How not to behave in a library.

by The_Swedish_Horror

A warm welcome

Two weeks had passed since Twilight's disappearance and the lavender unicorn had managed to hide from princess Celestia virtually undetected, she thought. Now the princess would have cooled off and maybe even forgotten all about the very important book that Twilight had damaged. And maybe, just maybe, she had missed Twilight so much that she would give her a warm welcome when she arrived... That was so heart warming, Twilight thought. Celestia might say "Oh, dear Twilight! How I missed you, my faithful student. I've been so worried! I'm so glad that you're safe! O, Twilight, when you were gone I realized how important you are to me and how foolish it was to ever be angry at you! Please can you forgive me?". And then Twilight would run to her and she would say "Dear Princess Celestia, off course I forgive you!" and the princess would give Twilight a big hug and tell her how much she loved her and Twilight would be so happy that her heart would almost burst with joy! And all about the dusty old book would be forgotten, she thought. Twilight smiled a happy smile when she stepped down from the train car that just had brought her back to Canterlot. How wonderful it would be!

The lavender unicorn trotted trough the streets of Equestria's capital and looked for posters with her picture on them, maybe even with a message from Celestia telling everypony how much she missed Twilight and how important she was to her. But there were no posters, except for one about "The Great and Powerful Trixie's Magic Show next Thursday!".

When she trotted trough the old castle's gate the guards barely looked at her. Maybe they were new recruits and they didn't know who she was? That would most likely be the case, Twilight thought.
"Hello!" she said with a smile.
One of them responded with a short nod. The other just ignored her.

Twilight continued trough the corridors and soon she had reached the big, ornamented doors to the princess's throne room. She begun to feel a little nervous now. Twilight's heart started to pound a little and her legs became shaky. The unicorn had to sit down on the carpet and take a deep breath. Then, slowly, she opened the doors and snuck into the magnificent throne room of Celestia.

At the end of the great hall she could see the princess herself, but her back was turned towards her. Celestia, tall and majestic, seemed to stare into an elaborate glass window. Twilight felt a hard lump in her throat and suddenly all of her previous euphoria had left her. This was not the welcome she had hoped for.
"Um... princess Celestia?" she asked.
"Twilight Sparkle."
"I... I'm so sorry... I tried to... I meant to... to..."
Celestia turned towards her and looked directly at the poor unicorn. Twilight quivered and she felt like she wanted to disappear into the carpet, shrink to the size of a little ant and hide among the cracks in the wall.
"I'm so sorry that I'm late... I tried to reach you earlier, but... but I couldn't... because... I..."
"Couldn't or wouldn't?"
"I really wanted to... to get here and... meet you... but I was unable because I... I missed the train! Because I wasn't on it! That's it!"
"That, Twilight, is the very definition of missing the train."
"Yes, yes off course! Silly me... I just... he he... Off course it is."
"Then you expect me to believe that you missed every single train to Canterlot from Ponyville Station every day, fifteen days in a row? That is seventy three trains, Twilight."
"I... I was scared..."
"And did you have any reason to be scared, my faithful student?"
"No, off course not... I mean yes... No! I mean no! I don't know, because... I don't know what you are referring to... what you might have heard?"
The princess started to slowly walk towards Twilight, her gaze pinning her to the floor. The little unicorn cowered and involuntarily turned her ears back. There was no smile on Celestia's face. Not even a trace of a smile. Twilight tried to make herself smaller, pressing her hooves into the red carpet.
"Do you take me for a fool, Twilight Sparkle?" the princess asked.
"No, off cour..."
"BE SILENT!" Celestia shouted with a voice similar to princess Luna's when she was angry. All lights had suddenly went out, leaving only shadow and darkness in the great hall. "I'm very disappointed by your outrageous behaviour! I know everything you've done in these two weeks!"
"Oh no! You have red my thoughts!"
"No! But do I read the newspaper like everypony else, and I'm not entirely stupid... Sabotage, lies, terrorism, arson and even attacking an elderly mare! I'm very disappointed, Twilight... No, I'm shocked! This behaviour is beyond belief!"

Twilight crawled backwards on the carpet, almost stumbling over her own tail. She was so ashamed... How she wished she could just run away. Just turn around and flee... She would not stop until she reached the farthest shore of the Equestrian coast and then she would jump into the water and swim across the ocean, just to get away forever. What to do? What to do?! And what would Celestia do to her? Think Twilight, think!
Suddenly the unicorn got a small glimmer of desperate hope in her eyes!

"HA HA HA! Poor innocent Twilight will take all the blame, while I, a changeling who is not in any way related to Twilight, will get away with my evil plan! Ha ha!" she said with a voice that sounded like a really bad impersonation of a pirate.
With a dramatic gesture Twilight galloped across the hall, jumped up on a table and grabbed a silver candelabrum.
"Arrr! This be my plunder! Now back to queen Chrysalis's cave! Harr harr!"
"Twilight Sparkle! What are you doing?!"
"Ha ha! Yarr!"
Twilight leapt from the table and started to run around with the candelabrum in her snout, dropping big stains of the still warm candle-grease on the carpet.
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE! STOP AT ONCE!"
"I'm not Twilight Sparkle! I'm a totally different pony!" she screamed in desperation, almost starting to cry.

Twilight ran for the door, but Celestia slammed it shut with a spark of magic from her horn. The exit was blocked!
"This is ridiculous, calm down Twilight! Put that back!"
The unicorn dropped the candelabrum on the marble floor beside the carpet with a clanging sound. She tried to run in a different direction, but Celestia firmly put her hoof on her tail in a swift move that completely caught her off guard. Twilight wouldn't move anywhere.
"You thought it would take magic to stop you?" the princess asked with a smile. "Now, please clam down, Twilight. I will not banish you or put you in magic kindergarten. But I do want you to write me a friendship report on this insane adventure of yours..."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much princess Celestia! Does this mean that you forgive me for all the things I've done?" Twilight asked, with a sigh of relief.
"Yes, my faithful student. With all my heart," Celestia said in her warmest voice.
"Even for what happened to your book?"
"What? What book...?"

"Oh buck."

THE END

Comments

[Kage no Brony]

This escalated very quickly. And it was hilarious the entire time.

Good job. Love the ending.

[Sakura]

Was totally not expecting that ending..