Embracing The Changes

by -Key-

Chapter 4: Ponyville

[A/N] Sorry about the late update, I was just procrastinating and being lazy. All other chapter should be up quicker, hope you enjoy the new chapter.

Twilight awoke to the sound of someone yelling in shock, she shot up quickly, trying to find who was causing all the commotion. As she looked around, she saw Spike franticly rushing around the room searching as if his life depended on it. 'Ha ha' she thought "You won't find them you know." she said to him.

"Wha-" he said, turning around "Oh Twilight when did you get back?" he asked surprised, with a worried look on his face.

"Last night, and you know you're not allowed that many gems, who gave them to you?" she asked knowing perfectly well who gave them to him.

"I found them" he said hopefully hoping Twilight would accept his lie.

"Spike, I was disappointed enough when I found you with all of this gems. Now you're lying to me, who gave them to you."

"Umm..." he said guiltily looking away from her eyes "Rarity"

"Hmm..." she said as her suspicions were confirmed "I'll talk to both of you about that later, now can you please go make breakfast, and it has to be something special Princess Luna is here and she will be tutoring me."

"You mean that she will be staying here, with us" he said clearly panicking at the thought "Nigmare mo-"

"She not nightmare Moon anymore." she said angrily and worried that Luna may have heard him.

Spike acknowledged her, not wanting to annoy Twilight further, as he walked downstairs, he stopped in surprise, he saw a giant chalkboard in one of the main areas of the library with the Princess using it to write the workings of magic on it. "Good morning Princess." Spike said bowing down trying as hard as he could to hide his fear.

"Oh please stop with the formalities, we are friends." Luna said as she began to turn around "If I'm to be staying here then I don't want you constantly bowing, and please just call me Luna." however as Luna turned around she saw Spike standing there and jumped so high she nearly hit the roof.

Spike chuckled uneasily slowly backing away from her, scared what the Princess of the night could do when she wasn't happy "I guess Twilight didn't tell you her assistant was a baby dragon?" he asked, trying to sound harmless, while worrying what Luna would do to him.

"No, it seems she left that out, how did you become Twilights assistant?" she asked curiously, while she had seen many dragons in her life, she had never seen a baby one and none of them seemed to have the sort of build he had.

"Oh she hatched me when I was just an egg, for an entrance exam to Celestia's school, I've been with her ever since"

Luna stood there looking back at the dragon as he ran away through the door, she had met some dragons before her exile but none had seemed quite so polite or intelligent and none would ever become an assistant for a pony, to them that would be demeaning. However what Spike had said to her about Celestia's school was bothering her, as Luna started to consume herself with her thoughts, Twilight came back.

"Good morning Luna, what's the board for?" Twilight asked curiously.

"That will be used for our lessons, I will use that to show you what I'm teaching. So how much have you learnt about the magic types?"

"Oh" Twilight said perking up at the thought of lessons. "I have extensively studied all types of unicorn magic including Normal Magic, Dark Magic, Light Magic, White Magic and Black Magic." Twilight seemed to be bubbling at just the thought of being ahead of Luna's lesson.

"That is good, however how much have you studied the other races magic."

"Oh" Twilight said looking disappointed at what Luna had said "I haven't studied those very much seeming as Unicorns are the only race that can actually use magic. It was never covered when I studied with Celestia."

"Incorrect" Luna said looking amused at Twilight's shocked reaction.

"B-but, are you telling me other races can use magic as well?!"

As Twilight started to get upset, Luna quickly interjected, worried that she had somehow done something to upset Twilight. "Twilight what I'm trying to say is that everypony has magic in them however only unicorns can harness it in different ways. They do this by channelling it through their horn."

"So what your saying is its useless for other ponies and that they can't even use it, then what's the point in even having the magic." she scoffed not seeing the difference between what she said and what Luna had said.

"No their magic is still used." Luna replied trying to explain it "They just have no control over how it is used. For example, Twilight think about Earth ponies, while they have magic they cannot control it, it is generally distributed between different physical attributes."

"So what are these attributes." Twilight said suddenly getting very excited about the idea of learning something new. She quickly used her magic to pull over a quill and parchment to take notes before Luna started, once Luna saw that Twilight was ready, she continued to speak.

"Most ponies believe that unicorns and alicorns are the only beings that use magic. This is not true, this was figured out when a famous unicorn began to study pegasi flight, after many calculations and tests he found that it was physically impossible for pegasi to fly with just their wings. After this he did many more tests over a year with no success, finally after much thought he began a new set of tests expecting no results. The tests were conducted by scanning the area around pegasi for magical charge, when he looked at his result he was shocked to find that wherever the pegasi were there was magical energy everywhere. After many years his studies were published. What they they concluded was, all ponies had magic however only unicorns could control theirs. Pegasi needed their magic to fly and walk on clouds however, if they had more magic in them it would also give them a boost of speed or agility, earth ponies use their magic for their strength and stamina."

As Luna finished explaining how magic works with the different ponies she looked down to see how much Twilight had managed to write in the time she had been speaking. Twilight had written exactly what she had said word for word and also managed to put each definition in more detail, explaining it better and had even managed to put in tables and diagrams with impeccable neatness. Luna just sat there in awe, looking down at just how much she had managed to write in such a small amount of time.

"What's wrong Luna?" Twilight asked, getting very worried she had done something wrong when she saw Luna's reaction "Did I do something wrong? Oh my I'm so sorry please forgive me I didn't mean to upset you." Twilight pleaded.

"Upset us?" Luna laughed "Far from it Twilight, we're amazed at your writing skills actually, how did you manage to get all that down in the time we were talking?"

"I found a spell that writes what you think and taught it to myself for lessons."

Luna paused for a bit before saying "We think that this lesson should be over for today, we're not used to being up this late in the day, however we would like you to pay attention to the skills of each pony, we would then like you to present to me how magically talented they are based upon their skills.

Twilight suddenly shot up when she realized what the homework was and what it meant. "I better get started on that right away" she said before rushing out the door and shutting it behind her. Luna sat there chuckling at her reaction, only to see her quickly burst back in to grab a coat and sprint out again.

Luna sat down in front of the bookcase smiling. 'She could be so silly sometimes' Luna thought happily before she realized just how tired she was from being up all day, she slowly walked to the bedroom, completely forgetting her royal crown, chest plate and hoof shoes and instead collapsed on the bed, instantly overtaken by her fatigue.

Twilight rushed out the door with her cloak, once outside she began to decide who to visit first, she thought for a bit before deciding to visit her fashion friend Rarity mainly because of how close she lived, but she also wanted to speak to her about constantly giving spike too many gems while she was away. From the way spike was acting it seemed that if she continued to give him gifts constantly he would turn into a rampaging crazy dragon again and Twilight knew how bad that had been for everypony including Rarity. Shivering at the thought Twilight came to Rarity's boutique and knocked loudly as she entered the building.

"Rarity I'm back from Canterlot" she called out, looking around the empty boutique. Just as she was about to call out for her friend again, she suddenly remembered what the day was, 'oh stupid' she thought to herself how could I forget, they must all be down at the park with their pets. Realizing where her friends had gone, Twilight rushed back out the door again running towards the park, as she ran through town, she got a few questioning looks from the ponies before they realized who she was and looked away again. By the time Twilight arrived at the park she was worn out, barely able to jog properly without stumbling over. She walked up over the hill to see Spike following Rarity around almost drooling over her.

"Hey girls." she called out trotting over to her friends.

"Oh heya Twilight"

"Hello"

"Oh Twilight, whatever happened to your mane."

"What's up Twilight"

"Oh Twilight your back you have to tell me what happened did you have fun that's always good or did the Princesses throw you a party that would have been so cool and fun unless it was like the gala cause then it would have had all snooty people who are just no fun and don't even like proper parties Or maybe you went up there to go learn something new or ma-" Pinky was suddenly cut off by Applejacks hoof in her mouth stopping her from speaking anymore.

"Now sugarcube, you have to give Twilight some time to speak if you wanna know what she been up to at the castle." Applejack told her. The only reply she got back though was "Mhmhmm, apples." causing a few of the friends to laugh, Applejack just sighed and took her hoof out of Pinky's mouth. "So sugarcube," she said turning to Twilight "Why did you get called to the castle by the princess on such short notice?"

"Well, it turns out that they still have a problem with the changelings, there are still some in the castle and city so they asked for my help."

All of the others gasped in shock.

"That's just terrible"

"Well that's not fun at all"

"Wow that's totally awesome, you must of kicked some butt and made them all run screaming away if your back so soon." Rainbow Dash said animatedly, lighting up while doing flips and kicks in the air.

Hearing this caused Twilight to blush as she turned her face away in embarrassment and shame. "I don't want to talk about it." she mumbled turning away and looking down.

"Oh Twilight, you don't need to hide anything from us, you can tell us anything dear." said Rarity looking at Twilight with concern and worry.

"I'm fine" she said still looking away "Don't worry"

"Well now dear, we are not going to let this go until you tell us every detail." Rarity said in a voice with such finality that left Twilight no room to argue.

Twilight began to tell her friends what had happened starting from when she and Luna had set out into the city to interrogate suspicious people, as she told them what had happened when she entered the building, she could see the looks of horror on her friends faces at the thought of that many changelings. She then got to the part with her fainting on the ground when Applejack cut her off.

"Well sugarcube is that why you didn't want to tell us what happened?"

"But aren't you disappointed that I fainted and let everyone down?" Twilight asked looking confused at Applejack.

"Sugarcube" Applejack said with an amused look on her face "Don't you remember when I went for the national rodeo competition?"

"Yes" Twilight said sheepishly.

"I thought that you would be disappointed that I didn't win any 1st place awards, But you gals didn't care. I thought you would have realized that we don't care either Hun."

"Your right, I should have realized." Twilight replied as she looked up at her friends concerned faces feeling a lot better "Well anyway, now Celestia has sent me home with Luna to hide from the evil thing that was after her."

"Really the princess is here in Ponyville? Oh, I absolutely must go and find my best dresses for when I meet her." Rarity said, looking down at her clothes in a concerned voice.

"HHHOOOHHHHHHHHHH" gasped Pinky as she realized exactly what Twilight had said. "We have to have a Welcome To Ponyville party for the princess and we can have cake and lots of party games and we can all have lots and lots of FUN!"

"No Pinky" Twilight said in an exasperated voice. "I'm sorry but we can't have a party for the princess, she told me that she didn't want the whole town to know that she was here, and well, your parties usually have lots of people."

Pinky's face fell for a second before lighting up again "So that means we can have a small party with just us then nopony would know she was here." Pinky stood there looking at Twilight her eyes alight with hope.

"Fine" Twilight said, realizing that she had lost, before she knew it Pinky Pie had disappeared blurring off to the bakery.

Twilight watched her run off for a second before she turned back to her friends, smiling at Pinky's antics. Twilight continued to talk and play games with the girls for the rest of the day before she stood up, said goodbye to them and began the walk home. The walk back was mostly uneventful, nothing of interest happened the entire time except every now and then she would see Pinky run into a store and get something before rushing back to the bakery.

Twilight was smiling happily when she walked through the door of the library, however the second she came through she saw the blackboard and immediately began to panic. The entire time she had been with her friends, she had failed to see what sort of skills they had, for the first time in her life she had neglected her homework. Twilight began to hyperventilate 'It was just a one time thing I'm sure, I can still do it.' she thought to herself 'But what if it wasn't just a one time thing, what if I do it again, what if I'm lazy.' Now Twilight had truly begun to panic rushing around the library in a fit, quickly she grabbed several sheets of paper with her magic and a bunch of quills.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

A couple of hours later Luna walked down the stairs once she reached the bottom she froze. Twilight was sitting at her desk frantically writing on a piece of paper, usually Luna wouldn't have been disturbed by this, except for the fact that all around Twilight were copies of her friendship letters and the bin was completely full with crumpled paper. Twilight spun around and saw Luna watching her.

"I finished my homework." she said to Luna relieved.

"Uhh" Luna stared at Twilight very shocked "You don't need to give that too me until tomorrow."

"W-what!" she exclaimed "B-but I just spent hours on this."

Luna looked at Twilight and laughed "Well at least now you have finished it."

Twilight looked at Luna shocked "B-but this is enough right?"

'What?' Luna thought, Twilight had written two whole sheets about each of her friends and gone into a level detail that Luna didn't even know was possible "Of course, did Celestia make you do more than this." she said shocked at the idea.

"Well no, but I just thought, well." Twilight trailed off disappointedly.

"You have gone into more than enough detail Twilight, this is fantastic." Luna said trying to make her feel better.

Suddenly remembering something Luna shot up "Twilight, we was speaking to your, uh, assistant and he told us that you hatched him for the entrance exam, is this true?" Luna's eyes sparked with interest.

"Yes, I tried to hatch him but everytime I tried to cast a spell I found I couldn't use any of my magic, I was about to give up when Rainbow Dash accidentally scared me and I lost control."

"Hmm" Luna said "We don't actually know too much about how the school has changed since we were last here here, do you have any books on it?" She asked curious.

"Yes" Twilight said moving toward the stairs "They are all in this section of the library." she said as she walked upstairs and into the spare room.

Once Twilight entered the room, she began to splutter and cough unable to breathe properly and stumbled back out of the room. Luna stared at her shocked to see her completely soaked, her mane down her face dripping wet. Twilight continued to sputter and cough as Luna tried to help her.

"Why I-is there a c-c-cloud in there?" Twilight said shivering from the cold and glaring into the room.

"Oops" said Luna as she quickly ran in and removed it, pushing it out the window and smiling sheepishly "Sorry, they are just much better than a normal bed."

"It's fine" Twilight said as she dried herself off with a towel that she levitated in from the other room. Once she had finished drying herself off, she carefully trotted into the room, looking around cautiously for any bits of cloud that were left in the room, realizing that there were none, she trotted over to the nearest shelf and picked up several books all dedicated to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns.

Smiling as Twilight walked out with the books, Luna thanked her finding them as she moved to the corner of the room and sat down. As she opened the first book, the first thing she realized was that the book had been used many, many times before, she could tell from the small tears that she could see on the edge of some pages and few smudges that could be found around the edges of the pages. Curiously opening the book Luna began read.

After several minuets of reading Luna looked up, realizing that it was time for her to raise the moon she carefully closed the book and walked outside, as she went out to the balcony and slowly lifted herself into the sky Spike stumbled down the stairs towards Twilight who was busy reading her book on magic detection.

"Scroll from the princess" he said groggily, wanting nothing more than some sleep.

Rushing forward, Twilight levitated the scroll out of his hands and unrolled it so she could see it, the scroll read:

Dear Twilight Sparkle - My faithful student

I am sending this to wish you a quick recovery after your incident, I would also like it if both you and Luna to stay away from Canterlot, if you were to come back you would both be at a large risk. Even though you are now Luna's student, I would still like it if you and friends continued to send me reports on friendship whenever possible. I would also like to tell you that an event that has not been held for more than 1000 years is coming up, it was originally called the birth of the moon, but the event is really Luna's birthday. This takes place in five days. I am sure she would not have told you this, however I believe that it should be celebrated and not forgotten, but please do try to keep it small she has always hated crowds.

Sincerely Princess Celestia

Twilight looked at the letter, shocked for a second, before she turned to Spike. "Spike, tell Luna that I'm heading over to SugarCube Corner, ok?" she said, making sure he was listening.

"Mmhm" he said, sitting down on the couch as Twilight quickly trotted outside.

Twilight walked through the nearly empty streets, the only ponies she noticed out were either closing up their shops or were quickly rushing home before it got dark. Once she arrived at sugar cube corner, Twilight trotted up the steps noticing the lights in the house on and somepony inside moving backwards and forwards. Twilight knocked and entered the building to find Pinky Pie racing around collecting ribbons and banners for the party.

"Pinky" she called out, stepping forward and stopping her.

"Oh hi Twilight, I was just finishing up the party it's nearly done I'm so excited I mean it's a party for a princess won't this be great though I'll have to move all this stuff somewhere else I mean you said you didn't want anyone to know about the princess so we can't have it here how about at the library that would be good because not many people go there anyway."

"Fine, the library sounds good but we have to make a few changes."

"What kind of changes?" she asked, eyeing Twilight suspiciously.

"Uh" Twilight said, uncomfortable with Pinky's strange look. "I was wondering if it would be possible to move the party back five days."

"Why would we do that, as I've always said the sooner the better. After all if you have one sooner than you can have another party even sooner and then another even sooner after that."

"Well I was told by Celestia that it is actually her birthday in five days, it would just be practical to move the celebration to then."

"Her birthday?!" Pinky exclaimed, spinning back around and disappearing in a blur of pink. Not a second later, she reappeared with a bunch of happy birthday banners in her hooves, "I always keep a few spare banners in case of an emergency."

Twilight stared at Pinky, not quite understanding how all the banners just happened to be a deep blue and have stars all over them. "Well it looks like you got this, but remember it must be perfect, I can't ruin the princesses birthday party, imagine what she would do. She would probably banish me to the moon, or would she banish me to the sun? But that doesn't matter, it must be perfect!" Twilight said, watching Pinky carefully as she walked out house.

Twilight closed the door and let out a sigh of relief, so far things seemed to be looking up, she hadn't completely embarrassed herself and forgotten about Luna's birthday, Pinky seemed to have things under control, although knowing Pinky she should probably check in again before the party. Now all that was left was to make sure everything else was perfect.

Once Twilight arrived back home, she found Luna immersed in the book again, carefully walking past her, Twilight went over to the the bookshelf labeled 'Equestrian History'. Twilight carefully began scanning the bookshelves, eventually her face lit up as she found a book that looked like it could be helpful.

Twilight slowly walked past Luna and lay down on the cushion beside her, Twilight slowly opened the book and began to read.

Contents:

National Equestrian Celebrations.
Rural Equestrian Celebrations.
Solar Celebrations.
Lunar Celebrations.

Seeing the part she wanted Twilight flipped to the Lunar celebrations and began to read.

Lunar Celebrations.
There are many different Lunar celebrations, some of which have been lost over time, and those that haven't are no longer practiced or celebrated. The first celebration was the Winter Solstice, this stopped being practiced around one thousand one hundred years ago. This celebration used to signify the longest night of the year, ponies used to gather at a randomly picked town to watch as the moon was raised. This celebration was never very popular, with the only turnout being small groups of ponies, some of which were only there to sell their products. Eventually this tradition was called off when the organizer resigned due to the small turnout and lack of interest in the event, since then the tradition has died off and been all but forgotten.

Twilight stared at the book, disgusted before turning to Luna shocked. As she did so, seeing the movement in the corner of her eye, Luna lifted her head and looked at Twilight, the second she saw the look on Twilight face, she recoiled back a little before hesitantly asking "What is it that you are looking at?"

"Nothing" Twilight said hastily trying to hide the book from sight. "Just reading." she said smiling innocently.

"Oh, ok then." Luna said turning back to her book with a disappointed look on her face and ears flattened back. Sighing with relief and not noticing Luna's devastated look, Twilight opened the book again and began to search through it.

The next tradition was the Birth Of The Moon, this tradition was celebrated four times, the first time the entire nation participated, although this was the only time it had a high turnout, and the event was cancelled after 3 consecutive years of low turnouts. This tradition stopped a little under a thousand years ago. Read more of this celebration on page 24.

Twilight quickly turned over to page twenty-four and began to read.

The celebration 'The Birth Of The Moon' began early in the night, this was signified by the raising of the moon, the rest of the celebration consisted mostly of festivities including things such as; the finest foods from the castle, top class entertainment and many others that slowly began to die out before the tradition was canceled. Little is know of the tradition that was held between royalty, the only information found stated that it was a private event and they made a few appearances throughout the night, however most of it was held behind closed doors. Throughout the entire celebration every flag in Equestria was replaced by a flag with only the moon on it. This was supposed to celebrate the moon and night however most towns and families left the old flag standing saying that it would be deserting the Princess of the sun, Celestia.

Twilight stared at the book, not wanting to read on any further, she could see how Luna's birthday was celebrated, and from what she had read making it the same would only bring back bad memories, Twilight could tell that this wasn't going to help her at all so she stood up carefully and placed the book on the shelf before looking around. Spike was sleeping soundly and Luna had just looked back up from her book and was watching Twilight place the book back. As Twilight yawned she said goodnight to Luna and began to slowly walk up the stairs. Once she got to her room, Twilight went forward and collapsed on her bed, not even bothering to pull up the sheets before she drifted off into sleep.

[Editor's Notes]
Hope you all enjoy this chapter, sorry about the delay, but Kripk3y was being a tree.
I will also be moving countries soon and will be having a 2 week detour through London and New York, at which point it is unlikely I will be able to access the Internet to download and edit Kripk3y's Drafts. So I'm not sure what will happen, either Kripk3y will just edit them himself and upload them, or will get some one else to do it for him, it's up to him.
Zagzig17 out.

Comments

[appledash2011]

MORE

[Jarlax]

There are quite a few grammatical mistakes in this chapter, which make it a bit difficult to read. The story itself is good, but you may want to work on your pacing and possibly consider having multiple people edit your chapters.

I noticed several instances of "your" being used when it should have been "you're", and I think at least twice you used the word "people" when it really should have been "ponies".

Still a good story though.

[-Key-]

1773974
Oops, I probably will get another editor for when Zagzig17 does go away, then maybe they can both edit. As for using people instead of ponies, this is my first MLP fan fiction, actually it's my first fan fiction ever, so I am used to using people instead of ponies.

Thank you, I'll try to fix any mistakes I find for the future chapters

[Someonepic]

1773974
I wish to apologise. I rather rushed through editing this chapter so that Kripkey would be able to upload it quickly, unfortunately that came at the cost of quality. That was my mistake, and so I apologise. Next time, no matter the time since the last update, I'll take my time and go through with a fine tooth comb.

[Mossflower]

great chapter
one thing though, twilight seems a little too panicky. i didn't chalk it up to much at first, seeing as luna was in twilight's home, twilight's bound to be frantic at first, but seeing as her demeanor didn't change much throughout the chapter; it got a little annoying.

[-Key-]

1775689 Oh well don't worry she does calm down quite a lot in the next chapter, and who knows she could have a reason to be so worried.

[Mossflower]

1778042
good to hear.
and twilight might very well have a good reason for being so worried, but on the other hand; it's twilight we're talking about...

[DarkSnowGaming]

[A/N] Sorry about the late update, I was just procrastinating and being lazy. All other chapter should be up quicker, hope you enjoy the new chapter.

This didn't age well.

Twilight stared at Pinky, not quite understanding how all the banners just happened to be a deep blue and have stars all over them. "Well it looks like you got this, but remember it must be perfect, I can't ruin the princesses birthday party, imagine what she would do. She would probably banish me to the moon, or would she banish me to the sun? But that doesn't matter, it must be perfect!" Twilight said, watching Pinky carefully as she walked out house.

Make sure not to say that around Luna, she would be insulted and probably hurt that Twilight would think something like that.