. I don't believe you're an idiot, not for one second. What you did was foolish, yes, but it's not irredeemable. This was just 'tough love,' as the saying goes. I want only the best from you, Twilight, and sometimes that means putting you back on the right track." She chuckled. "Just like after that Want It, Need It fiasco."
"R-really?" Twilight wiped her eyes. "So... I'm not in trouble?"
"No," Celestia assured her. "All I ask is that you try and use some better judgement in the future. And if you ever have any doubts, just tell me about them. I'll always be more than happy to offer any advice I might have." She smiled. "This old mare is more than a pretty face, you know."
Twilight smiled back, pulling her old mentor into a hug. "Thank you, Princess. I will, I promise."
"I'm glad to hear it," Celestia replied as she returned the hug. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd better hurry back before Luna decides to monopolise my share of the dessert tray."
Celestia's horn lit up, and with a flash of light, she had vanished. Twilight took a moment to compose herself, silently vowing to check and double-check any plan of hers in the future that could potentially lead to any sort of danger.
"It's probably just as well that I didn't tell her about my idea about harnessing the power of the Mirror Pool to speed up labour efficiency..." she murmured to herself.
END
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Okay, this suffers from some of the exact same problems almost every other Accusation fic does. One, it's an author mouthpiece fic for the author, and the mouthpiece in question is Celestia here. Two, never once do you give Twilight a chance to defend her position, give her a chance to make an argument on why she thought the pillars should have been freed. What, was she supposed to be psychic? It's not like there were any signs that freeing the pillars would free the Pony of Shadows. Nothing to indicate that it was a packaged deal.
So no, just no.
8559342
Don't forget even the map itself encouraged it by leading the M6 to the artifacts. That force the Pillars helped create wanted them to come back.
This fanfiction is featured in the Overly Stupid Fanfiction Group, No Originality Brigade Group and the Absolutely Disgusting Group.
Celestia has no right to complain about Twilight with all the "sealed evil in a can" she's left laying about
8559403
8559364
Exactly.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I knew I wasn't the only one that felt that Twilight deserved to get called out for how she acted in this episode! She's been a princess for over three seasons now, but she still has yet to grasp the fact that it's her duty to safeguard the safety of her country. She let herself get so starstruck that she didn't stop to think about the possible consequences that her actions would bring to Equestria. And despite what is said, Celestia had a point:
Twilight is known to overanalyze like crazy; she makes checklists after checklists and is always the first one to try and figure out all of the angles to whatever situation she's in. So the fact she made such a blatant oversight in an, at the time, potentially hazardous situation? Celestia has the right to being less than pleased at how little thought she put into what would happen after the Pillars were freed.
And just because she couldn't predict something bad would've happened by freeing the Pillars from Limbo, she still should've been prepared on the off-chance something did happen and that's what Celestia is talking about. "The end doesn't justify the means", after all.....
8559449
Firstly, Starswirl is her idol and she is a huge fan girl over him, so some of her intelligence may have flown out the window. It's not like fangirls ever use rational reasoning all the time right?
Secondly, there was no warning that the Pony of Shadows would reappear, he and the Pillars were a package deal as I pointed out. On pointing out, 8559364 reminded me the map even encouraged Twilight and the others to find the artifacts that would unseal the Pillars and the Pony of Shadows.
Finally, given Celestia herself has left evil sealed around unchecked for thousands of years, it's not like she has any ground to her to criticize Twilight on that. If anything, Twilight should be pointing that out here as well.
8559342
Firstly, of course it's a mouthpiece. Isn't that the whole point of an accusation fic in the first place? To call out the character(s) who screw up because none of the other characters have the common sense to do so?
Second, that doesn't excuse the fact that she screwed up in the first place and nearly doomed Equestria in the first place despite being a princess and knowing better by this point.
8559466
Doesn't excuse the fact that it's still a mouthpiece. These types of things should be contained to blog posts, nowhere else, with the author ranting about what he or she didn't like about the episode in question there.
And if you are going to do an accusation fic, at least do it with some common sense, as usually in most cases the character doing the accusing isn't completely in the right as well.
Such as Celestia here, she has no room to talk to Twilight about thousands of years old evils sealed away and letting them loose when she herself is responsible for sealing away most of those evils.
Celestia, aren't you the mare that thought sending Discord after Tirek was a good idea?
8559466
Not when it's horribly out of character and hypocritical of the character being used as the mouthpiece. Especially when the one being accused can't argue back. Reminder that the Map (and by proxy the EoH themselves) wanted the Pillars back. Hell it likely did because it thought the M6 and Starlight were prepared and the fact that the world had changed so much that the PoS didn't really have a surplus of places to actually gain power.
I like to think of it as how the Great Will was shown in SMT4:A. A non-sapient force for good that nudges people in the right direction so that a better overall positive outcome can result, even if said people seem like bad choices on paper. Like say sending Starlight to help Celestia and Luna because Starlight held no bias for them.
8559472
At least the author got his point across and kept it short an sweet with a satisfactory conclusion, and one more thing: It's not about Celestia, it's about TWILIGHT. We all know Celestia has screwed up multiple times in the past but this is about TWILIGHT and HER screwup. I understand where you're coming from, but it's not the main focus.
8559486
There's nothing hypocritical about this, it's just Celestia telling Twilight to think before she acts, nothing more and nothing less, okay?
and if you ask me, everyone is in character here, no one is screaming or yelling absurd things at each other or doing anything drastic. It's just a conversation.
8559498
It is OOC since Twilight is given no chance to really defend herself, just Celestia being used as a puppet to spout what the author didn't like. Celestia's done some quite dumb things herself like saying Twilight shouldnt let on the reason she's in the Crystal Empire in the first place, or thinking putting all their magic on her was a good idea.
The story is also flat out ignoring in show events like the elements themselves encouraging the M6 to bring the Pillars back. Celestia can't exactly argue with that since the map itself also was the catalyst for finally mending the ages old problems between her and Luna.
8559498
8559489
You know, ever heard the phrase quit while you were behind? Should have heeded that advice, or at least come up with a sound and logical argument to defend this story's position.
8559519
Dude, it's just a story, you don't have to be rude
I predicted the comments would become an argument hell hole.
8559542
Okay, I admit I went a little too far. Honestly, I've been a little short with everyone today.
...Is there a reason why you haven't done anything about these comments? If you don't know how to respond, you reply to comments by moving your mouse over to the right-hand corner of the comment you want to reply to then clicking on the >> that appears.
8559568
It's okay, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy this story and tried to force my opinion on you.
Ok so it was alright but this seriously should've just been a Blog post. Overall understandable I guess.
OBJECTION:
Starswirl is the real bad guy in this fiasco, not Twilight. He can easily banish anyone anywhere so he banished himself and his best friends in limbo. And Celestia and Luna hid away the whole time like cowards.
Twilight did the right thing whereas Starswirl attempted to murder so many ponies he claims are his friends, and Celestia and Luna did nothing.
I really can’t help but admire at how your writing style reflects on this story. I’m not one to dig into comments, so I’ll ignore those. Exceptional job, sir. Thumbs up from a random user across the deep wide web. :D
8559368 I'm flattered.
8559570 I'm not interested in a debate. My opinion is my own, it has not changed, it will not change, and I've made my peace with it.
8560031
And considering if he hadn't jumped to conclusions about stygian he wouldn't have had to go to limbo in the first place. Yeah twilight was a little reckless but I don't blame her when she was so close to meeting her hero.
8559498
And let not forget who gave twilight starswirl unfinished spell which mess up her friends cutie marks and possibly everyone else because of the wrong ponies trying to do jobs they weren't supposed to be doing. Considering Rarity managed to give a lot of ponies sunburns and frostbite at the same time I say they would have preferred the spell had not been cast especially the doctors who had to treat them.