Short stories about ponies and whatnot

by shutaro

Twilight rises

Twilight pushed the grimoire under her pillow and pretended to be asleep as she heard hooffalls coming down the corridor outside her room. The door creaked a bit and a few moments later Twilight smelled the familiar scent of her mother fill the room. The slight tingle of magic could be heard, and Twilight felt her blanket shift a little as her mother took the other book in her levitation.

“‘Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone'?” Her mother asked. “Twilight, how often have you read this one already?”

The filly opened one eye. “Twenty seven times. But the next volume is due next week and I want to read this one again before that.”

Twilight’s mother smiled a little smile, sighed and placed the book back onto the shelf. “But not tonight.” She walked back to the bed and touched the tip of her daughter’s horn with her own. “It’s time for you to sleep, my darling. Lights out.”

“Can you leave the nightlight on? Smartypants says that she can keep watch better with some light.”

“If Smartypants says so …” Twilight’s mother send a spark of magic into a crystal by the door, and it filled the room with a warm yellow light. “Sweet dreams.”

“Good night, mom,” answered the filly and snuggled down in her blanket. After the door had closed Twilight slowly counted to one hundred before she pulled the big book out from under her pillow. The embossed golden letters glowed faintly in the shimmer the nightlight sent into the room: “Magical jumps and arcane tunnels - a beginner’s guide to teleportation”. Twilight could already see it in front of her eyes: her mother would praise her for mastering such an advanced spell and the Princess would make her the youngest graduate of PCSGU ever.

She could hardly wait.

***

It felt like she was falling, except she was falling upwards and her inside was turning from left to right while her outside was turning up and down. She hit some kind of ground, or maybe the ceiling,and everywhere around her was darkness, except for the shaft of light shining down (or up) on her. Twilight’s mind moved sluggishly. Her memories came back with the speed of Slow Sweeper, the ancient donkey that worked as the school’s janitor and who was so old, some ponies claimed he had been around before the school had even been founded. She had tried the teleport spell, and something had gone wrong.

Twilight was working through the sludge that clogged her mind when she heard a rustle. Something had moved. Somewhere in the darkness a thing was watching her. There was another rustle, this time from another direction, then another, closer this time. Whatever it was, it was getting closer to her, approaching with the sound of rustling paper and the smell of ink. And then they were all around her: report cards, tests and exams swarmed over her. Like bugs crawling up her legs, flying around her head and tangled in her mane and tail. And they all had one thing in common: each one was a failing grade! ‘F’s covered her, pulled her down and Twilight could only scream and cry.

Through all this horror Twilight almost couldn’t see Princess Celestia come to her, gently floating down in the shaft of light. One strong beat of her wings scattered the papers, and Twilight’s head became clear again. The princess lifted the filly onto her broad back; one flash of magic later the two of them were back in the castle’s courtyard. Celestia set Twilight down on the ground, but lifted her back up as her legs gave out the moment she tried to stand on her own.

“Why would you try such a high-level spell, Twilight?” Celestia asked. “You’re not strong enough for this kind of magic yet.”

Twilight tried to squirm away, but there was no place to hide on Celestia’s back. “I wanted to become stronger faster,” she confessed.

A flash of pain hushed over the Princess’s face as she heard this answer. “Please, not again,” she whispered. “Not while she is so young.”

“I want you and my parents to be proud of me. I want to become a great with magic, like you,” Twilight continued.

Celestia took a deep breath. “Then I have two things to teach to you today, Twilight Sparkle.”

The filly’s eyes looked up, tears still on her face.

“First: your parents and me, we are immensely proud of you. You don’t have to push yourself into almost burning out your magic to prove that you are a capable pony and a great student.”

Celestia brushed the tears from Twilight’s eyes. Then she gently sat her down in a patch of grass.

“And the second thing?” Twilight was already recovering.

“Tell me,” Celestia asked. “Why do we fall?”

Twilight thought about the question for a bit, but finally she shook her head.

Celestia smiled, “So we can learn to pick ourselves up again, my student.”

Author's Note:

What do you mean, "That's an old prompt?"
I write what I want, and I had that one rattling around in the old noggin for days.

---

The Prompt: Recreate a scene from another piece of media within the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Comments

[Pen Brush]

so is celestia imagining Twilight doing what Sunset Shimmer was doing before?

[shutaro]

3252848 Yeah, that's what I was going for.

[Pen Brush]

3253280
Alright, interesting

[nemryn]

I guess Celestia also took over Luna's dream-walking duties as well as the moon-raising ones, or something?

[shutaro]

3282999
Somepony has to keep the nightmares at bay.