Nightmare Twilight

by Tiger Girl

I'm a. . . Princess?

The orange sun peaked lazily over the western horizon, emitting bright rays which slowly brightened the legendary city of Canterlot, reflecting on the morning dew and sneaking inside the curtained windows. Most royal ponies, undisturbed by the early morning sunlight, snuggled deeper into the warmth of their beds to snatch a few more hours of sleep before the day began.

However, a certain lavender unicorn pony lived by a warped aphorism: “Late to bed, early to rise.”

Twilight Sparkle peaked open her large, purple eyes and soaked in the warm ray of sun laying over her bed. Although her head felt fuzzy and her mouth retained the hazy taste of sleep, she began to make mental notes of her activities for the day.

Unlike any other morning, her mind was like a sheet of paper waiting hopelessly for a pen to mark its pristine whiteness. Could it be possible that Celestia had not assigned anything for her? Baffled, she decided to wake up, shaking off the cotton sheets and reaching up with what she thought was her hoof to rub her sleepy eyes. A number of fluffy but painful, narrow spikes seemed to shove into her eye all at once, causing the mare to cry out in pain.

"Ohmygosh that hurts!!"

Jerking her teary eye open, she stared in shock dismay at the protruding appendages on each side of her body. In a state of sheer fright, she shut her eyes tightly, clutched at the blankets and called for the purple dragon who slept at the foot of her bed.

“SPIKE! HELP!”

A sigh and a yarn, the sound of covers shifting, and small patters of feet sounded chronologically until they reached the bedside of the frantic, frozen unicorn. He didn't understand why she was frightened, but his tired head didn't leave him much room for concern. He reached out and gave her one prick with a sharp nail.

“Youch!”

Twilight jumped up quickly and realized with horror that she was hovering over her bed. Flapping frantically, she lost control and fell hard onto her bed, sending a loud poof of cotton down underneath her.

She lay stunned. Spike hesitated, then attempted to to tip toe quietly back to his bed. However, he felt any hopes of a good morning's rest sweep away as he was lifted up in an silent aura of magic and dragged to the side of his owner.

"Ok, Spike." Twilight's whispered voice sounded funny as she lay, to scared of her own body to move it. "Spike, there's a theory that if a pony lives with a dragon, and that dragon isn't growing any wings, then somehow a spell might have been accidentally switched destinies and given it to the pony. It's happened Spike." She gasped big breaths and stared at the ceiling.

Spike rolled his emerald eyes and sighed. Whatever had he done to deserve Twilight freaking out at 6 AM, when he could be getting some good sleep? "Twilight, you have wings. . . remember the coronation?"

Twilight's eyes grew big and she sat up quickly. "Oh, yes! I’m a. . . Princess!”

"Now that's the right track." Spike encouraged. "But for a alicorn of your intellect, it does surprise me how you can be so forgetful of such a big event." The dragon yawned and decided it safe to slip off the bed and head towards his. But a loud burst from Twilight caused him to freeze painfully in his tracks.

“I’M A PRINCESS? SPIKE, GET ME A BOOK THAT SHOWS ME WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO!”

This time, Twilight lifted Spike with a tenacious aurora of magic and galloped down the stairs with the irritated dragon hovering over her head.

The annoyed dragon, not able to move in the transparent, purple wrap, took to complaining all the way to the castle's library. “Oh common Twilight, you know I like to sleep in. And besides, all that work I did at the coronation yesterday made me really tired. Besides, Princess Celestia said that we would have time for that later, and Oudd!” Spike’s speech was cut short by a hard, abrupt landing on the carpet.

"But Spike, she said later, and later means now!" retorted Twilight who had already made it to the castle library and pulling book after book off the shelves and throwing them into an accumulating pile. “No, No, No No, NO! There are no books about being a Princess!” she yelled, her eye twitching in frustration. Pulling books wasn't fast enough; Twilight advanced to covering ground by pulling full bookshelves over and dumping it's contents on the carpeted ground.

"Twilight Sparkle, what exactly do you think you're doing?"

Twilight stopped in horror and stared from her cascade of books to the angry, rich voice above her.

"I mean," the pony cleared her throat and assumed a gentler tone, "This is not how a young Princess conducts her time at the library."

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight looked around her and realized that she was standing awkwardly in a stack of jumbled books, her mane frizzled and eyes diluted in no longer looked like the finest library in Equestria.

With a gasp of dismay, she instantly groveled at Celestia's golden hooves. “Please don’t punish me, I’ll clean it up! Don’t send me back to Magic Kindergarten!”

Celestia rolled her eyes but smiled patiently at the distressed alicorn.

“Twilight, don’t worry about the mess, I just want you to listen to me carefully. First, there are no books about being a Princess because it’s something that you are through destiny in itself. Although study is essential for properly performing your duties, being a Princess in itself not something that you can learn.. Remember that last stack of books I sent you? Those contained that last established spells ever invented by StarSwirl the Bearded or any other mastermind unicorns. You probably did not realize the complication of those spells, but only because you have studied for years and attain an immense talent in the art of magic.”

She gracefully lifted up Twilight’s face with a with her hoof, “Twilight, you don’t even realize your intellect. You know as many spells as me—my only advantage being centuries of practice. That’s why I can no longer teach you, why there are no longer books to study. When I saw how far you've come there was one last test—to see if you could create your own magic. If you passed, then I knew you were ready. So I sent you a spell that would cause discourse, cacophony that you could only repair by rewriting the spell. My dear Twilight, you are more than ready. All you have to do is believe in yourself and meet your destiny with grace.”

Twilight had been sitting in wide eyed attentiveness at the white Alicorn’s hooves during her speech, and now slowly closed her gaping mouth. “Ok Celestia,” Twilight stood on her shaking hooves and drew her disconcerted wings to her side. “But this is something I’m not used to. I’m great at memorizing facts, which is what I’ve done for all my life. Now. . .”

“Now you will use that knowledge to rule over Pony City."

“City? But. . . are you saying that Ponyville is becoming a city?” asked Twilight carefully, not sure if she'd heard the Princess correctly.

“Yes dear, you can rein with all the ones you love, and nothing will be changed but your daily activities and, of course, people’s attitude around you.”

“Oh Princess Celestia, Thank you!” Twilight squealed, jumping up and down excitedly and Celestia's answer to her unspoken worry. “Being a Princess sounds wonderful now! When do I go back?"

"Tonight Twilight, tonight. I have to be leaving now, a Princess always has tasks to be done.” Celestia began to depart, but stopped right outside the library door.

“Oh, Twilight dear, you should thank Spike for alerting me that you were. . .” she searched for a less insulting phrase than “going insane,” “. . .thinking irrationally. He really is a great assistant.” With a wink, she left the room.

“Heheh,” smiled the dragon who had been standing awkwardly by the library’s entrance during Celestia's entire speech. “Oh Spike thank you so much,” Twilight said, embracing Spike gratefully. But now I have to get ready to leave for Ponyville and tell my friends the good news—"

“We’re going to live in the CITAYYYY!” squealed an excited, pitched voice from a pink pony who randomly bounced from a alcove in the library “And it’s going to be so amazing, because everything will be sparkling and there will be lots of cake and music and everypony will be so fancy and there will be TONS OF PARTAYYYS!! No, wait, GALAS!!!!!”

Twilight almost jumped out of her hooves at Pinkie Pie's sudden appearance, but quickly remembered that her friends were with her in Canterlot.

“Oh, Hi everypony," Twilight said, "I forget you were all here.”

“That’s alright Sugercube” said Applejack, an orange pony with a deep Southern accent, “We’re real right happy for you, oh, and uhh the whole city reversion thing."

“Ponyville becoming a city! This is the best thing that has ever happened to me!” swooned Rarity, flicking the purple curl that hung down her neck with a white hoof for her characteristic, dramatic effect.“I will be the greatest fashion designer in Pony City. No, IN ALL OF EQUESTIA!” Even greater than Photoshoot herself!”

“GALAS FOR EVERYPONY!”

“Oh, well, I suppose I should share in the excitement, and if this does not harm my animals in any way, and perhaps Mr. Jay would be so happy to be a famous singer, and well, if I don’t have to do any speeches, then… Yay,” Fluttershy concluded on a note of glee.

“Ah, well, I suppose I’ll just keep on bucking apples. The business will be so great though, and we can get a new roof for our barn,” said Applejack smiling.

Twilight drew her friends in for a big hug. “It will be great for everypony, and I’m so happy that I don’t have to leave my supporting friends to be a Princess.” Twilight said happily. "But where is Rainbow Dash?"

"Oh, Dashie left early this morning. She said that she would be expelled from the Wonderbolt's bootcamp if she missed another day," Fluttershy replied in a soft, understanding tone.

"Well that makes sense," said Twilight, “Let’s go girls, it’s time to go to Ponycity and start supervising the reconstructions.

As the friends trotted away from the castle towards a large, purple hot air balloon, Celestia and her sister, Princess Luna watched from the balcony. “I am so proud of my faithful student” Celestia smiled. I will miss her letters regarding her faithful studies about friendship, but I wish her the best during her new life.”

Luna sighed and turned to her sister. “Celestia, we are worried about Twilight. You saw how she acted this morning. Gifted, yes, she is very, and most of the time she conducts herself wisely. But when the pressure gets to her head, she becomes almost evil. We think it would be of her best interest if you inquired. . . some mental help for her.”

Celestia chuckled and threw a hoof around her sister, “Nonsense Luna, those outbursts are only the result of fear when she believes she has failed me, which she, having graduated, does not need to worry about anymore. Though I cannot imagine where this fear is derived! In fact, she was never in magic kindergarten, advancing to first grade immediately after her answers to the essay test made her teacher spend hours researching their validity. Soon after she applied to my school and performed the gifted disaster that opened the pathway for her education."

Changing the subject, Celestia turned to Luna, “Now sister, let us hasten to prepare for our trip to Saddle Arabia, where we are needed for a meeting with the emperor there.”

“We hate that place,” Luna said grouchily, “It’s male dominated and we are likely to be despised.”

“Oh, I think it will be quite the opposite,” replied Celestia. “But no matter, it is our duty. I will send a quick letter to Twilight regarding our temporary leave, although I feel even a letter is somewhat unnecessary. What could possibly happen in two days’ time?”

Author's Note:

Yes, there's a lot of work to be done, so bear with me. I hope you enjoy the story anyway!

Comments

[Jdts7]

Murphy's law, celestia, THAT is what could happen in 2 days

[Frankie2]

What could possibly happen in two days’ time?

Famous...Last...Words.

[CraftyEndergirl]

Gosh! This is soooooo exiting!!!

[Phara]

What could possibly happen in two days’ time?

Why....just...why

[DarkSnowGaming]

“What could possibly happen in two days’ time?”

Don't jinx it.