Being seventeen is hard--especially if you happen to be a Princess.
I'm Princess Celestia, but everyone calls me Cece. My life has been crazier than normal lately--my big brother Blueblood is a selfish jerk, my best friend Twilight just moved away to Ponyville, and, oh yeah--Nightmare Moon turned out to be my long-lost somethingth-Great Aunt, Princess Luna. No biggie.
But, no matter how my life is going, I'm still Princess. I've gotta keep it together. Somehow. I can make it at least until the Grand Galloping Gala in a month-and-a-half... right?
A new AU, Season 1 AU, in which Celestia is mortal, and the same age as Twilight. Keep reading for shenanigans!
Rated Teen for brief-but-strong language in later chapters, and some crass dialogue. Otherwise, it's a pretty "soft" Teen.
As always, this story is written and edited. New chapters will post every morning until completion.
Edited by Eruantalon and Orsuros.
Cover art done by LeafBunny!
Very little I can say beyond, truly emotional stuff. (sniff) Yeah, I know what it's like to have to have a parent die . Anyway, great start on the story. I admit, the thought of a mortal Celestia being the same age as Twilight DOES intrigue me. After all, juggling the typical late-teens stuff with royal responsibilities is just the sort of stuff that makes for darn good story-telling potential. Anyway, very good job on the characterization and future chapter set-up. Now, on to the next chapter.
There should be a space there that got all blarghed by something. Either way, good story so far! I really like the interaction and characterizations in your AU. The prose is really fun and the dialogue is great. Although, if this is incomplete, why is it marked otherwise?
This was a very nice flashback! I really like the interaction between these two!
This was really good! Really hope there's more!
8668862
Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
8668877
I'm glad you're enjoying it, too! And, thanks for the error-checking; though the story is, indeed, complete and edited, it's not all the way posted yet. So, "Incomplete" for now.
Excellent work on the details concerning the stuff involved with Celestia's daily routine. And, yeah, I also liked the nod to Apple Buck Season . And yeah the added detail of Twilight being Luna's granddaughter in this universe IS a rather good one. At any rate, superb job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places.
And, now I'm on to the next chapter.
Superb work on the exchanges and characterizations in this chapter. Yeah, this is a superb flashback showing Twilight and Celestia's first meeting in this universe. Yeah, Twily trying to be Cece's math TUTOR and then bonding over something they both like and some other common ground IS a great detail. Plus, we get a good glimpse of just how SPIKE might have gotten into the Power Ponies series in this universe (which, almost poetically, would be quite similar to how RAINBOW gets into the Daring Do series in canon).
Indeed, now I will be going on to the next chapter.
8668884
You are extremely welcome. :-D
Thanks again for getting this great chapter up. Yeah, I LOVED the interactions between Celestia and her school friends on their first day back to school (particularly with Celestia having to remind Minuette that her many-greats Aunt Luna HATES being reminded of her former alter ego). Though, I have a feeling Moondancer is probably taking Twi's moving to Ponyville even harder than Celestia is (at least Celestia gets regular letters from her) . But, at any rate, superb work on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places.
And, yeah, I will most certainly be looking forward to more of this. :-D Though, you should probably at least include a "Slice of Life" tag too when you get around to it (considering the majority of the chapters to this story are probably going to be peeks into Celestia's day-to-day life with a fair mix of humor and serious stuff).
Quiet a world you created here.
Though a bit sad that the only true friend of Celestia's left. :(
Congratulations, my friend. You've clearly enticed me into your new AU story. :)
Being royalty can be tough for anypony, even Celestia. Another chapter well written here.
That flashback really drew me in!
This was so perfectly well done. <3
Congrats on your feature!
8668897
I'm glad you're enjoying this so much! Slight spoilers: Spike isn't going to appear in this fic, but I have plans for him to appear later.
And I keep on forgetting about Moondancer--I might edit her in to a later chapter. (But, then again, getting forgotten is sort of her character arc...
8669168
Thanks for the kind words! I hope you keep enjoying it!
8669236
"Wanting to punch Luna" is probably the highest praise I could've gotten at this point.
Thanks so much!!
8669693
Fair enough. Thanks again for the response.
Glad to see this posted!
8669326 If she's wanting to fight, yes, she will need to find something Luna can't brush off...
8669693 Oops, yes, I totally forgot about Moondancer too. Um... this's an AU, so maybe let's say Moondancer never got to Canterlot in the first place?
8669693
No problem. ^-^
Is Luna mortal as well? I feel I need to ask to clarify as you only stated that Celestia is mortal in the story description.
Twilight is Luna's granddaughter? So how did the Nightmare Moon scenario play out in this AU? Was the Luna who went berserk and became NMM the current moon princess at the time, but already had a daughter? So the daughter went on to become moon princess is name only without the Peytral Ferrum. And then through the march of time, the line ends up with Twilight being Luna's great-great-great-seventeen-times-removed granddaughter. Then NMM came back and Twilight reformed her as normal, just her being a distant ancestor?
Sounds interesting...
Cool.
Enjoyed the story, thumbs up from me!
8670452
8670549
These seem like pretty logical guesses. I mean, yeah, Luna might have been kept alive a lot longer than a normal pony by the same magic that banished her, but that's far from the same thing as being immortal. Plus, if Luna were mortal herself, given her apparent age, that in itself would make for a semi-logical reason for Twilight to eventually ascend (though, hopefully, Twi will have at least already finished high school by the time she has to ascend AND will have help in learning the ins-and-outs from her best friend/cousin [meaning one less thing on her plate in the former case and having somebody to help her carry the load in the latter case])
Normally, I would wonder if Blueblood's animus towards his sister is fuelled by jealousy. That would be an interesting parallel to what happened with the banishment of Nightmare Moon. Here, however, the situation is already different, so I'm not sure if that's where things are/will be going.
8670452
Yes, Luna is mortal as well. Her aging was put on hold while she was banished, but it's restarted since she's returned.
8670549
All will be revealed, but you're mostly correct.
Another nice update! Friendship and lore are presented well, and Celestia's voice is still a point to praise.
However, I'd suggest changing the rating to 'teen' for some of the dialogue. (Oh looks like it was changed already)
cant wait for more
8670946 ...and Twilight Sparkle is her descendent... Oh, I can see the train wreck coming.
Again, this was some really good work on the flashback chapter. I LOVE these interactions between this versions of Twilight and Celestia. And, yeah, the "prophesy" part at the end is easy to guess, but that is NOT a bad thing in this case .
Anyway, on to the next chapter.
Wonderful work on this chapter. I absolutely LOVED seeing Celestia helping and interacting with the Mane Six on AJ's farm and the chat with Twilight in particular . I admit, I kind of like how this version of Twi seems to be incorporating the best elements of her canon human universe counterpart as well as the observations concerning how Ponyville seems to be changing Twi for the better, with Celestia's mix of pride for her friend and (very slight) jealousy of her NEW friends . Anyway, the exchanges and characterizations are, of course, quite well done.
Indeed, I will most certainly be looking forward to more of the story.
This is certainly interesting so far. Upvoted and tracking.
Now this, this is goddamn fascinating.
Consider yourself tracked, comrade.
Finally! Something original made it to the featured box!
I kept reading this in between doing my job last night. Good job on getting me hooked, I'm looking forward to seeing the battle with nightmare moon.
8672960
hehe... I published the first Nightmare Moon chapter like ten seconds before you posted your comment :)
huh. this didn't show up in my feed for some reason. Only noticed because the word count changed on the front page,
Gotta say, even though I much prefer Luna as the naive/uninformed/outdated/whichever-you-like younger sister, this AU older Luna is really starting to grow on me. I can totally see it, too—gone for a millennium and coming back as an old bitch... it works.
You should snag an editor/proofreader—I caught some errors ([...grabbed my stuffed frog from where it say by the head of the bed.], among others)—but this story is really enjoyable.
8673107
Thanks for the typo patrol! I do have a couple editors, but things slip through every so often :)
And, as always, I'm glad you're enjoying it!
The update speed is fantastic~
Really looking forward to more!
Not sure which is worse. Luna being something Hasbro retconned out of existance (au tag doesn't justify it to me). Or Celestia being this world's version of the Heart World's Blueblood.
Just not as stuck up.
And I've read the story all the way through too.
Very little I can say except very good job on the flashback concerning this universe's version of the Nightmare Moon encounter. At any rate, great work on the exchanges and characterizations and, yeah, Nightmare Moon had some surprisingly good observations and I can definitely understand Twi's being scared here (even though we already know she and the others win in the end) .
Anyway, on to the next chapter.
Wow. Yeah, that was an excellent chapter. And, of course, very good job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Indeed, I kind of figured Celestia would get in trouble for dodging that "royal obligation" to help out Twilight and the others (a classic case of no good deed going unpunished), but I have a bad feeling about how Luna's going to crack down next. And, certainly, I ALSO figured it would get worse before it gets better, but at least we know there will be some good to go along with the bad. And, yeah, I will also admit that this is a situation where BOTH sides have a point. Celestia has a point concerning how times have changed AND how important helping your friends is, but Luna ALSO has a point concerning responsibility .
I will definitely be looking forward to seeing what will be coming next.
nice
Oh, this story is full of feels and I love it!
Again an excellent job on this flashback chapter depicting how Celestia got her Cutie Mark in this universe (oddly similar to how Twilight got HERS in canon in a way because seeing that Summer Sun Celebration is what motivated her to study so hard to learn magic) . Again, the exchanges and characterizations are great and now I'm on to the next chapter.
Such a wonderfully heart-warming chapter. I absolutely LOVED the chat between Celestia and Velvet. Definitely some great food for thought and an excellent job on the exchanges and characterizations. As for Shiny, Celly, well, I can't fault you for having good tastes, but we don't know yet if he has met a certain Pegasus mare (probably not ascended in this universe, but you never know) with enough love in her heart to reform an evil sorceress and super-charge changelings .
Yeah, I will most definitely be looking forward to more chapters of this great story.
D***. Girl needs a psychologist. Depression is the worst.