And Then She Was One Hundred
And Then She Was One Hundred
by TheTwelfthDoctor
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” cooed a gentle voice. After it didn’t get a response, the voice’s owner lightly prodded the pony it was intending to rouse from slumber. Princess Twilight Sparkle bristled at the contact, curling reflexively into a tight ball.
“Happy hundredth birthday,” the voice said.
Twilight groaned and opened an eyelid. Her half-lidded gaze was met by two rose-coloured irises, wise but soft nonetheless.
“Good morning, Celestia,” Twilight mumbled.
Princess Celestia tilted her head and gave a few regal blinks.
“What’s wrong, my dear Twilight?” she finally asked. “Today is a joyous occasion, is it not?”
Twilight sat up and rubbed her eyes, clearing the drowsiness from her head. She did not speak, but instead stared off into the distance, a blank look on her face. A thick fog of silence descended upon the room. Neither pony broke it for quite a few minutes.
“It’s just hard to… come to terms with, is all, I guess…” Twilight heaved. “B-Being a hundred, I mean. I-It’s a big number.”
Celestia sat next to the trembling alicorn, draping a fluffy white wing over her.
“Shhh, now…” Celestia soothed. “I understand. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”
Twilight winced.
“N-No. I-I want to. T-Talk about it,” she stammered, only slightly more confidently.
“Go on, then. I’m listening.”
“I don’t really know how I can put what I’m feeling into words…”
“Do the best you can, my dear,” Celestia coaxed.
“Alright…I’ll try,” Twilight resolved. “It’s that I feel like I haven’t done anything.”
Twilight paused abruptly, and gave a rueful chuckle, clicking her tongue.
“Well, it’s not like that. I’ve done plenty, by normal standards. Protégé, bearer of the Element of Magic, Princess of Equestria, to name a few. I suppose plenty of ponies would love to have that kind of resumé. But…”
“But what?” Celestia prompted.
“But what have I actually done? Most of my memories now are of me getting up, putting that tiara on my head, sitting on a throne all day, and going to bed. I feel like I’ve let myself down, somehow fallen short of the high expectations I long ago set for myself.”
Twilight devolved into a rant, as she so often did. Only she wasn’t angry or frustrated, not this time. She was scared. Afraid of what lay ahead. Frightened at what she had become.
“I wanted to become the best! Mage! Professor! The next Starswirl the Bearded!” Twilight started to shout, her wings snapping to their full span. She stood, wheeling around to face Celestia, whose faint smile quickly morphed into…well, something different, something between shock and sympathy.
On the brink of proverbial explosion, though, Twilight suddenly crumpled to the floor, broken. She screwed her eyes shut. Despite her efforts, a small tear leaked onto the marble.
Silence reigned once more.
“But instead I ended up in this dead-end life,” lamented a resigned whisper. “I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
Celestia had nothing to say as she blinked back tears of her own. She cautiously rose and walked out of the room, letting the door click shut behind her.
The carriage from Ponyville landed in the palace courtyard sometime later that afternoon. Twilight greeted its sole occupant as she creakily stepped onto the short grass and raised the brim of her Stetson.
“Howdy, Twi.”
Twilight nodded as she stepped forward, embracing her guest in a tight hug.
“Applejack, it’s been too long.”
“Ah know it has, sugarcube. But what matters now is that Ah’m here.”
Twilight offered a steadying hoof to her friend, which the old farmpony readily accepted as the last of the Elements of Harmony made their way inside and up towards the balcony of Twilight’s chambers.
Applejack took a seat on one of the two facing chairs as Twilight settled down opposite her, lifting up a teapot in her telekinesis and pouring two steaming cups of the fragrant chamomile brew.
The two sipped quietly for some time. It was Applejack who first laid her cup to rest on its saucer and piped up.
“So…how’ve things been goin’ ‘round Canterlot, Twi?”
Twilight looked up from her tea, which she had been staring into.
“Oh, they’ve been...” Twilight began before she caught herself. “No. This isn’t about me. That would be selfish. This is about you.”
Applejack paled slightly at the sudden attention she was given, but cleared her throat nonetheless.
“Apple Bloom’s havin’ another one of her mid-life crises. Been freakin’ out ‘bout how she ‘ain’t done nothin’ with her life.’ Don’t know why. She only doubled the value of the farm! Ah reckon that’s a pretty big feat, hoo-whee!”
She stopped, noticing how Twilight had reacted to her last comment. Her friend had turned to the side, hanging her head.
“Aww, buck up, sugarcube. Seems that we need to talk ‘bout you,” Applejack chided. “You seem pretty down-in-the-dumps. T’ain’t never good to keep them nasty feelings to yerself.”
Twilight let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.
“It’s just…what you said. I feel like I haven’t done anything, either.”
Applejack gave a puzzled look.
“Oh, don’t give me that, Twi. Ah’m proud to call ya one of the most accomplished ponies Ah know.”
“Tell me, Applejack, what do you think I’ve done?” Twilight asked incredulously.
“Well, you…well, A-Ah guess…come to think of it, now, well…oh, come on now! Ah’m sure yer just kiddin’ yerself!” she managed with a forced smile.
Twilight groaned and shifted in her seat further so that only her back was visible to Applejack.
“’Sides,” Applejack continued as the sun began to set over the two. “It ain’t all about numbers on paper or fancy-schmancy hats. It’s about the little things that make ya really enjoy life. Birds chirpin’. Bees buzzin’. Heck, even a big gooey hunk o’cheesecake, if that’s what makes ya happy. Don’t forget yer family an’ friends, too. They’ll always be there fer ya, whether they’re still in the land o’the livin’ or not.”
Twilight returned to her normal posture, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips.
“There ya go, Twi!” Applejack encouraged. “Just take things one hoof-step at a time and y’all’ll get through whatever yer up against.”
The sky lit up in brilliant shades of purple and orange as the sun began to dip beneath the horizon.
The hint curled into a broad grin, the first one Twilight had flashed in…in as long as she could remember. She wrapped a wing around Applejack’s back, and rested a hoof over her shoulders.
Darkness crept over the balcony as the last of the sun’s rays died out.
“Thank you, Applejack,” Twilight whispered as the last flickers of colour were flushed from the sky. “I really needed that.”
She got no reply.
“Applejack?”