"...Through it all, my father was a caring and dedicated stallion. I know he will be watching us from wherever he is now, but for his friends and family, he will be greatly missed." Twilight left the podium to allow Celestia to return.
"Thank you Twilight." She quietly said to her student as she passes before turning to face the audience. "As we have heard, he lived a great life. One that, to those he left behind, gives hope of reunion in the next life. It is with great sadness and undeniable joy that we commend his soul to the Creators." With those final words, Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, and Twilight Velvet channeled their magic into a single magical fire that reduced the remains to naught but ash, as is Unicorn tradition.
Twilight Velvet was meant to collect the ashes, but the duty fell to Twilight Sparkle as her mother broke into sobs, consoled by her son.
Twilight took her father's remains off the alter on which they rested and deposited them in a burial urn, which she then sealed and passed over to her mother.
"No dear, you do it," resolve came to the old widows voice, "I know he would be proud to be finally laid to rest by you dear."
Twilight did not flinch at her mother's words but instead turned to the blank tombstone and deep void before it. She lowered the urn into the dirt, quickly covering it. Her horn glowed more brightly as seeds were distributed, watered, and sprouted with magic. By the time she had finished, the grave site appeared undisturbed. She looked up at the blank tombstone, to her mother and brother who both nodded, and began engraving the stone.
"Here lies Night Light, Duke of South Territorial Equestria. Loving husband, caring father, and dear friend. May he rest in peace."
She finished the grave with the image of his double-moons cutie mark.
She turned back to see a nod from her mentor. The funeral was complete, and just in time as the ceremonial rain shower was seconds away.
The congregation herded out of the graveyard into the castle.
Twilight was the last to remain outside at the grave as the rain started in earnest. She stared at the cutie mark she had just carved.
"Why... why... Why didn't you ever come visit? Ponyville isn't that far... Why didn't you ever write? I sent you letters... Why didn't you ever visit me back in the palace?
"Was I just a burden that you could write off to Celestia? Why did Shining get invited to Hearthwarmings at home, while I got nothing! You wouldn't even talk to me at his wedding!"
The sound of hooves sloshing through the rain behind her broke her focus.
"Twilight..."
She turned expecting to see her mother finally taking an interest in her life, but no.
"Twilight my faithful student, please come inside."
Celestia sat beside her student, projecting a shield above them to block the rain.
"Twilight, I know you want to pay your respects, but-"
"I don't want to pay my respects, I want answers!" She turned to her mentor and laid her soaking head into her barrel.
"What's wrong my student?"
"I'm just... Why did they never visit me? Even now, you are the only one who cares enough to come talk to me!" she buried her muzzle into Celestia's side. Celestia returned the gesture, reaching down to nuzzle her student.
"My most wonderful student, I'm sure all of your friends are worried about you." Celestia said, "They probably just thought you needed some alone time."
Instead of quiet acceptance, Celestia was surprised as her student pulled away from her.
"Some alone time? Some alone time! Like the last time I was crying all alone after Shining's wedding rehearsal? Like when I went insane with the thought you would punish me for not sending a friendship report? Yeah, they give me a lot of alone time! But that's not even what I'm talking about! I mean my parents! When was the last time they visited me, do you know?"
Celestia could see that it was time for damage control.
"I'm sure they have just been busy recently, the trip to Ponyville takes a whole day."
"Oh dear, a whole day! Where would they ever find the time!" sarcasm dripped from her words. This had taken a turn Celestia had not expected, she never heard her student like this.
Twilight continued, "It's not like they could schedule a visit to the palace or anything!"
"The palace?" Celestia asked quietly.
"The palace! They lived like twenty minutes away by hoof!"
"But you can't expect them to know when you are visiting."
"Visiting! Ha! You really don't know the last time I talked with them! Tell me, how many times do you remember them visiting me since becoming your student? Actually, make that visits, letters, or anything at all."
Celestia's eyes grew wide, "Are you saying..."
"Never. They never visited. They just dumped me off on you and never spoke to me again."
"What about at the wedding? They were there!" Celestia remembered, trying to disprove what she already knew to be true.
"After I called out the fake Cadence when you and Shining condemned me, I thought my friends would come to comfort me. Of course they didn't, mind you, but I still had the desperate hope that my parents would care enough to comfort their own foal, but of course they went with you, Shining, and my own friends to comfort Chrysalis."
Celestia could feel the cut of the comment edged towards her. She was becoming desperate. She opened her mouth to talk, but no words came out.
Twilight turned back to her mentor, "I loved you princess... I loved you like a mother. I even had a silly little dream as a filly that you were my real mother, and when you accepted me a your student you were taking me home. A silly thought, but as time went on it felt more and more real. My so called "real" family had abandoned me, and you were there to fill the void."
Twilight turned back to the grave, and her voice grew cold.
"...or at least you were. When my 'dusty old books' warned of catastrophe. I thought you would take me seriously. I was upset when you shrugged off my warning like it was meaningless. I got over it quickly though, only to later find out that you purposefully led me astray, throwing me headlong against a not-so-mythical ancient monster."
She turned to glare at her mentor, "I nearly died four times that night."
She looked back to the grave once again. "So I lived through that, and wanted to get back at you by leaving the castle for a few days, thinking you would miss me. That backfired spectacularly when you were fine with me abandoning my studies for the sake of 'friendship'. I honestly thought you wouldn't want me to leave, but it's not like I haven't felt that feeling before.
"So I make sure to keep in touch with you through weekly 'friendship reports' so I don't lose you like I did my 'real' parents, but lo and behold, 'it's not a big deal!' You even go as far as to take the only special connection I had with you anymore, and give it to a quarter of the population of Ponyville. My last special connection to you given out like cheap party favors."
Celestia was on the verge of tears herself now, "Twilight..."
"Oh, I'm not done yet! Next I had a great adventure combating the spirit of chaos, in which you played no significant role. Then we had Sombra who you sent me blindly to fight, under specific orders that it had to be 'me alone' that finished the job. You know what was great about that time? If it were not for Spike disobeying your order I would have gone insane at the Gate of Fear! And what's more, how about this: you know how I gave the Crystal Heart to Spike to take to Cadence? I nearly didn't! I thought your command had some deep meaning, like there was a specific reason 'it had to be me' but no! It was some kind of lesson about priorities! Priorities! You nearly had me condemn an entire empire to slavery and death to learn a lesson about priorities!
"You know who needs to learn about priorities? I'll give you a hint. She's big, white, and a monster."
But Celestia did play a role against Discord,she sent back all the letters to Twilight which allowed to fight the corruption,if not for that Discord would have won.
Twilight getting pissed off enough to call Celestia a monster? Can't really see that ever happening tbh...
2043590 Well she did just admit that she feels that Celestia flagrantly put her in harm's way on multiple occasions, and also, she might not be in the best state of mind right now, ya know, cuz' of the other stuff; like her father dying 'n such. She has proven to not be the best under stress, emotional or otherwise.
2043545 Sometimes, especially when ure angry, you ignore even totally obvious facts.
I didn't even read the story, but I love all kinds of a Twilight in psycho modus :3.
Dis gon be gud
2043930
That is true...ok i will go with that.
Wages of Sin:Is this going to be one of those Twilight turns evil stories? because it seems it will be one of those stories.
I will probably love the arguments that her mother has for this...because they are most likely going to be idiotic.
hmm...you have my interest
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at least....when the next one comes out that is
2043590
oh hai thar
you'd be surprised what someone can do in a traumatic situation. twilight just lost her father, and as a result there's probably a little bit of trauma in her life at the present moment. also she's just started to open up about how her parents seem to have abandoned her, about how celestia appears to just be throwing twilight into harms way without ever seeming to be there to help. as "wages of sin" said, she's likely to not be in the right state of mind.
also, twilight has anxiety issues, which can really screw a person over in stressful situations, kinda like this one seeing as she just lost her father.
You have my interest good brony.
I've always thought this about that episode. Celestia was trolling Twilight hard by making the whole "save the Crystal Empire" quest into some kind of "test." I mean, seriously, she couldn't have just said "Twilight, could you go save these poor ponies from a terrible evil like you've done at least twice in the past." But no! She has to frame the whole thing as a test, to a pony whom she knows will utterly freak out over the slightest hint of any mode of academic assessment. Pretty ridiculous.
Meh, it's a decent enough story, but really OOC for Twilight. It seems to come out of nowhere. To write a story like this, you'd need to start it from Nightmare Moon's return and show Twilight becoming more and more discontent until she snaps. This is just way too cynical to be the Twilight Sparkle we know and love (best pony! )
You have 23 likes as of me writing this, so you probably don't care so much for this one little comment, but I think you'd need to expand this a whole lot more for it to be plausible.
2046264
She's at her father's funeral. If you've ever been to a close relatives funeral, then you'd know that emotions are at an all time high.
And once you start ranting, sometimes everything comes out.
And these kinds of feelings of neglect can often be 'out of nowhere'. She just hid it until it burst.
2046385
Yes, I have been to a family member's funeral. No, I didn't bring up things that have never even crossed my mind before.
What I'm getting at is there's nothing in the show to build up to this. No hint of these emotions at all, so you'd have to re-write those bits to show emotion actually building.
2046476
People react in different ways,for example,at my grandma's funeral i did not cry and hardly ever spoke,just trying to be as alone as i could,while my aunt was crying and yelling all the time at everyone,or my uncle acting like nothing happened,even telling jokes.
What i want to say is that there are many of reacting to death,Twilight just happened to react by telling all her thoughts and feelings she has kept inside of her.
2046131 I too found that kind of odd, namely that Celestia would even feel the need to test whether or not Twilight would make a selfless sacrifice. Something Twilight has ALREADY BEEN KNOWN TO DO well before that episode. "A Bird in the Hoof" where Twilight willingly tried to divert Celestia's displeasure onto herself to protect Fluttershy, and nearly everything she does in "Sweet and Elite" overall certainly come to mind. Willingly failing a test to save an entire city isn't even the hardest choice to make, in comparison to those or not.
I have arguments against some of the stuff Twilight is saying here, namely regarding Nightmare Moon and Discord, but it's pretty clear that Twi is not exactly in a rational state of mind here, so I'll stay silent and wait to see what you, dear author, have in mind for whatever happens next
I do agree with Twi about her friends abandoning her during the wedding. We all know Twilight was in the wrong there, but after watching her brother disown her, you'd think they'd have SOME compassion for the friend who has done so much for them the one time she REALLY screws up, and at least HINT that they still care about her even if they don't approve of her behaviour
Oh, and Celestia having no compassion for Twilight after he brother AND her "best friends" all basically disown her? I defend Celestia against Molestia and Trollestia comments, and support her overall as a character, but that was definitely messed up
And during "This Day Aria" just before Cadence goes "Oh the wedding we won't make", there's a brief appearance by Twi's parents. Seemingly oblivious to, and unconcerned with the fact that Shining's sister is not present for his wedding
This was dark and disturbing...I am intrigued and wish to see what you have planned, tracking (We really need a Hoof-salute emoticon)
2048076 Twilight was in the right to accuse Cadence though. If it had just been her acting out of character before her wedding than that would have been a different matter. But all of Canterlot was under threat of invasion, the defense of the city rested in large part on the shoulders of one stallion, and that stallion was due to get married. Suddenly his bride starts acting unusual and an expert in magic second only to the Royal Sisters themselves says she's seen a brainwashing spell being cast on him. While Twilight may have been acting for the wrong reasons (and she was only doing so in part) her accusations were perfectly credible and should have been examined by Celestia at least. And she certainly didn't deserve a knife to the heart from all her friends and her teacher because she was concerned for her country and her family.
2049603 Oh please, don't get me wrong! I agree Twilight's heart was in the right place, as was her motivation. Unfortunately, she acted quite hysterically and really did nothing to establish her credibility. As much as I love Twilight, cornering "Cadence" and repeatedly yelling "EVIL" at her while providing no little to no evidence just made her look possessive of her big brother while acting in a threatening manner toward the already stressed out bride to the others.
Also...Twilight didn't actually accuse "Cadence" of being a threat to Canterlot, just of having bad intentions toward Shining. Twilight is my favorite character, and I hate to cast doubt on her credibility, but she really didn't do a whole lot to make them listen to her. Besides, I did already say that the rest of the Mane 6 + Celestia handled that wrong, so you might not have caught my whole post
2049753 Oh no I read the whole thing. My objection isn't that she went about it the right way, just that she was in the right to have accused Cadence of acting unpleasant and cruel and using sinister magic in a time when Equestria would be under high security, and as such while she deserved Shining's reprimand, her accusations should have held weight. Instead the entire cast chooses to follow along on the words of two ponies they barely know, both of whom are equally emotional, without any sort of follow up.
While Twilight did indeed deserve a calling out for how harshly she went about it, she was far from out of line in her line of thinking.
2049856 In that case, we're on the same page
I do think the way "Cadence" behaved should have set off alarm bells for everyone, it's just I can also see why Twilight's manner might cause them to dismiss her
2049913 I can see why Twilight's manner would cause them to dismiss her behaviour, but not her concerns. That was just plain folly. But yeah, I think we pretty much agree.
Noooo! Don't agree you two! I was getting such an in-depth analysis! (That is actually helping me develop the story further!)
Btw, thanks for bringing up the points you did, it really helps me make the story more "whole" (broader perspectives makes a broader story!)
2050075 Nifty, I'm not usually able to contribute to a story I'm reading *High hoofs Knight of Cerberus*
you've attracted my attention.....
Oh, shit. Oooooh, shit...
A polar bear?
An Arctic fox?
A Genderbent ANGEL!?
TELL ME!!! *shakes computer* I MUST KNOW!!
My personal head-fanon of Celestia would have nodded and said: "Yes, I am a monster, Twilight Sparkle. In fact, your little childlike mind cannot possibly contain or comprehend the crimes I have had to commit or the oceans of innocent blood I have had to shed to give Equestria it's current peaceful society. Don't be so quick to condemn what you can't understand my faithful student. You are not old enough, powerful enough or even a tiny bit wise enough to even begin to understand the choices I have made over the millennia. Only when you reach the point that, whenever you drink you can only taste blood, whenever you eat you can only taste ashes, when screams echo constantly in your ears and, whenever you try to sleep or even when you briefly blink an eye, you see endless faces of friends and loved ones from long ago screaming that you are a murderer, a liar, a tyrant and a traitor, only then will you understand me!"
Hey now, when you bust into a wedding and make wild accusations with no proof and the bride storms out crying, of course everyone is going to go comfort her. You weren't in tears yet at that point and when two people you care about have a fight and split up, the natural tendency is to go after the crying one first.
You're right that pretty much everything else can be easily seen as Celestia being a jerk, though.
Seriously, as of chapter 1, this story totally falls apart.
Can anyone reasonably explain to me how Twilight acts the way she does THROUGH THE ENTIRE SERIES THUS FAR with this much anger and bitterness inside her?
No one can hide so much hatred.
Plus, as a very simple canonical coup de grace to this notion.... remember that the Elements respond to the Bearer's internal emotional states. If Twilight held this much disharmony within her, she would have failed to stop Discord and Tirek.
She would also not have wept over seeing Celestia being blasted by NMM in the past.
Honestly, where on earth is all of this even coming from? Twilight just starts raging for no reason.
4100089 Sooooo, that time Celestia was actually The Master?
2048076 The problem with yours and everyone's analysis of the wedding episode is that the problems were SHODDY CRAPSHOT WRITING rather then genuine personality flaws.
Learn to look outside the borders of the TV screen when analyzing a show.
I think in no less than 12 dimensions, for instance.
i.qkme.me/3osrj1.jpg
fimfiction-static.net/images/story_images/184414.png?1398115355
Harmony is a lie,
there is only passion,
through passion you gain strength,
through strenght you gain power,
through power you gain victory,
throught victory dear Twilight, your chains are broken,
AND MAGIC SHALL SET YOU FREE!
You forgot to mention that Celestia turned Sombra into a shadow thus giving him an advantage.
Yep im likin it
You have a point here. Her parents only showed up three times that I know of in the show: at Shinings wedding, when Twilight got her cutie mark, and at her coronation-- and they never actually say anything. Her "BBBFF" completely forgot to tell her he was getting married --or even dating-- until the very last second. And even then he just sent her a letter. Then there's what you were saying with the friendship letters, and how Celestia didn't even try to make her come home when she moved to ponyville. After she became a princess Celestia ended the letters completely! It only gets worse as the series goes on!
delete end " marks.
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Capitalize bolded words.
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I think I need to read your fic Titiles and Values after this. Interesting opening chapter.
5221550 That quote of Dissonance was gold xD
While she's probably speaking out of grief for most of that, she does have a point about the Crystal Empire stuff. I've always consider that one of Celestia's stupidest plans, and I'm not alone in that.
I am actually...rather impressed with this Twilight. It's about time!
The buuuuuuurn
Wow, funerals are emotional.
YOUCH!!!!
uncalled for
11511355
But true.