Dealing With an Introverted Princess

by Crimson_Moon

With great confidence…

“Okay Twilight, no big deal! You’ve done this before, it’s just tea with Princess Celestia.” Twilight Sparkle muttered to herself in a bit of nervousness. Trying to take her mind off of it, she triple checked the list of questions she had for her mentor. Usually a visit for tea from the Princess would be a welcome distraction from the chaotic nature of being not only a Princess, but the principal for the only known school of friendship. Today however, her invitation she had Spike sent out had her in jitters.

“Just… cast the spell when she arrives and ask the stupid questions on the paper, sparkle!” She spoke to herself. Ever since parent teacher conferences ended, Twilight had been looking for ways to boost her confidence. Herbal remedies, meditation practices, and self-help books occupied her free time most days, but nothing worked. However, an idea came to her recently thanks to her number one assistant.

“Why not just use a spell?” He asked one day. From then on, it was obvious to her what the solution was.

Using her alicorn magic, she could alter her brainwaves to perform a more positive response in her decision making. In other words, she was going to cast a spell to give her a confidence boost. Unfortunately, there were no recorded spells of that nature. Mind-altering magic was considered taboo among the magic using population of Equestria. Seeing no other alternative, Twilight began to pour all her knowledge into creating a spell to do so.

After months of painstaking work, she finally perfected the spell and did a small trial run with Spike as a test. Using him as the subject, she asked the dragon topics regarding Rarity and his thoughts about her. She asked the same questions both before and after the spell and recorded the results. After some adjustments, Twilight was confident she would be able to test the perfected spell on herself. However, there was a new challenge facing her:

She didn’t know of anypony in Ponyville or nearby that she wasn’t confident with. Seeing no other alternatives, the alicorn contacted Princess Celestia under the guise of having tea with her in the afternoon. That would give her plenty of time to create a list of questions that would be embarrassing to ask her mentor and role model. Most of them were mellow, and only embarrassing for fillies at their first truth or dare during a sleepover. Who was your first crush? Did you ever kiss anyone? So on and so forth. None were overly embarrassing for a centuries old ruler such as Celestia, but for Twilight to be asking them? It was unheard of.

knock knock knock

“Twilight?” Spike asked on the other side of the door leading to her study.

“Not now Spike!” She yelled back. “I just gotta make sure everything is right for-“

“For what, Twilight?” An all too familiar voice asked. “We’re only having tea!” Princess Celestia giggled.

“Aah!” Suddenly startled, Twilight’s horn lit up and shot a spell, bouncing around the room until it hit a certain pearl alicorn square in the nose and knocking her to the floor. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Princess Celestia!”

Rubbing her nose, she got up from the ground. “It’s quite alright, Twilight. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been hit by a rogue spell. Now, about that tea…”

---

A few minutes of apologies and a fresh hot batch of tea later, both Celestia and Twilight met on the balcony of the Castle of Friendship overlooking the town.

“I’m so sorry Princess Celestia, I-“

“For the last time my faithful student, it’s okay!” She chuckled. “I should have waited until you were ready instead of just teleporting in like that.” Celestia took a sip of her tea. “Now tell me, why have you been so flustered?”

“W-well it’s a bit embarrassing, really.” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve been trying to create a confidence spell to prepare me for the next parent teacher conference for the school of friendship, s-so I came up with a plan to a-ask you embarrassing questions to see if it would work please don't be mad at me."

"O-oh. Is that all?" Celestia felt a bit flustered by that. "I'm not mad, Twilight. I am just a bit shocked is all." She smiled at her protege. "You can ask me anything, my faithful student."

"O-okay, good!" She nervously chuckled. "First thing's first, I need to cast the confidence boosting spell." Closing her eyes, Twilight concentrated and her horn glowed a bright violet. Slowly it grew in intensity until the color almost looked red. It wasn't until her horn itself started glowing a bright white that Princess Celestia had cause for alarm.

"Twilight, are you sure you've tested this spell thoroughly?"

"Y-yes, I tested it on Spike this morning!" the young alicorn said through a strained voice. "Just a few more seconds..."

Celestia, worried for her student, quickly began trying to cast a counterspell and aimed it towards Twilight. Reaching new horizons was always something she actively encouraged with Twilight, but sometimes she took it to the extreme. Even at the entrance exam, she transmogrified a full grown pony into a cactus and hatched a baby dragon, so she knew there were no limits to Twilight's determination. It wasn't until something neither one of them happened that the spell stopped.

The door to the balcony burst open and in came Spike carrying refills for the tea. "Hey Twilight, I thought I could see how you two were do- Sweet Celestia!"

Shocked out of her concentration, Twilight's spell went haywire and went towards the nearest target instead of being internalized. Unfortunately, the nearest target just so happened to be Celestia, and this wasn't like the spell earlier. Not only did it knock down her mentor and friend, but it also seemed to knock her unconscious. Twilight only hoped the Princess would be forgiving when she woke up...

---

A few hours later, in the guest bedroom...

Celestia slowly awoke, her head pounding and her hooves hurting. "Ungh, where am I?" Her vision was blurry and her mouth tasted like cotton.

"Celestia?!" a figure asked near her bedside. "Thank goodness you're okay."

She didn't need her eyes to fully focus to know it was Twilight Sparkle. "Indeed I am. What happened?"

"Oh it's all my fault! I lost concentration and the spell was redirected and aimed at you. I'm so sorry!" Twilight began to cry.

"Shhh, it's okay my faithful student. Accidents happen." Her vision cleared enough to grab a tissue from the nearby nightstand and held it up to her protege's nose. Taking the hint, she blew her nose and wiped the tears away. "Now why don't we go over your spell's notes and see if we can reduce it's energy?"

A few minutes later, both Twilight and Celestia were in the castle's study comparing and making notes for the confidence spell. It took them a good hour or two to remove the flaws and perfect the spell. " I think we're ready to give this another try, don't you, Twilight?"

Going over the notes one more time, she simply nodded. "Let's go outside and have another cup of tea, Princess Celestia. The sun isn't low enough to make the day completely wasted!" She chuckled.

Celestia smiled. "Lead the way." It took only a few minutes to get to the balcony once more, where an apologetic Spike awaited with a fresh batch of Earl Grey on a serving tray. confidently, Celestia began to take the lead as she was used to, until they reached the doors to the balcony itself. For some reason, she stood there with trepidation; the outside didn't seem as warm and inviting as it used to. Was the sun always that bright? And the balcony, what if some nearby pegasi happened to be nearby? What if-

"Are you alright, Celestia?" Twilight asked.

"I-yes, I just... wanted you to take the lead is all!" Celestia shook herself out of the trance. A Princess doesn't get jittery, especially one that loves the outdoors.

Once they sat down, Spike poured both of them tea and left but not before being reminded by Twilight to knock next time. "Okay Celestia, let's give this one more shot!" Twilight smiled. Nodding in approval, Celestia readied a counterspell in case things went awry for a second time. This time when the spell was cast it wasn't as intense as before. The aura didn't shine as bright and her horn only glowed a dim white instead of almost blinding like it was before. The spell washed over Twilight in a red hue and then it was over. Sighing a breath of relief, Celestia cancelled her spell.

"Do you feel any different?" Celestia asked.

The young alicorn looked herself over. Nothing seemed different, and she didn't feel different. "Not really. I just feel... normal."

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, my faithful student!” She giggled. “Now, go ahead and ask your questions.”

“O-of course, Princess. Ahem! First question: do you or have you had any crushes?” She gasped. “Oh my gosh! I asked it and didn’t stutter!”

Celestia chuckled internally. Of course Twilight would think grade school crushes would be hard to ask. Confidently, she cleared her throat, opened her mouth and…

Nothing came out.

“Uh, Celestia?” She waved her hoof in front of her mentor. “Are you still here?” She chuckled nervously.

The pearl alicorn shook her head. “S-sorry about that Twilight I was… thinking. I’ve lived centuries old and it’s hard to remember all the suitors I’ve liked.” She dodged the question.

“That’s okay! You answering the questions would only be redundant data, since me asking them is the embarrassing part!” Twilight giggled. “Next question: who was your first kiss?”

Immediately upon being asked that, the Princess’s cheeks turned slightly pink. Why would she want to know that? Do I even remember? What about those nearby pegasi that I thought about before?!

“M-my first kiss?” Even talking seemed impossible right now. “I-I don’t… H-how is this relevant to your data?”

“I said it wasn’t, Princess. Don’t you remember?” She looked at Celestia with concern. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright? You did take two strong spells point-blank. Maybe you should lie d-“

“Nonsense, I’m fine! Go on with the next question, we’ll come back to this one later!” Celestia huffed. I’ve never been flustered when being asked questions, especially coltish ones that little fillies ask at slumber parties!

“O-kay, moving on then. Have you ever experienced intercourse?” Celestia’s rosy cheeks were now a thundering red.

“I-I U-um, m-me? Heh heh, Ha Ha Ha!” Every word out of her mouth increased her blush’s hue. “Y-y-y-yes…”

“What was that? I couldn’t hear y-“

“I SAID YES OKAY GO TO THE NEXT QUESTION!” Celestia shouted in the Canterlot Voice, surprising both of them. Silence permeated the air afterwards, neither one able to break the tension.

“Are you sure you’re okay-“

“Itwasnicecatchingupimgoingtogonowbye” Celestia lit her horn and vanished, teleporting back to Canterlot to hide her shame in her room.

Author's Note:

Well here I am, at it again! Been a long time since I’ve written vanilla fics! Let me know what you think so far!

Comments

[Thereal_lunastan]

This should be fun.

[Viirtax Skannus]

Moar