Celestia Gambit

by mm1145

The Twilight Paradox

There was a knock on her door. Princess Celestia, immortal ruler of Equestria and controller of the sun and moon, put down the cup of tea she was drinking and called out, "Enter."

The door to her apartments opened and one of her royal guards entered. "Your highness the mayor of Ponyville is here to see you."

"Yes I have been expecting her. Please show her in." The guard bowed his head and left the room, returning a few minutes later followed by a middle aged earth pony. Celestia looked at the mayor of Ponyville; she had always had a coarse gray mane, but in her middle age it gave her a distinguished air. The mayor bowed.

"Your highness," she said in a formal tone.

Princess Celesta gestured her in. "How goes the preparations for the Summer Sun celebration?" she asked.

"They go well, your highness, the Summer Sun festival should be as spectacular an affair as always." There was a faint click of the door closing. The mayor relaxed visibly. "Your Highness…" she said.

"Mayor," the princess said a slightly mocking tone in her voice.

The mayor looked a bit abashed. "Celestia," she said.

"That is better." The princess smiled. "I did not think that it was that long since you were my pupil that you had forgotten my name - or has the formality of your office driven it from your mind?"

"It has been a while Celestia," she responded. "And Ponyville is not the easiest of towns to administer."

"But I am sure you are managing your very best. You did always have a talent for it." The princess said, glancing at the cutie mark on the older pony's flank; a parchment scroll wrapped up in a blue ribbon. The mayor told everypony that it showed her love of holding political office, but Celestia knew the real meaning of that mark - and it was one of the reasons why the pony was part of her special group. "And is the plan ready?" she asked.

The mayor looked more worried again. "I believe I have everything in place," she said slowly. "But princess I must ask you, no beg you to reconsider." This last came out in a rush. "This is a very dangerous plan you are proposing and if anything was to happen to you..." she trailed off. They both knew the dangers of the plan.

"I am resolute on this," Celestia answered.

"But Celestia…" the mayor begged.

"No!" Celestia said sharply. "It has been too long." She looked out of the window to where sun was just starting to set, a silence falling over the room. "I failed her before you know." Celestia said quietly breaking the silence. "A thousand years ago. I failed her and I failed Equestria. I will not fail my sister again."

"Very well your Highness." The princess gave her a slightly amused look. "Celestia," she corrected herself. "As I said before I believe that we have everything in place."

The gray pony reached her head round and retrieved a leather folder from her saddle bags, then placed it on the table in front of the princess. "If I may take some time to review the plan for your highness." Celestia did not correct her this time. "As your majesty knows, the study of the magic known as the elements of harmony has consumed a great deal of the time of some of the most learned unicorns in the realm." Celestia did, it had been her who had asked them to study it and they all had been, just like the mayor, pupils of hers and part of her personal network. "The conclusions reached by Book Dancer were that the Elements of Harmony are not able to be properly utilised by a single pony no matter how powerful they are."

The princess remembered Book Dancer, an energetic orange coated unicorn pony with a passion for magic and study. She was very like her current favourite pupil except for the latter's disinterest in anything else but her books. Book Dancer had in fact been quite the social pony - if you accepted her always dragging the topic of conversation round to her studies of magic. She missed Book Dancer just as she missed all the rest of her long gone friends.

"Her conclusion was that it takes a group of friends operating in concert to utilise them. More specifically they have to be the right sort of friends - she called them a natural arch. She believed this was why you could not rid your sister of her…affliction."

The princess nodded, a small tear coming to her eye as she remembered those chaotic times a thousand years ago when she had finally realised that she was losing her sister. In her desperation she had turned to the Elements of Harmony, only to find the magic would not respond as she wished. She had been unable to restore her and had been forced instead to exile her sister to the moon.

"It does take a particularly powerful unicorn to wield the sixth element." The mayor said.

"Twilight Sparkle," Celestia interrupted. As the thousandth anniversary had approached she had started making plans. She had initially hoped to wield the elements herself and make amends for her failure. But she had quickly realised that, as an immortal, she could not form the necessary bonds of friendship. Twilight's sudden arrival had come as a relief to her.

"Quite so," the mayor continued. "It was only necessary to find the right ponies for her friends."

"And you think you have found them?"

"I believe we have."

"…and you think that they can form a natural arch?"

"It is only a matter of getting them to meet under the right circumstances; your majesty's idea of holding the Summer Sun festival in Ponyville gave us the perfect excuse." The mayor nodded at the file.

This had been the problem that she had had the mayor and the rest of her friends working on for a good part of the past ten years. The sixth element of Harmony "magic" required a magical unicorn to wield it, a unicorn who's special talent was magic itself as opposed to a unicorn who just used magic for her other talents. While Twilight had such talent in quantity she was too obsessed with her studies and had stubbornly refused - despite some nudging and hints - to make the sort of friendship connections required for the magic of friendship to be effective.

Using her magic the princess opened the leather folder and retrieved a sheaf of papers.
The mayor continued. "It is important that the friendship be allowed to form naturally and not to seem forced by any of the components, otherwise the necessary bond will not form."

Celestia nodded. It had been one of Book Dancer's successors that had found that out…what had been that pony's name? She looked over at the book where she kept the pictures of her old pupils. So many ponies, she thought, so many faces all fleeting. The loss of every one of them still seemed like an icicle in her heart. Celestia looked at the top sheet, dragging herself back to the matter in hand. One of the main requirements of the magic of friendship was that it had to be true friendship; it could not be forced. It would not work for Celestia to go to Twilight and tell her that the future of Equestria required her to be friends with these particular ponies as that in itself would ruin the bonds of friendship. They needed Twilight to realise that herself. Therefore this elaborate and risky plan had been formed.

"Applejack?" she questioned the mayor looking at a photo of an earth pony with orange coat, straw coloured mane and a trio of red apples on her flank. "I vaguely recognise the name."

"The Apple family is one of the largest extended farming families in Equestria," the mayor supplied. "They have branches as far as Manehatten and Appleloosa." She stopped and looked a bit embarrassed at the inadvertent pun. "Applejack manages the family orchards in Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres. She is a solid, honest, dependable pony, if a bit earthy sometimes - but she is the perfect pony to keep your hooves on the ground. We have awarded Sweet Apple Acres the job of providing the food for the festival - and as part of her job is to check on the preparations, Miss Sparkle will undoubtedly meet Applejack."

Celestia nodded, put down the first sheet and looked at the next. "Rarity," she said to the photo of a white coated unicorn with a purple mane, wearing a quite exquisite dress of red and blue. "I definitely recognise that name."

"Indeed. Miss Rarity runs a successful dress boutique and has sold dresses to a lot of the upper-class in Canterlot. They have probably been singing her praises."

Celestia nodded. Now she thought about it she did remember some talk at last year's Grand Galloping Gala.

"As with Applejack we have put miss Rarity in charge of the decorations for the festival; she may come over to some as a bit full or herself but she is generous to a fault and she has a tendency to want to "fix" ponies. She will see Miss Sparkle as someone in need of her talents and this should be enough to form the necessary bond of friendship."

The next sheet had a picture of a pegasus pony with a sandy coloured coat, but Celestia could not see the face as the pony was hiding it behind her pink mane. "This pony seems to be a bit camera shy," she said to the mayor.

"Ah yes," the mayor chuckled. "Fluttershy, she is not the bravest of ponies but she can be surprisingly firm if people she cares for are threatened. She has the biggest heart in Ponyville and I am sure that her love for her friends will prevail against any fear she might encounter. It was a bit of a challenge to try to get her out of her shell enough to ensure that she meets Miss Sparkle, but we have managed to arrange matters such that she, or more precisely some of her charges, are providing the music for the celebration and I feel certain that once she meets Spike her curiosity will take over from her shyness."

Celestia nodded. Spike was Twilight's assistant, a baby dragon that Twilight had hatched during her entrance exam. Celestia had given Spike the job of being Twilight's research assistant in the hope that some of the young dragon's relaxed personality would rub off on her pupil…and not incidentally prevent her library becoming an uncontrolled pile of books. She nodded at moved on to the next sheet. A picture of a light blue coated pegasus pony with a vivid rainbow mane greeted her.

"Rainbow Dash," she read out loud.

"Yes, Miss Dash," the mayor said. "We have had our eye on Miss Dash for quite a while." Celestia looked through the rest of the sheet. "When she was a young filly she managed to create a sonic rainboom, a very rare and dangerous phenomenon." Celestia remembered another of her friends, Spitfire, explaining it to her.

"Recently we have managed to trace that event and link it to pivotal events in the rest of the ponies' lives, even Twilight Sparkle's."

Celestia thought back. "The light in the sky the day of Twilight's exam? That was the sonic rainboom?"

"Indeed your majesty," the mayor nodded. "Knowing how pivotal the occasion of getting their cutie mark is to a pony, when we discovered the sonic rainboom and its role in Miss Sparkles cutie mark we looked back from there and found Miss Dash and ultimately the rest of these ponies. When she dropped out of flight school we gave Miss Dash the job of weathermare for Ponyville." The mayor looked a bit unhappy.

"Is that a problem?" Celestia asked.

"Well while Miss Dash is a very capable pony and when she can be bothered she does her job very well. She is just not very dedicated, preferring to slack off and perform flying acrobatics. And quite often these acrobatics end with her crashing into something or someone. This has lead to a few problems."

Celestial smiled at the obvious understatement in her friend's voice and the resulting image of the chaos that the rainbow-maned mare could cause.

"But as the official weather mare she will be in charge of making sure the skies are clear and that should bring her and Miss Sparkle together. If that is not enough Rainbow Dash and Applejack are friends and Rainbow's sense of adventure and loyalty will ensure that she goes with them.

Celestia nodded. While Twilight would be the keystone of the friendship arch it was not necessary that everypony's relationship with her was strong at the beginning - just as long as the entire group of ponies had a strong link. She turned to the last sheet, a picture of a pink earth pony almost jumped off the page at her. The pony's huge smile and bubbly expression seeming to make the princess laugh even from a picture of her.

"Pinkamina Diane Pie?" she asked the mayor.

The mayor smiled. "Ah yes, our Pinkie Pie," she said with a chuckle as if even the mention of the pony's name was enough to get a laugh.

"Well Pinkie Pie is everypony's friend and we have told her to be ready for Miss Sparkle's visit and to be ready to help her with the rest of her friends."

This brought Celestia up short. "You told her about the plan? I thought that would ruin the bond?"

The mayor smiled again "Pinkie Pie is a…special case." She said. "It is quite safe to tell her what is going on."

Celestia looked down the sheet again. Had the expression on the pony's face changed? Yes it had; the energetic pink pony was now winking at her. Understanding dawned on her. "Oh she is one of THOSE ponies." Celestia had known quite a few of THOSE ponies in her life. Astonish had been one nearly six hundred years ago now. He had a habit of jumping out from behind pillars and from under tables - even when you could have sworn that he was rooms away. He had particularly liked doing it to Book Dancer and her colleagues whom he considered to spend far too much time with their noises in books. The halls of the newly founded school for gifted unicorns had used to ring to the regular pattern of "BOO" followed by a chorus of screams and the thud of piles of books hitting the floor. Come to think of it she was pretty sure that Book Dancer and he had eventually had a foal together so it could not have been that annoying.

"Indeed she is your highness. Well everypony else in Ponyville seems to accept it as just part of her bubbly nature, but if you know what to look for it shines out like a lighthouse."

She knew you got ponies like that every so often but they were very rare. "You think Twilight will notice?" Celestia said nervously. "She is a very clever pony."

The mayor shook her head. "The rest of the party should prevent that. Everypony in Ponyville shrugs it off with a 'she is just being Pinkie Pie.' It is amazing what they seem to be able to overlook. But Pinkie Pie will be very useful; she will be able to subtly guide the rest of the group and make sure that they stay on the right path to the elements."

Celestia magically stacked the papers back together and laid them on the table. "It seems that everything is in readiness," she said.

Just then there was a flash of green fire and a scroll appeared in the air in front of her, she caught it with her magic and unrolled it, noting it was closed with Twilight's seal. "And not a moment too soon," she said as she laid it down. "It seems that as usual our Twilight is ahead in her studies." Celestia had put the first part of the plan in motion a few days ago when she had assigned Twilight the task of reading some of the more old and obscure parts of the history of the creature that ponies called Nightmare Moon; she was pretty sure that her favourite pupil would be able to piece together what it meant without much problem. But Twilight had to believe that she was the only one to make such connections. Almost as importantly she was to be prevented from making the final discovery as to the current whereabouts and nature of the Elements of Harmony until after it was too late to stop Nightmare Moon's return. Celestia levitated a new piece of parchment onto the table and started to write a reply while the mayor picked up the sheaf of parchment and leather folder, restoring them to her saddle bags.

"Then, with your permission of course, I will return to Ponyville and make doubly sure everything is ready."

Celestia finished writing and with a flick of her magic the scroll vanished in a puff of green fire. She turned to the mayor and said "yes of course. Good bye my little pony. I shall see you at the celebration."

They mayor looked back worry in her eyes. "I hope we have not over looked anything Celestia," and with that she made a small bow and left.

Celesta returned to looking out the window "So do I." She muttered to herself remembering the last line of the message she had just sent, setting the plan in motion. "…most importantly of all, make some friends." She looked at where the moon would be rising. Through the bond she had taken with the moon she could feel The Presence. That Presence that was so tantalisingly familiar but at the same time twisted and vengeful.
"Soon Luna my sister," she thought. "I will see you soon."

Comments

[Celestias Paladin]

Give me a moment to collect my thoughts about what has been written. There are a few stories like this, Celestia manipulating events in the background, "Potential" is one and there is one other I like as well. This is the kind of Celestia I like, yes she is being manipulative but it is for a good reason and one that knows the burden she carries, she is not a tyrant nor a troll but a pony that will do what it takes. I look forward to the other chapters.

In the Name of Her Serene Majesty,
Celestia's Paladin: For Honor and Duty, For the Sun and Moon

[Wing Zero 032]

I do wonder how Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack will react to the fact that they've been practically used and played like pupets... and the fact that Pinkie Pie was part of this conspiracy plus discover that she's one of THOSE special type of ponies

Celestia: DANCE PUPETS!, DANCE!

i love/hate these stories. I tend to hate it when Celestia goes behind other's backs, regardless of reasoning. Yet in those cases she's doing it to some unknown end and or selfishly, here it's a good end, and i ted to like this version of Celestia.

[reader238]

it is very rare that I like and fav a story after reading the first chapter so that says a lot about how great this is