Unforeseen Circumstances
Twilight honestly couldn’t believe her ears when she heard Holiday say that the filly wasn’t going with her. Sure, she didn’t want to live with her as much as Asher didn’t, but it was an order from Princess Celestia! It wasn’t something she could just… decline. She stood in stunned silence for a second, considering going to the door to argue her point further, but decided against it. She could just as easily find her teacher and bring it up with her, and bring it up she would.
But first was sleep. She felt like she was starting to get cranky after being up so late, and hoped that it was the case for Holiday, too. She would head home and get a decent night’s (or day’s) sleep and then maybe see about confronting Holiday again. But if all else failed, she would go to her mentor. She knew she would be on her side, even if she really didn’t feel like taking care of a foal who acted like an adult.
“I do wonder about her though,” the mare thought to herself. “Where does she come from that she thinks she can act like that? And did she really come from another world? I have so many questions to ask her… but first, I need to go to sleep.”
I honestly expected Twilight to be immediately knocking on the door, just given what I thought her personality was in all of 15 minutes of interaction with her total, but surprisingly, she didn’t. I looked out the window after I put my stuff away to see her looking back and forth between our house and the main part of town before finally deciding to trot away. I let out a relieved sigh at that, then turned to Holiday, who I noticed was watching with me.
“I’m pretty sure she’s going to go to Celestia to tell her that I’m still here,” I commented. “Actually, I’m confident she will, and then she’ll make me go with her anyway. But thank you for sticking up for me. It means a lot.”
“It’s not any trouble at all, especially with the way she was treating you,” she responded kindly. “And I’m pretty sure Princess Celestia won’t let you go with somepony so mean. Or at the very least, she’ll talk some sense into her since she clearly needs it. But I’m sure everything will turn out alright.”
“I can only say I certainly hope so,” I told her simply, still staring out the window, Twilight now long gone. I hoped that the princess could talk some sense into her, but I was doubtful, given her history. Not to mention, she already told Twilight not to act like that, but Twilight did anyway. I wasn’t confident in what telling her a second time would do.
“Lord, I do want to thank you for giving me Holiday and Lofty in my life,” I prayed, closing my eyes to do so. “I know I disagreed with… certain aspects about them before, but I truly thank you for bringing them into my life. I ask that you continue to guide me as you always have, and that I stay under your watchful eye. Amen.”
“So what do we have planned for the rest of the day?” I asked expectantly. “Is there anything else we need to do?”
“Nothing you need to do,” she answered. “Was there something you want to do?”
“Not really, but… can I test my handwriting? And see how much of the alphabet I can remember in Ponish?”
She obliged me, and we spend the next while going through what I remembered, which wasn’t very much. Only a few of the ‘a’ and ‘e’ sounds. Still, it was progress from the nothing I knew a few days ago at least, and I decided to accept it.
After that I flipped through to a lesson in the calculus book. I limited myself to only looking at one or two lessons a week so I wouldn’t get bored or run out of material, even if I already knew how to do it all, but I found myself not paying attention and wanting a book on marketing. I wondered how you would market a product to a group of people… err, ponies, that had successful businesses like “Quills and Sofas”. It would be interesting to read about it if I could get my hands on something like that. It would be useful for starting some sort of restaurant in this world.
“Look at me,” I thought to myself. “I’ve basically already given up any hope of leaving this place after two weeks. This is so depressing. But I do know that God is with me, so that’s something. Even if I’m here, it won’t be that bad…”
“Hey, Asher?” Holiday started suddenly as I lay on the floor in front of her. “I think we should buy you a book on biology.”
“Huh? What?” I asked, completely confused. “What are you talking about?” The idea came out of nowhere to me.
“Well, I know you said you were a male, and we guessed that you were around nine years old, so you’re probably getting towards that time where your body-”
“No,” I interrupted forcefully, catching the mare off guard. “I’m… I’m gonna vomit thinking about that. I do not want to talk about that at all. Not… no.”
“I know it’s not a fun conversation, but it’s something that everypony has to-”
“Honestly,” I interrupted before she could continue, “I’d rather not think about things that I can’t control that are probably gonna happen in the future when I don’t have to because I already have really bad dysphoria just being a pony in general, let alone a girl. So please just let me… not? If I can help it?”
“I’m sorry,” she apologized, frowning sadly now. “I just- I know you’re an adult, but Lofty and I don’t have any foals of our own, and I- I want to be there for you. I hope you can see where I’m coming from.”
“I understand,” I replied, “but it’s not something I want to talk about because it’s gonna make me feel more awful than I already do. At the very least not right now. If I… have questions… I’ll ask.”
With that, the conversation ended awkwardly, but that thought that I was a girl now had already started to take hold in my head and work it’s way into my brain, and I tried to force it out.
“Think about something else, think about something else… ugh, why is this happening to me? This isn’t fair…”
“Can we… go out to eat lunch or something?” I asked suddenly, breaking the silence that was starting to build up. “Or go to the park? I need to clear my head after that. This day has not been great so far for me.”
“Oh, well, yes, of course we can organize a public apology!” Mayor Mare exclaimed as Luna stood before her, bending on a knee and bowing down to her. “Ah, did you want it to happen today?”
“The sooner, the better we say,” Luna responded as she stood back up. “As soon as we can, we would like to bring attention to how shameful our actions were.”
“Oh, well, we can have it scheduled for this afternoon if you’d like? Or maybe tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow morning would be preferred,” Celestia announced, transporting her voice into the room a second before she appeared. Everypony in the room with her immediately bowed down, but she raised a hoof to ask them to rise back up.
“I hope it’s acceptable to you all if I may spend this day with my little sister,” she spoke. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen her, and I would like to spend time catching up with her, if that’s acceptable to you, of course.”
“Oh, well, of course it is!” the mayor answered, much to Celestia’s satisfaction. “Anytime that works for you both would be absolutely perfect!... not that you have to do anything, of course! I’m just letting you know that-”
“We understand and appreciate the sentiment,” the princess interrupted. “Tomorrow would be better, however. I do think everypony could benefit from a day’s rest. As well, it would allow my sister time to prepare what she wanted to say, right, Princess Luna?”
"Quite so,” she agreed. “I do absolutely express my sincerest apologies to you, however,” she told her. “I don’t expect your forgiveness, but I do hope you would find it in your heart for my sister’s sake.”
“That’s quite enough, dear sister,” Celestia told her. “I’m certain you’ll have much to say tomorrow. For now though, would you care to take a stroll with me and do some catching up?”
It was more of a statement than a question, and the two of them found themselves outside, walking in a park nearby the town hall. There were hardly any ponies out right now after being up so late the night before, and the princess found a place for she and her sister to sit in peace.
“My dear Luna,” she started immediately, “I must confess something to you, and I do wish for you to hold your anger until after I’m finished.”
“Anger at you?” the blue alicorn replied. “Sister, I’m quite glad you’ve held your anger at me for so long. Whatever do you wish to say?”
She sighed but didn’t waste time, replying, “With yesterday’s events, your reaction, I must say that I knew of your return, dear sister.”
“Hmm, yes, of course. I’d expect as much. I do believe I, or rather, Nightmare Moon, told you herself that the stars would aid in our escape.”
“What I’m saying is,” she finished, “I knew what was coming but didn’t prepare. I wanted my student to take care of what was to happen. Unfortunately, certain things… they didn’t go exactly as planned.”
She didn’t want to explicitly say that it was partly her fault that Luna was able to hurt ponies, but she didn’t want it to get out and have her learn from somepony else. It was a difficult situation to navigate for her.
“Oh,” Luna responded simply, causing her sister to internally grimace. “I see. I… never would have imagined you as the type to sit back and watch events unfold.” Celestia’s ears flattened at that, something that was very rare for her to do. It was Luna’s subtle way of saying that she understood what Celestia was getting at.
“May I ask why you would leave it to that unicorn? What was her name? Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes, that’s who. If I can help it, I would like to begin preparing her to take my- our- place as ruler of Equestria. I sent her here to Ponyville so she could make friends and control the Elements of Harmony to purge you of the Nightmare once and for all. However, unforeseen circumstances introduced themselves into the equation several days before your arrival that stopped that from happening.”
“Unforeseen circumstances?” Luna asked. “What would those be?”
“I’m certain you can figure it out, sister,” Celestia told her. “You apologized to them just a few minutes ago in fact.”
The alicorn scrunched her nose as she thought about it, before her eyes went wide. “That little filly?” she asked, surprised. “A little filly is what brought circumstances you couldn’t foresee?”
“Very much so, yes.”
Luna suddenly burst out laughing at that, having to take a minute to lay down in the grass kicking her hooves. Celestia only glared at her as she did, before lifting the corner of her mouth a tiny bit.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the mare apologized as she calmed herself down, wiping a tear away with her magic. “I know last night was a very serious matter, but that you let a little filly stop that mare from controlling the Elements as you had? It sounds rather ridiculous.”
“It’s exactly as ridiculous as it sounds, Luna,” Celestia replied simply before her eye caught something. “Speaking of, here they come.”
Luna looked up along with her to see Asher and another mare making their way over, apparently deep enough in conversation that they hadn’t seen the two of them up to that point. A moment later though, the filly caught sight of them and stopped in her tracks, sending a scowling glare her way as she rolled her eyes.
“It seems she hasn’t taken much of a liking to you either, dear sister,” Luna commented as Asher and Holiday made their way over.
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Good to see this series again, one of the best on the site!
A Snickers wouldn't hurt either.
I do want more of this fic I love it !
I do like the role reversal that kinda feels natural. Luna is usually the one to act a millenia out of date in regards to royal commoner relations. Here Luna is the humble one while Celestia is the one not taking anything less than submission quite poorly. She has ruled for a long time unopposed.
I wonder if Luna will fall into old habits while surrounded by the yes ponies Celestia likely cultivated?
11050423
11050566
Awwww, thank you, you both are wonderful c: Comments like these are what makes me enjoy writing it c:
11050581
It does indeed feel natural. Luna is the more open one due to her being repentant, while Celestia is taking the role of the colder reserved one due to her being wrapped up in her intended plans.
Yeah no there won't be any niceness from Twilight for a long time and here we see Celestia's fall to darkness start because a misplaced person challenged her god complex and accidentally ruined her plans.
My main complain about the story is how tiny updates are.
11051595
I used to update every week, but for the past several months, I've been going with twice a month. Once a few other things end though, you can bet we're going to be full steam ahead with every week again.
11052051
I'm not talking about frequency of updates. I'm talking about... substance, I guess. Despite there being about.. 40 chapters?.. to me it feels like there's enough material for about 10. Like, the plot is shuffling hooves in one place for 2-3 chapters, then making a step forward in one, before prceeding to shuffle in place for 2-3 chapters more.
Though that might be just how I personally feel. Maybe nobody else has this issue.
In context of the story I am writing at the moment, this phrase amuses me greatly.
11052591
Ah, oof, I see. I thought that might be a problem, but personally, for me, I like watching events unfold slowly like this. It makes me feel like I could actually be there with the characters as I write. I don't think there are many stories that are very slowly paced like this, but I enjoy the style.
11052591
I fully understand the sentiment. With the “Slice of life” tag I expected it to meander like a drunk after being twirled around. It is often what happens in those stories. The overarching plot is moving slowly but that isn’t always the focus in slice of life.
Speak of the devil! 😂
Let's see what Luna has to say.
Twilight feels very OOC. She was socially awkward in ep 1, but she's just downright mean here.