The key difference? We all get the same prompt and we have an hour to write. See more of the rules here. Want to contribute? Join the Skype chat group or check out the thread!
Chapter titles are that week's prompt; each author is listed and linked above their entry.
“I’m sorry, Princess, but we just can’t rush these things.” He’d said that an hour and a half ago.
“I realize that, but I should be in the dinner hall by now.” Celestia said. “Twilight will arrive any minute.”
Dr. Pearly Whites continued to shuffle through the levitating tools before him. What he needed any of them for, Celestia had no idea; he’d already used every single one. “And when she gets here, we want her to see--”
“The very best smile my mouth can give: a shine as bright as my sun. Right?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it!” the dentist chirped, pulling a pick and small mirror from his tools before returning to her side. “How did you know?”
“You said that earlier. Twice.”
Dr. Whites frowned and looked away. “Really? I don’t remember that. Oh well. I agree with myself!” he said with a chuckle. “But don’t worry, Princess, I’m almost done.”
For the thirteenth time.
“I could’ve sworn I saw a bit of yellowing on one of your molars, though. Might have to use the flouride again…”
This had to end. Celestia wasn’t one to rush her aides, but after three hours she doubted Twilight would notice anything other than flawless teeth--and they never yellowed anyway.
“Okay, open wide--”
“Doctor.” Celestia gently placed a hoof on his shoulder and smiled at him. He looked at her, silent with eager eyes. She didn’t need to shout at ponies to get them to pay attention. “As always, you’ve done an outstanding job, and I thank you for your dedication. I’m truly blessed to have you as my dentist, but I really must get going. I can’t be late. I’m sure you understand.”
“Yes, Princess, as you wish...okay, just give me five more minutes.”
Celestia reduced her sigh to a light puff through her nose. That usually worked.
(---)
Fortunately, Celestia only just settled into her seat when a familiar pink spell flashed into the chair next to hers. At the sight of her favourite unicorn, the wasted morning ceased to matter.
“I’m so so sorry, Celestia!”
“It’s okay--”
“No it’s not okay! Half an hour?! I swear, I will never--ever!--be this late again!”
“Well, I, too, have only just arrived.”
“Oh…” Twilight looked at her with a knowing frown. “Something came up at the last minute?”
“It always does.” They both nodded at that. There was no need to say more. “But what happened to you? You’re never late.”
“I was being very stupid and foalish and I should’ve just let things be...”
“Some project you were working on?”
“No, I went to the dentist this morning.”
Celestia had to chuckle at that. “You don’t say?”
“Just a quick check-up, to make sure my teeth looked nice for...but when I got home I examined my teeth myself and I thought I saw some yellowing on my molars, so I went to a dentist here in the city, but after she was finished my teeth still didn’t look right, so I teleported to the Crystal Empire and saw Cadance’s dentist, then I went saw one in Manehattan, then Fillydelphia, then Hollow Shades…”
“Now open up. Yeah, like that. Wider, sweetheart.”
“‘Ike ‘is?”
Twilight nodded and took a seat. “Yes, but don’t try to speak. I’m going to need all the room I can get in your mouth.”
Celestia nodded and rested back in her own seat, her head inclined to give Twilight an unhindered view. She fidgeted in place but did as she was asked. She took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out slowly as she counted silently to ten.
“Nervous?” Twilight smiled down at Celestia as the larger mare nodded again. “About this...or about not being in control? We’ve talked about this, Tia. You can relax and let other ponies lead now and then. Besides, this should be quick.” Twilight’s smile turned sheepish. “It’s...heh, it’s not like I have a lot of experience at this. You know how sensitive I am. I probably won’t last long. Sorry.”
Celestia relaxed a little and her eyes twinkled with a smile. She rested a little more to her side and shook her mane out so that it spilled and pooled around her like a miniature river of rainbows. She tilted her head slightly and the look she gave Twilight was one reserved for the purple mare alone.
Twilight swallowed as Celestia looked back up at her. She didn’t even need to hear Celestia say anything. The body language said it all. The way her throat was exposed, the gentle curves that lead down to her barrel and the fan of her wings. The way her mouth was - ‘welcoming’ seemed the better term than simply ‘open.’ Twilight blushed as she felt around and kept her eyes locked on Celestia’s tongue. She couldn’t believe this was happening. That she was about to put her…
And Celestia had agreed to it. She’d given her permission when Twilight had approached her about this. In mere moments she would know the Princess like few other ponies throughout history could attest.
Twilight shook her head and focused. She had an opportunity here and she would not see it squandered. She reached out and took Celestia’s chin in her grip, holding it steady as she got closer. “First...first, we’ll start with a basic cleaning. Heh...then I’ll check for cavities…goddess, being a dentist is hotter than I thought!”
Spike groaned in agony, Twilight rolling her eyes once again. "Every Nightmare Night," the little dragon groused.
“You know why it happens.” Twilight said flatly.
“Every Nightmare Night.” He stressed in reply. Another moan came from the doubled over dragon, and another tooth popped out of his mouth, adding to a pile of twenty-four that had been steadily accumulating throughout the day.
“I could just take you to Fluttershy’s, you know. get her to pull them out and let the new ones grow in overnight.” Twilight offered, putting down her book and trotting over to her beleagured assistant.
“Oh no you--” Spike belched, and the ensuing trail of fire took some of Twilight’s mane with it to Celestia. Twilight dusted herself off, glowering at whatever unseen cosmic tormentor had assigned her universal butt of every bought of slapstick.
“It’d get it over with.” Twilight looked around, making sure her face had shielded the far more precious books from damage. She sighed in relief, only to be interrupted by her assistants protests once more.
“That jerk Future Spike isn’t getting any more sacrifices out of Present Spike than he can help.”
Twilight only sighed at this, shaking her head and smiling. “You know, Spike, this wouldn’t happen if you were more interested in the rest of what Nightmare Night has to offer. There’s games and costumes and--”
“Boring lectures on the history behind those costumes--”
“And decorations--”
“--Which I have to put up--”
“--While Rarity and I make the costumes--”
“--And Nightmare Night is the only time of the year where I get free candy, while I do all that other junk every holiday!”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “It’s also the only time you get to have Rarity make you a free costum.” She smirked, deciding the argument had been settled then and there. She trotted over to the window, a blush rising up on her cheeks. Spike recognized the warning signs of a fantasy about Celestia almost immediately.
“Going...going...gon--urk!” He retched again, covering his mouth in time for sparks to come out in lieu of fire. He clutched his belly and grimaced.
“And besides, it’s the only time of year she changes out of her crown and jewels…” Twilight sighed, propping herself up against the window on her hooves.
“Twilight,” Spike said slowly, “I’m only gonna let you tell me all about how cute she looked as Frankenpone--Frankenpone’s Monster,” Spike corrected himself before Twilight could, “if you promise never to make her your Nightmare Night costume ever again. That was really, really messed u--rph!” Twilight noticed what was about to happen seconds before it did, summoning a bowl into which her smaller companion could vomit in peace.
Twilight rolled her eyes, smirking. “At least eye candy doesn’t give you cavities.”
The mare stepping into the room wore a heavy black cape a set of shades and the nervous air of someone really unused to clandestine dealings like this, Colgate thought. She had to resist the urge to sigh at so much inexperience.
The occasional twitching under “Ms. Steel”’s cape and the horn on her head were clear indicators of her identity, even if Colgate hadn’t have to of her associates observe the mare in question for … business. As such, she had a pretty clear idea what she was coming in here for.
“Narciss Steel” made her way carefully around the room and the seat in the middle, examining everything. She nodded occasionally, mumbling something under her breath. Probably things she recognized on the basis of her knowledge.
“Uh… can I keep the coat on?”, she asked after stopping in front of the chair. Another twitch. By now, Colgate was seriously considering just writing the the poor mare a letter later, detailing all her mistakes and how to improve on them.
Keeping her friendly smile in place, Colgate nodded. “Of course, Ms. Steel. If it helps you relax.” She waited patiently for her patient to climb into position, nearly tripping over her coat and falling down on the other side.
The cleaning and examining was a routine procedure. “Ms. Steel” was in excellent health, and Colgate made sure to praise her for it. She gave her a few tips on flossing while an assistant did the actual cleaning, not that her patient could really reply to it. But in short time, they were done.
Time for business talk. Colgate gave her assistant a nod, and the young mare closed the door after leaving dentist and patient alone.
After waiting for a minute for “Ms. Steel” to speak up, Colgate cleared her throat. “You have excellent teeth, Ms. Steel. You must not eat many sweets at all.”
The mare visibly flinched, but regained her composure (or what little of it she had). “I-I do eat sweets. Cake, especially.”
That was the code word. Colgate’s smile turned mischievous and her horn flared to life. “I believe you are looking for this”, she said, floating a stack of paper from a drawer in one of the cabinets.
“Ms. Steel”’s eyes followed the stack, gaze widened. Her hoof twitched when Colgate took the stack and showed it to her patient.
“Dental hygiene is so important, Ms. Steel”, Colgate mused idly, placing the papers on the little folding table next to her tools. “If someone of high standing would remind ponies of that, or made a national dental hygiene day, there would be less need for me to use the… uglier of my tools.” She picked up her drill and examined it for a moment before putting it back. “Thank you, Ms. Steel. My secretary will sign your insurance papers.”
Colgate spend the next few minutes meticulously cleaning and disinfecting her tools. When she heard steps, she turned her head, offering a cheek to receive a kiss from Golden Harvest.
“Was that Princess Twilight just now? Why is she playing dress-up?” Golden asked.
Colgate smiled to herself. “With Celestia’s birthday coming up, some people would do a lot for a good cake recipe.”
Not part of the normal crowd, but introducing Monochromatic
It was a perfectly normal afternoon for Celestia as she strolled around the grand library of her beloved castle. Her next private tutoring session with Twilight would be in a few hours, and Celestia wanted to explain a few new concepts to her young student. Of course, to do so, she'd need a copy of Advanced Magical Chemistry: Volume 5. Walking past the rows and rows of bookshelves, the princess barely noticed the other ponies trotting around, only responding when they called out to her or greeted her. It wasn't until she reached the medical section that she spotted something — or rather, somepony that made her come a halt.
Twilight Sparkle was sitting in the middle of the medical section, her nose stuck inside a book. Normally, Celestia would be quite pleased at seeing that Twilight was still ever the avid reader, but she couldn't help but wonder why she was reading up on… She squinted her eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the title of the book. 'Magical Dentistry in Modern Equestria: 101 Spells'?
Why in Equestria was she looking at books about dentistry?
Twilight was so absorbed in her book, she didn't even notice the princess had approached her and now hovered above her, curiously reading over her shoulder. It wasn't until Celestia spoke up that she finally reacted, looking up and blushing, no doubt embarrassed at having been discovered.
Except… she had no reason to be embarrassed, did she?
"Good morning, Twilight," Celestia said, concern awash over her face. Was Twilight perhaps suffering from some matter of dental pain? If so, why hadn't she immediately gone to the hospital wing? She should know better than to try and self-medicate.
"O-Oh, Princess Celestia!" Twilight stuttered, closing the book almost instantly and hiding it behind her back. A rather odd thing to do considering she knew Celestia had already seen the book. She offered her mentor a nervous smile. "Good morning! W-What brings you here?"
Celestia smiled softly. "I might ask the same, my little pony," she replied, curiously eyeing the tip of the book poking behind Twilight's back. "I came to look for the spellbook on Advanced Magical Chemistry for our evening class, but we could always study the uses of magic… in dental care, if you find it beneficial to your studies." Before the unicorn could protest, Celestia levitated the book away from Twilight's hooves and took a closer look at it.
"No, that's not necessary," Twilight quickly exclaimed, shaking her head vigorously. "I was just… I was..." She drifted off, obviously not finding a good enough justification to explain her situation. "Uhm..." Once more, a blush crept its way up her cheeks.
"Twilight," Celestia said, her voice taking on a severity that made Twilight's ears flatten against her head. "If you are suffering from any kind of oral pain, you must go and see Nurse GreenKit. While I encourage you to continue your research into new spells, you should never try them — especially not on yourself — unless we've revised them in class."
"B-but I wasn't! My teeth don't hurt!" she protested, looking at the book as if wanting very badly to snatch it away from Celestia's magical grip. "And I wasn't planning on using one of the pain-relieving spells!"
Celestia raised an eyebrow at this. "Then we can surmise that you did intend on using a spell, correct?" she asked, watching as the unicorn deflated, looking away in shame at having accidentally given herself away.
"...Yes, Princess Celestia," Twilight replied, understanding there was really no longer any use in trying to pretend otherwise. "Sorry..." Her shamed expression was replaced by a surprised one when Celestia suddenly used her hoof to lift Twilight's chin.
"Twilight Sparkle," she said, smiling warmly at the unicorn, "there is absolutely no shame in wanting to learn new spells. I simply believe it would be better if we studied them together, don't you agree?"
"... Yes, Princess," came Twilight's whispered reply, her blush still present on her cheeks.
Satisfied with the answer, Celestia retrieved her hoof and looked back to the book. "Now, what was the spell you wanted to use?" she inquired, opening it and reading through the table of contents. For almost a minute, no answer was given, prompting her to glance down at her ward. "Twilight?"
If Twilight had merely seemed embarrassed before, there was no longer any doubt about it. Her face was completely flushed and she shyly hoofed at the ground. "I..." She gulped down, staring at the floor as if though it were the single most interesting thing she had ever set eyes on. "I..."
Celestia was quite baffled by her reaction. Honestly, what could she even have been looking for to be so utterly embarrassed about? Celestia looked at the table of contents again, but she could hardly find anything that would warrant such a reaction. "Twilight, it's perfectly alright to tell me," she encouraged, once more lifting the nervous mare's chin with her hoof and engaging in eye contact.
Twilight tried to look away several times before finally relenting and squeaking: "The third spell of chapter five, section three..."
Celestia quickly turned back to the book, flipping the pages until she reached the proper section. Mumbling, she read the spell aloud before blinking and glancing at Twilight. "Twilight, are you positive this is the spell you wanted?" She blinked again when the unicorn nodded slightly. "But… this is a denture correction spell. Why would you want to change anything about your dental structure?"
Twilight looked at the floor again. "Because… I wanted a better smile."
The princess raised an eyebrow. "You do?" Odd, Twilight had never been one to care that much about her physical appearance — at least, not enough to actually want to change it. And besides… "Twilight, I really don't think this is necessary. You have an excellent dental posture. If you recall, during our last session, I mentioned how much I liked your smile," she added, hoping to brighten the unicorn's spirit, as well as lift her slightly worrying low self-esteem.
Goodness, how could somepony even reach that shade of red?
Twilight was pawing at the ground again, biting down on her lip. "I know," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. She opened and closed her mouth several times before finally continuing: "That's why I wanted to make it even better..."
Celestia melted at that.
Not that Twilight would ever know, of course, for putting on a mask of serenity and composure was one of the things Celestia did best. She contemplated the young mare for a minute before speaking. "Twilight, look at me, please," she asked, watching as the flustered unicorn forced herself to look up at the princess. Once their eyes met, Celestia continued: "Twilight, I'm sorry to inform you that if you had cast this spell on yourself, or even if I had cast it on your, it would have never worked."
Twilight blinked, her blushed fading. "It wouldn't? Why not?" she asked, taking the book from Celestia and re-reading the spell. "I have the proper magical training, and I did some practice spells earlier!"
Celestia giggled, shaking her head. "As I said, your magical abilities are not the reason. You see..." She looked around conspiratorially before leaning down so she'd be at Twilight's eye level. "You already have a perfect smile."
Grinning, she pulled away and continued: "See? There it is again."
Twilight curled up in her bed, covered by her sheets and a large, warm blanket. Hardly any light filtered through the heavy curtains. She groaned, one of the few signs that she still lived.
A few gentle knocks came from her bedroom door and it creaked open.
“Twilight?” called a soft, melodic voice. “Are you awake?”
Twilight groaned again.
“I brought you some food. Just a little carrot soup,” the voice said. “How are you feeling?”
Twilight slowly pushed herself into a seated position. She folded her hands across her lap and looked over at the figure in the doorway. Celestia held a tray in her hands with what looked to be more than carrot soup; not only was there a bowl, there was a glass of water, a pill bottle, and a stack of gauze.
Twilight shook her head slowly and croaked, “Not great. I’m foggy and...” Her brow furrowed and she frowned. “I can’t focus. My mouth hurts, and this gauze isn’t comfortable.”
Celestia sat on the edge of the bed next to Twilight and ran her hand from the top of Twilight’s head down to her neck. She leaned over and kissed Twilight’s forehead. “It’s painful, I know. Wisdom teeth aren’t fun to have pulled, but you would’ve been in more pain later on.” Twilight nodded slowly in reply. “I did bring you new gauze, and your pain medicine. And you remember the dentist’s orders, yes? No magic until you recover?”
Twilight nodded again and groaned, but more for the mental pain than the physical. “Yes. A week without magic? I’d almost rather--”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said firmly, “You will be fine. It’s temporary. And you have me.”
Twilight hung her head.
“Now, come on, let’s get that old stuff out.” Celestia donned a pair of vinyl gloves and help open a small yellow bag with a biohazard label on the side.
“Really?” Twilight asked with an incredulous eyebrow.
“The castle staff insisted we follow procedure.” Celestia smiled and shook the bag. Twilight sighed and reached into her mouth to pull out the gauze. Even in the dim light of the door, it was obvious that the cotton pads were soaked with blood and saliva. Twilight gagged, but dropped them into the bag. Celestia folded it over and set back on the tray. She grabbed the new gauze pads and set them in Twilight’s hands.
Twilight sighed once more. “I think I’ll go for the food, first. And the medicine.”
Celestia nodded and grabbed the bowl of soup and handed it over with a spoon. “Eat carefully. Try not to suck or slurp.”
Twilight ate slowly while Celestia sat by her side. Celestia stroked her back and Twilight finally managed a pained smile. Twilight set down her spoon for a moment and looked up at Celestia. Although Twilight was a young adult, Celestia still stood much taller than her. “Celestia? How come you’re here, and not one of the doctors or nurses from the infirmary?”
“Because you’re family, Twilight, and family takes care of one another.”
Twilight set her bowl back on the tray and leaned against Celestia, breathing deeply. “I love you, ‘Tia. Thank you.”
“I love you too, Twily.” Celestia rustled Twilight’s hair and grabbed the bottle of painkillers and popped one into her hand. She dropped into Twilight’s and handed her the glass of water. Twilight took the pill and swallowed, washing it down the water. She replaced the gauze, too, before wrapping her arms around Celestia’s waist in a tight hug with her head resting on Celestia’s chest just below her neck. Celestia brushed Twilight’s hair over her ear and held her close.
“Will you stay, for a little while?” Twilight whispered. “Just until I fall asleep?”
“Of course.”
"I wasn't prepared for this..." - Knight of Cerebus - Nov. 15, 2014
“None here but me!” Spike answered proudly. Twilight deflated slightly, almost as if she was unhappy to be of stress for once.
“...Huh. There really isn’t any kind of big national crisis, princessly duty or potential friendship problem this week. I...can’t say I saw that coming.”
“You don’t have a plan for a day like today?”
“Normally I’d ask one of my friends if they’re free, but it looks like they’re all tied up.”
Spike looked unconvinced. “Twilight, you have plans for the invasion of the magical mutant candyfloss monsters. How can you not have a day off planned out?”
Twilight blinked. “I guess I just never considered a day where I didn’t have any work to get done. I mean, most days I’d just study for lessons from Prince--” Twilight trailed off. “I could do the thing today.”
Spike raised an eyebrow. “The thing?”
“Yes, Spike,” Twilight nodded. “The thing.”
“The thing?”
“The thing.”
Spike sighed a mighty sigh. “The thing being?”
“Plan C?”
Spike did a double take. “Didn’t you say you were never ever gonna do that, that it would be ‘the greatest affront to your budding relationship and the respect you had show each other thus far you could imagine’, that you gave up on that plan and that you’d...sooner...run out of...checklists. Huh. I guess it does make sense, then. Err, sorta.” The little drake levelled a sceptical eye at Twilight. “But are you sure she’ll go for it?”
“I...no, you’re right. I shouldn’t let spur-of-the-moment thinking dictate what Tia and I do with our off time. Maybe I’ll just do some reshelving, maybe some cleanin--”
“Great talking with you, Twi!” Spike began to push Twi’s posterior towards the door. “Go get her, uh, tiger! Rawr!” Twilight was too busy reacting to Spike’s change of heart to notice herself being thrown out of her own library until it was too late. The door slammed upon her rump, sending her stumbling out into Ponyville’s uncharacteristically quiet streets.
“Well...I guess I better get going, then?” Twilight looked back at her library, uncertainty writ large across her face. “Maybe I should--ooohhh, he deserves a day off anyway!” Twilight threw up her wings, allowing herself to be swept up by how unusually against formula her day had been thus far.
----------
Princess Luna followed the trail of rose petals with a raised eyebrow, her mind already whirring at what their purpose might have been. Her heart went out to what was no doubt an inexperiened member of the waiting staff spilling a perfectly good tray meant for some dignitary or royal or other. She vowed she would track them down, following the petals to one of Celestia’s guest bedrooms. To her surprise, the “do not disturb” sign had been applied to the front of the door, and the aroma of oils and coat gels wafted towards her nostrils from between the cracks in the door. Luna imagined some sort of disastrous collision with the vanity was to blame, only hoping the waiter was not too traumatized.
The poor pony must be nearing her wit’s end, to lock herself away like this, Luna mused. She tried her luck on the door, but found it to be locked. While a display of magic would no doubt allow her to open the door, she did not wish to intimidate the poor creature trapped within. Instead, she deftly dissolved into a soothing blue mist, hoping to fix the problem from within her immaterial form and then return to her duties unnoticed. She slid beneath the door, body forming into a column of her indigo smoke once it had reached the other side. She looked into the room, peering into the room with practiced calm. Two sets of widened eyes looked back at her from the bed, which was coated with more of the roses and surrounded by a sea of candles set upon golden trays. In front of her, looking like a duo of deer cornered with a train in the midst of crossing the railroad tracks, were the eldest and youngest alicorns of her age. Her friend removed her front hooves from her sister’s buttocks as if they had abruptly caught fire. There was a sound of an oily behind bouncing that rung through the silent room.
“Luna!” Twilight grinned an altogether too large grin. “How, erm, good of you to stop by. We, uh--”
“We weren’t expecting you.” Celestia said, having returned at last from the nirvana of bliss that Twilight’s massage had sent her to.
“Nor I you.” Luna replied, her expression screaming to them that a part of her was dying with every second the moment extended.
“Well, uh, as it turns out, I do have a contingency plan for this.” Twilight chimed in. “I could always just wipe our minds of this moment.”
Luna took in a deep breath, silently steeling herself against the moment. “Nay, Twilight. We were caught unaware, but we shall not break your moment for you.” Luna dissolved into a heap of smoke, and the room went silent.
“That’s what I get for not preparing for this.” Twilight blushed, shame overtaking her hard-won confidence.
“I could stand to have more day you didn’t prepare for.” Celestia smiled, easing back into the anticipation of ecstasy. “Now come on. I believe you were in the midst of showing me how wonderful it can be to be caught unprepared.”
"I wasn't prepared for this..." - Jonesly - Nov. 15, 2014
A familiar face in the Tag Collab thread, but new to the Lightning Round, Jonesly!
Celestia was having a lazy day. Mid winter, she had awoken long enough to raise the sun, look out her windows at the snow covered city and issue a declaration. The guards were still not entirely certain what to do with the short, “Nope. Not today.” Luckily Luna knew exactly what was in order and shortly an impromptu holiday had been declared in the palace.
Now halfway through the day, Celestia was still cocooned in her blankets, warm and content as she read a book she’d been denying herself for far too long. She looked up as a knocking came from her door. “Come in.” She called.
The door opened and Twilight Sparkle walked in.
“I was just going to come and visit Canterlot this weekend. Imagine my shock when I found the palace shut down, including the library.” Twilight said, fidgeting on her hooves as she stood before her Princess. Her nervousness was adorable, Celestia decided.
Oh wait, Twilight was still speaking. “... Pie made me promise the next time the library was closed I’d tell you. I thought she was oddly specific on that.” Celestia’s ears perked up and she focused all of her attention on Twilight. Sweeping from her eyes down to her… cutie mark. NO back to the eyes, much safer.
“I wasn’t ready.” Twilight continued. “ It seems though, that I ran out of time. how could I have known that the library would be closed today?”
“I’m still not ready.” Twilight was conspicuously looking anywhere but at Celestia. She stopped, took in a deep breath and exhaled, focusing her eyes on Celestia’s.
“I’m not sure I will ever be ready. “ She said. Celestia found herself falling into those eyes, so bright, so focused. She could watch those eyes for hours, she thought.
“But for you, I’m willing to try.” Twilight said. “For you, I think I can say it.”
Celestia was confused, where was Twilight going with this?
“When I’m with you, I feel like I can do it. Like I can say it. When I’m with you, I can do anything. I love you Celestia. Not as a student for a teacher, or a child for their mother. I love you as a mare loves another mare. I want to be with you. I… I don’t know how you feel about me, but I have to tell you how I feel about you.” Twilight stopped.
Celestia’s eyes were wide with shock. “Of all the things you could have said, I wasn’t prepared for this.”
Twilight’s ears drooped. Then she squeaked in surprise as a golden glow surrounded her. Celestia lifted her up and swung her across the room. Lifting her blankets, she slid Twilight in beside her. “Let’s talk about this. You’ve taken me by surprise… but I can’t say I’m uninterested in you.”
Twilight broke into a huge grin, one that Celestia realized she loved. Her own face mirrored Twilight’s as they snuggled together in the bed.
"I wasn't prepared for this..." - Ultra1437 - Nov. 15, 2014
Yet another relative newcomer, but also a staple of the Tag Collab, Ultra1437
Twilight looked up at Mount Canterhorn worriedly from a nearby hill. She scanned the skies for what seemed to be the thousandth time before the adrenaline wore off.
Celestia, in her infinite wisdom, had sent her a forewarning letter. They’d been exchanging letters for near Twilight’s whole life, but this one was different. Spike complained about abdominal pain for a minute before he belched it up, and the letter itself was a deep scarlet. The ribbon sealing it closed was the same color, with a single gold-colored stripe down the right side.
Twilight brought the letter to her eyes again. The script written on it was golden in color as well, but only held few hastily scribbled words. Even after the dozenth time reading it in as many minutes, Twilight shivered in fear of the implications.
Twilight, Luna’s coming. She knows. Celestia
“Something troubling you, Twilight?” Twilight jumped into the air at the voice, her wings trying to help her put some distance between herself and the voice. Landing a short distance away, she finally looked around and noticed that Princess Luna had arrived.
Luna repeated, “Is something troubling you, Twilight?” Twilight shrunk slightly at Luna’s stern expression.
“N-No, Luna. Nothing is w-wrong!” she stammered, her wings refusing to fold back at her sides.
Luna took a step toward the crystal castle, “Then, may I speak to you in private?”
“What a-about?” Twilight curled back again, as if struck.
“I cannot say out here.”
Twilight stood up stiffly, like a prisoner on their way to the hangman’s noose. She whispered, “Pinkie promise…”
Luna only heard sound from Twilight, but not what she’d said. “What are you talking about?”
“Pinkie promise…” was the reply, a little louder this time.
“Pinkie promise what, Twilight?” Luna was starting to get annoyed now, Twilight wasn’t making any sense.
Shaking, Twilight added, “Pinkie promise you won’t hurt me!”
Sighing softly, Luna sat down and mimed out the Pinkie Pie Promise to Twilight, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, I will never hurt you with this conversation, Twilight.”
“Nopony breaks a Pinkie promise, ever!” Pinkie shouted, popping out from behind a tree. Sliding behind it, she disappeared again.
Twilight sighed, relaxing visibly. “A-Alright. Let’s go inside.” She stepped up to Luna, continuing on to the Crystal Castle tree.
Luna nodded as Twilight passed and fell in behind her.
Luna marvelled at the castle tree’s interior. It looked much like the Crystal palace that Cadance and Shining Armor now lived in. Twilight led the pair up to her own bedroom suite, shutting the door behind them.
She pulled out a pair of cushions, one for herself and offered the second to Luna. “So, what did you wish to talk about, Luna?” she asked as she settled down, hoping Luna wouldn’t drop straight into her fears.
“I know what you and Celestia have been doing lately.” Luna smirked slyly, settling into her own cushion.
Twilight’s mouth opened wide and she sputtered uselessly. After a moment, she recovered, “I…”
Luna held a hoof up. “Don’t mistake me.” She shook her head and brought Celestia’s letter out. “I saw what dear ‘Tia had sent, and it made it look like I was mad. I am not.” Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “I merely wish to offer my congratulations. My sister is not easily wooed.”
“W-What?” Twilight’s tail flicked once in agitation.
“Twilight, since you two have started courting, my sister has been happier than I’d ever seen her.”
Luna stood and brought her cushion next to Twilight’s, and settled down next to her. “Now, I’m still going to have to give you the ‘Big sibling’ speech, but I can save that for after our formal duel.”
Twilight’s wings shot wide, “D-Duel?”
Now Luna was confused. “Why are you so confused? Did you not know about the formal duel for her hoof?”
Twilight was speechless, her eyes wide.
“She did not tell you?” Luna sighed as Twilight’s pupils shrunk to tiny dots. “There is an obscure law. It went into effect after Celestia noticed more than a few courtiers attempting to woo me at a very young age. It stated that any that wish to court one of us must win a formal duel with the other sister.”
Twilight fell over onto the floor. Luna checked to make sure she was still conscious before continuing, “Celestia never took any suitors, so I never was forced to duel anypony, though she has several hundred victories to hers over my suitors over the centuries.”
“Twilight, are you still listening?” Twilight’s ear twitched in her direction and she took it as a sign to continue, “I will not go easy on you, Twilight Sparkle. If you wish to continue courting my sister, you must prove yourself worthy. In one week, we shall duel. If you win, you shall be allowed to continue courting her. If I shall prevail, then you must break it off with her, never to attempt again.”
Twilight was lifted into her own bed and set down gently. “I will send you a letter to the same effect on the ‘morrow. Rest peacefully, Twilight Sparkle, you will need all the help you can get.”
"I wasn't prepared for this..." - Nicknack - Nov. 15. 2014
Entirely new to Twilestia, but no less exceptional, Nicknack!
Twilight Sparkle floated the microscope off her table and packed it gently into her left saddlebag. As she did, she counted off, “One industrial-grade, one-thousand-times magnification microscope.”
Spike, standing next to her, sighed. He was more than familiar with Twilight’s routines, even if they defied logic. Long ago, he’d learned it was easier to just entertain her instead of arguing. “Check.”
“That’s the last of it, then. Thanks, Spike!” Twilight fastened the straps on her saddlebags before levitating them around herself. She glanced at the clock and blanched. “I’ve got to hurry if I’m going to be on time to meet the Princess!”
For the second time, Spike sighed. “But Twilight, Celestia said to meet her at Java Joe’s at dusk. That’s not for two more hours!”
Twilight responded with a shake of her head. Little brothers never quite understood. “There’s more to meeting the Princess than just showing up on time. I’ve got to make sure the streets are tidied up for her arrival, and that the coffeeshop is in proper order, and—”
“Okay, okay.” Spike fought the urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he pushed Twilight towards the front door of the library. “If that’s the case, then yeah, you’ve got a bunch of stuff to take care of still.”
Spike shut the dutch doors of the Golden Oaks library behind her, and Twilight walked out into late-afternoon Ponyville. The town’s trees were aflame with fall’s colors, and a crisp edge of ice came with the blustery wind. She magicked her scarf around her neck tighter, and she trotted along to her destination.
Every time Princess Celestia came to Ponyville, Twilight had done her best to make sure she was welcomed as a princess deserved to be. Celestia herself had mentioned that certain parts of the ritual were unnecessary, but Twilight knew better—she was only being modest, which was part of why she admired the Princess so much in the first place. Power and authority, in any other mare’s hooves, would’ve gone to their head. But instead, Equestria’s ruler was kind, gentle, and, well, benevolent.
Twilight inspected the streets of Ponyville for undue amounts of litter, traffic, or cake frosting—Pinkie Pie had been holding an event earlier; that was as good a reason as any to watch for the aftereffects of exploding baked goods. Without finding anything, Twilight almost felt herself relax; that was one less thing to worry about.
However, as she entered Java Joe’s coffeeshop, more worries resurfaced: What does the Princess want? Twilight tried to bury the possibilities, as well as the thoughts of all the mistakes she’d made over the past two months. It was easy enough to distract herself by heading into the coffeeshop’s stockroom; a voice cried out, “Hey, you can’t go back there!” but she knew better than to leave inventory unchecked.
After getting halfway through determining that the coffeeshop did, in fact, have enough coffee—she’d only gotten halfway before being escorted back into the lobby by a gruff-looking stallion—Twilight took a good look at the restaurant itself. The woodwork was in good condition, so there wasn’t any need to worry about an abrupt structural collapse. It was polished, but not too polished, to the point of creating an undue fire hazard. If a fire did break out, there were two extinguishers in the establishment—one under the counter, and one in Twilight’s right saddlebag—and the emergency exits were clearly marked.
Twilight Sparkle sat at one of the tables. Her mind raced with possibilities, potentialities, and eventualities. Everything was in order, all her preparations were made, and she’d be meeting Princess Celestia soon.
I should relax, she told herself. So why can’t I?
She had forty minutes until Celestia showed up. Five minutes each passed in agonizing slowness, and Twilight almost admitted that, this time, Spike may have been right about not needing to make so many preparations for meeting the Princess. Almost. Just because she was running ahead of schedule this time didn’t make all of her routine checks and investigations worthless; if she’d have found something unsatisfactory, she might have had to get it fixed.
Twilight did note that, next time, she would bring a book to read in case her pre-Celestia-meeting inspections ran quicker than she expected them to.
* * *
At long last, the sun set and dusk fell. Twilight moved forward on her cushion, up to the edge of it. Celestia would be coming at any moment, and then—
A dingling bell broke through Twilight’s apprehension. She looked over—like she had every other time the door’s entrance bell had dingled—and saw her. Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria, flowed through the door in a gracefully regal walk. Or is it regally graceful? Twilight wondered, but she put that question away.
Unlike several other patrons of the restaurant, Twilight resisted the instinct to bow when Celestia approached her table. They’d gone over that, many times, and how it was unnecessary. She instead went to her plan B greeting: “Hello, Princess! You look resplendent as ever tonight!” As soon as the words left her mouth, Twilight fought to keep from cringing; that wasn’t the best way to have phrased it.
Celestia merely smiled down at Twilight. “Thank you. You look... strained,” she admitted. An apology immediately formed on Twilight’s lips, but Celestia cut in: “You haven’t been worrying yourself over this visit, have you?”
Oh... Her, she’s going to fire me from my position, I knew it! Twilight fought to keep her breathing neutral. “No, no...” she lied. “I... I just made sure everything was suited for your arrival.”
Princess Celestia sat down opposite of her tiny, quivering student. “Even though I told you that Ponyville—and every city in Equestria—will always be suitable for my arrival?”
Guilt crushed Twilight’s lungs, and she couldn’t form a response.
The Princess continued, “You... it makes it difficult, for me, to tell you things, when I’m not sure that they won’t cause you undue duress.”
At the sound of Celestia mincing a word, Twilight’s ears perked up. The ever-crushing dread built up inside her, and finally, it boiled over. “I... I can do better, I promise!”
Without a word, Celestia glided around the table and sat next to Twilight Sparkle, on her left. “Better, how? At what?”
“At... at being your personal student! And a citizen of Equestria!”
Immediately, Celestia pulled her nervous wreck of a protégé into a soft, draping wing-hug. “Twilight Sparkle, you are my most faithful student. All of your efforts are already above and beyond what I could expect from you. You simply worry, far too much!”
In an instant, Twilight’s worries shattered. They fell so abruptly, it almost felt like they’d been the only things holding her up. She melted into her mentor regardless, and returned the hug. Out of everything she’d thought would happen during the visit, a hug definitely hadn’t been very high on the checklist—it hadn’t even made the list in the first place!
“I... I’ll try to tone it down,” Twilight muttered. It felt strange to have her words get muffled by Princess Celestia’s very own pinions.
“That is good,” Celestia replied. Without looking up, Twilight could already imagine the watchful, knowing smile upon the Princess’ lips. “Now, is that a microscope in your saddlebag, or are you just happy to see me?”
"I wasn't prepared for this..." - Fuzzyfurvert - Nov. 15, 2014
“Are you sure about this?” Spike pulled the strap on Twilight’s vest harness tighter. He snapped the buckle closed and jumped down from the stool he’d used to reach her back.
“Yeah.” Twilight sighed and rolled her shoulders to get the vest to sit properly. “You know the drill: I translate the old texts from the pre-Equestrian period and when I find another mention of myself meddling in the timestream, I go back and make sure it happens. Or else we have a paradox apocalypse. Again.”
“You’re just being dramatic, Twilight. That last one was barely noticeable.”
“We all changed genders and ages, Spike.”
“Likes I said: barely noticeable.” Spike shrugged and picked up a bundle of ritual candles. He puffed out a lick of flame and lit the all before he started walking around Twilight and placing them at key cardinal points.
“Well, this time it affects a pony that has a lot of influence over history. I have to make sure this goes as history says I made it go, or we could lose Equestria as we know it!”
Spike rolled his eyes and set the last candle. “Ok, the ritual setup is complete! Just give it some juice and temporal coordinates and you’re off on an adventure. Please keep all legs and wings in the circle at all times until the time transference spell is finished. Once you reach your destination, you will have one hour to do...whatever you did. Should you meet yourself, please refrain from killing and or sleeping with them to avoid complications.”
Spike saluted Twilight as the spell circle and her horn started to glow. “Thank you for flying Spike the Dragon’s ritual circle and translocation services!”
A hecka long time in the past
Gold was everything.
Gold was life. It decided who lived in peace and who had no peace.
Gold covered everything. Because she thought it was beautiful. It covered every surface in her chamber, the walls, the ceiling, floor and furniture. Her bed sheets even had gold thread woven into them. It was like being in the very center of the Sun itself.
The High Priestess of the Sun smiled to herself as she gazed out over her city from her balcony. Everything was in order and going well, which gave her time to relax until it was time to once more call down the Sun to sleep for the evening.
Suddenly, there came a breeze from inside her room, followed by a flash of light that reflected off the gold that covered it. She whirled around, the golden links and coins that draped her form from horn to hoof made a soft chime with the motion. She gasped when she noticed a pony that stood now at the foot of her bed.
“Who dares?”
Twilight shook her head to clear the ringing out of her ears. She looked around and then at the tall mare that had addressed her. Oh, hello Tia. Um...High Priestess Celestia at this point in time right?”
The Priestess nodded slowly. “Yes. Who are you?”
“My name is a matter of future security. However, I am here to make sure events proceed as history remembers them.” Twilight smiled and reached into her harness pocket to pull out a pre-shrunken box of chocolates. “I recently read in one of the diaries you’ll write later, that you developed a fondness for purple colored mares after you had a surprise meeting with one. The mare you described meets my description, so, in order to make sure history continues as we know it, I traveled from the future to sleep with you.”
“I...I don’t...I’ve never…” Celestia, the High Priestess of the Sun slowly pulled her golden mask off to look at this odd mare with her own eyes. “From the future, you say?”
“Yes.”
“I...I don’t think I’m prepared for this.”
Twilight Sparkle grinned. “Just lay back and relax. I’ve got a few techniques to show you, so that you can master them over the next few thousand years and then teach to me.”
“I’m confused.”
Twilight nodded. “That’s what time travel does to you.”
"I wasn't prepared for this..." - blazeofheat - Nov. 15, 2014
Introducing Blazeofheat, another Tab Collab writer, joining us in the Lightning Round.
“Hey barkeep, one drink over here!”
“Ah, there you are Twilight, honestly when you said you were going to go handle your stress this isn’t quite what I expected.”
“What? Alcohol, thank you sir, is a very effective depressant that consistently leaves me too tired to cause any serious harm and it has a positive placebo effect on my dopamine levels. Want one?”
“Uh, thanks for the offer dear but I think we should talk about what’s happening.”
“You know, you’re probably right, actually of course you’re right. It’s just, I get so worried about how people will react, what they will say I mean, I still hear comments about Shining and Princess Cadance’s wedding and I just… this is huge you know?”
“Love usually is dear, especially with royalty, but you and I have weathered worse storms in the past. We can handle this.”
“Ha, I’m sorry I get so worked up over things.”
“If you ever need a shoulder to lean on, I like to think mine’s a little more comfortable than a bar counter.”
“And noisier.”
“What?”
“Whenever I hear those comments, I wonder how hurt they would make Shining feel, and how many times he’s already heard them.”
“Well, if I know my Twilight she wouldn’t let a little thing like the press stop her when she’s got the love and support of her friends.”
“Yeah, it’s just, they grow up so fast, I mean, at least with Shining we knew he was interested in Cadance for a full year before they started dating. I had no idea Twilight was dating Princess Celestia until she told me. I’m still having a hard time grasping that our daughter is seeing someone when she’s only twenty-three. I figured we had at least until she was thirty before she got her nose out of her books long enough to find someone, let alone another member of royalty. What’s next? We have a hidden third son who’s going to marry Princess Luna?”
“Or a daughter who’s with Prince Blueblood.”
“What? Oh right, you never met him. Night Light, I assure you that none of our children would marry Blueblood.”
"I wasn't prepared for this..." - JKinsley - Nov. 15, 2014
And finally, we have JKinsley and her late entry. Shame on her.
Celestia stood alone in her study, gazing out of a window to the purple-and-orange glow of her setting sun. Long streaks of wet, matted fur ran underneath her red, puffy eyes, long since dry of tears.
A water-stained bit of parchment sat on the desk next to her. She couldn’t count the number of times she had already read it, but she dare not read it again. Each time brought a new wave of crushing and unrelenting despair and heartache. Thousands of years of love, life, and loss, and she could still be reduced to tears by a few simple words.
She knew it would hurt. She knew she would collapse into a heap and sob until every fiber of her being wailed with her, not in sympathy, but the physical pain of her emotional anguish. She looked down and to her right.
Dear Princess Celestia,
It was dark. Or maybe light. Twilight didn’t know. Nor did she care. Her bedroom curtains blocked any light, and she magically locked her door days ago. Spike had been by a few times, always knocking, always asking if she needed anything. Food. Water. A shoulder to cry on.
Twilight didn’t want any of that. She... she just wanted her. But every time she thought of her, it brought back the most painful memories. “Come on, Twi! I went to the library with you last week! I didn’t ask for anything in return! Why can’t you just come cheer me on at practice? And don’t tell me it’s another ‘princessly duties’ thing. I’ve had enough of that. You know, I think those letters aren’t even royal business at all! I think Princess Prissy Pants up there just wants you all to herself! She’s trying to steal you from me, and I’m not going to let that happen. You’re mine, Twi, and I love you too much to let you go without a fight...”
Twilight shook her head violently and buried her face in her pillow as she screamed. No matter how hard she tried, everything, everything came back to her. She screamed until her throat couldn’t take it, and then just rasped. After what felt like hours, she wore herself out enough to pass out into a fitful, restless “sleep.”
“Come on, Twi!...”
Dear Princess Celestia,
This is Spike. I’m really worried about Twilight. You see, she’s been locked up in her room for days now, and I don’t think she’s left.
You see, it all started four days ago when Rainbow Dash came over and they had this big fight. Twilight made me go upstairs to my room, but I couldn’t. What if she needed me? So I stayed, but hid and listened. Maybe she’ll get mad at me for not listening, but I don’t care about that right now! She’s... I don’t know. Hurt, badly. Rainbow Dash said some mean things, and used some words I don’t know. They sounded bad.
But it was Twilight who broke up with Rainbow Dash. She told Rainbow that she didn’t want to see her ever again and she needed to leave. When she didn’t... I can’t get the smell of singed feathers out of my head and Rainbow left a smokey trail when she was flung out. I’ve never seen Twilight so mad.
Or so sad. When she’s not crying, she’s screaming. When she’s not screaming, she’s asleep. I don’t think she knows that I’m always waiting for her to come out. I never leave the door except to bring up food or water in case she wants any.
Please, Princess, help me help her.
Yours, Spike
Heartbreak is a strange thing for an immortal. Celestia liked to think of herself a connoisseur of sorts, having met a great many wonderful ponies in her life. But her greatest heartbreak, at least until now, was banishing her sister to the moon for a thousand years. The irony of trapping her in her own creation paled in comparison to Celestia’s longing to have the fun-loving prankster back.
Celestia finally admitted to herself that Twilight Sparkle was no longer just her student or friend or fellow princess. Twilight, through no fault of her own, broke Celestia’s heart into more pieces than any pony in recorded history. And Celestia ought to know, since she recorded it all.
“What is it?” Twilight looked up from her bowl of cereal.
Celestia tapped her chin with her hoof and chewed gently on one lip. “What if - and hear me out here - what if we just blew off doing the joint court today? Just not show up and go do something fun. What would that hurt?”
“Well, it would throw the schedules of several dozen ponies off for the day, including ours.” Twilight hummed tunelessly to herself as she thought. “That could cause unforeseen consequences that could have trickle down effects all the way to the general populace. That uncertainty could cause just enough chaos that it’ll summon Discord. And...reformed or not, you know how he gets when things are already going wild around him. I’d say that within a few hours, Canterlot could be covered in some sort of plant growth, or, alternatively, there might be a giant monster stomping through downtown.”
“Which would, of course, lead Fluttershy to try and stop Discord’s misbehavior.” Celestia offered as Twilight nodded. “And should there be a giant anything traipsing about the downtown area - again, knowing Discord - it would likely be a fluffy bunny or kitten or something.”
“And,” Twilight grinned as she picked up from where Tia had left off, “that would lead to Discord making the ‘logical’ decision to make Fluttershy into a giant so she can calm the frightened critter down and convince it to leave the city.”
Celestia giggled. “All the while, giantess Fluttershy would be apologizing to everypony for the damage being caused while she just causes more by being there!”
“Don’t forget that she would apologize for her new super-sized voice being so loud.”
“And for blocking the sunlight.”
“And for flashing the whole town!”
Celestia snorted and lifted her tea to sip it. “Discord would have too much fun with that.”
“Which is why we wouldn’t do that.” Twilight smirked and scooped up another spoonful of her oat cereal. “Because we are smart ponies.”
Tears in her eyes, Celestia looked out of her tower’s balcony, out into the streets below. They had no idea. If she had her way, they never would. The day her most faithful student and lover was taken from her, forever.
~Twenty years ago~
“Princess? What is your decis-” Celestia’s focus flitted away from the court in front of her as a message from Twilight arrived.
Celestia
Something’s wrong with Twilight. She’s not well. She says not to tell you, but whatever’s affecting her, it’s beyond her capability. Please help.
Spike
Celestia’s eyes scanned the document again. And once more to make sure she’d read it correctly.
“Princess?” her assistant asked.
She stood quickly. “I-I’ve got to go. Urgent business. Court is cancelled for the rest of the day.” She spread her wings and was airborne within moments. Please be safe, Twilight.
Tearing away from Canterlot, she made her way past Ponyville, to the Everfree Forest. Twilight had been staying with Zecora, learning about Zebra magic and the shamaness’ own alchemical practices.
Alighting just outside, she saw Spike standing just outside. He’d grown much in the following years since Twilight had become a princess, and now almost stood at Luna’s height. He rushed up to her. “Celestia! I’m glad you came.”
Spike led the way to the door. “She and Zecora are just inside.” He opened the door and stepped through, Celestia following on his heels. The stench of sickness hit her nose hard as she passed though, and coughed lightly.
“S-Spike… Is that you?” A voice rasped. Celestia’s attention quickly diverted from the smell to the pony speaking. Twilight. Her beautiful, intelligent, loving Twilight. Now her feathers were falling out, her fur was matted with sweat and she looked almost like death warmed over. She spied Zecora tending to her, currently swapping a washcloth off her forehead.
“Yeah, I’m here Twilight.” He quickly moved to her side and joined Zecora. Twilight dissolved into a coughing fit, her frame shaking with each rasp.
Zecora startled as she noticed Celestia and Spike. He held a claw over her mouth and shh’d her before shooing her away. “I’ve got her, you fill ‘our guest’ in.”
Zecora nodded before motioning Celestia away from the sick mare. Leaning up to the larger mare she whispered, “Princess Celestia, what a surprise to see ya.”
“Spike sent for me. I did not know Twilight was unwell.”
Zecora nodded. Both ponies looked over to Spike as he covered her shivering form in several blankets. “How she became unwell is a mystery. All I can do is tend to her, you see.”
“When did she fall ill?” Celestia’s eyes watered slightly.
Zecora held a hoof to her chin. “It was three days ago, I believe. After a venture to that castle with an item to retrieve.”
Twilight’s coughing worsened. Spike became frantic. “I-Help! Zecora!”
Zecora hopped into action. “Spike, some healing salve I see. Bring that to me, quickly!”
Spike quickly retrieved the salve and set it next to her as she set to work. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Ce-Celestia?” Everypony froze. “W-What are you doing here?” Her head lifted and she looked, more squinted, right into Celestia’s eyes.
Spike looked guilty. “I sent a letter asking her to come.”
“If I had known sooner…”
“Celestia.” Twilight coughed once, dislodging the cloth on her forehead. “I-I’m glad you’re here, actually.”
“What do you mean, Twilight?” Celestia stepped forward.
“Twilight, any information you can provide, hopefully a cure we can find.” Zecora replaced the cloth.
“No. I’m not getting better.” Her head fell back down onto the mattress she lay on. “I know that–” she coughed again, “–now.”
“Twi? You’re gonna–” Spike’s voice pleaded to her.
She shook her head weakly. “No, Spike, I won’t. I can feel it, and I’ve accepted it. It’s not time yet, but it will be soon.”
“Twilight? May I?” Celestia gestured to the blankets.
“I would love nothing more, Celestia.” Twilight nodded. Zecora discreetly left the three alone for the time Twilight had left.
Tears in her eyes, Celestia moved forward and cast aside the blankets before settling in next to Twilight, wrapping a massive white wing around the dying mare. She listened to Twilight’s weakly beating heart for a moment before coming to a decision. Discretely, she scanned Twilight magically. Some kind of poison was circulating in her blood, slowly throttling her heart.
She rested her head on top of Twilight’s, lending her her warmth. Her heart ached for the little mare under her wing, there was nothing she could do. Spike sat on the floor next to them, still intent on staying.
Several hours passed as the three exchanged stories and memories. Twilight’s heart continued to slow before Twilight weakly interrupted her story. “It-It’s time.” Tears started falling quickly. “I-I’m sorry Spike. I’m sorry Celestia.”
As a final act, Twilight’s head raised and she kissed Celestia on the lips before falling limp against her. Slowly, her eyes lost their sharpness, dulling completely. Her body relaxed softly in Celestia’s embrace, all the strain from the pain wracking her body fading as she did.
Celestia had frozen at the final kiss. This wasn’t supposed to happen to either of us. Not for a long, very long time.
“Twi? Twilight?” He reached for her chest and felt for her heartbeat. After a moment of silence, he broke down in tears.
Celestia and Spike remained with Twilight’s body until dusk. Celestia’s horn ached, but she ignored it. Luna could take care of setting the sun and raising the moon for the night. Twilight needed her here. Her friends needed to be told, her parents, her brother and Cadance.
~Present time~
The dusk gave way to night as Luna set the sun and raised the moon. Shortly after, a knock sounded and Luna entered and shut the door behind her.
Luna’s voice sounded softly. “Tia? How are you holding up?”
Choking back a sob Celestia replied, “I… I’m not okay. Please stay with me, Luna.”
Luna hurried over and immediately hugged her sister. “Of course, Tia. Any time you need me, you need but ask.”
Celestia folded into Luna’s embrace and broke down weeping. “Why did she have to die?”
Luna looked out into Canterlot as she held her sister. “I do not know, Tia. I wish there was something we could have done…”
Twilight Sparkle surveyed the dig site from a hundred meters up in a gentle glide, the subtle currents of warm, summer air helping keep her aloft. Below, dozens of ponies worked carefully to excavate some positively ancient ruins buried in the dirt. Earth ponies hauled away mountains of dirt; pegasi coordinated their efforts; and unicorns dug out the ruins slowly but surely.
From her vantage point, Twilight spotted patterns, like long, wide streets and the tightly clustered walls of a dwelling. More unusual, though, was a large set of foundation that had a large circle with many triangles around it. Like a starburst, thought Twilight, leveling her camera at the pattern and snapping a picture. She flew up a little higher to get a snapshot of the entire dig, as well, before gliding down to the surveyor’s tent.
A couple of unicorns and an Earth pony stood around the center table with large sketch of the dig site on it. One of the the unicorns busied herself with filling in the new details described by the Earth pony.
Twilight cleared her throat and everypony turned to her. She nodded and said, “I have some photographs of the dig I need to take back to Canterlot to develop, and I want to compare them against some of the books in the Royal Archive. I think we might be looking at a village that I’ve seen before, but I need to be sure.” She gestured to one of the corners of the dig. “That area right there? Pay special attention and care. I think it’s key. I spotted a starburst pattern, so I think it had some cultural significance to the former residents.”
The three ponies nodded, and the unicorn doing the sketching added a faint starburst icon to the building Twilight pointed out. Twilight grabbed her saddlebags from the corner of the tent, packed her camera and other gear in it, and then strode out of the tent and took off.
Twilight arrived back in Canterlot a few hours later, thanks to some clever teleporting and other magical assistance. She landed on the balcony nearest the library and dashed inside. Once there, she rifled through the stacks in the Archaeology section.
“No, no, no, definitely not, no,” she muttered, tossing books aside. One the librarians passed her growing piles of books and shook her head, tsking to herself as she wandered off.
Twilight was soon surrounded by a mountain of books, with nearly the entire section stripped from its shelves. “Still nothing. No. UGH!” She threw herself on her back in frustration and took several deep breaths to steady herself. “You can do this, Twilight, I know you can. You’ve defeated much greater enemies.”
“I would hardly call the library your enemy, my dear Twilight. It seems to be one of your great loves,” a soothing voice came from the other side of a wall of books. The tip of a white horn and the gentle wave of pastel blue gave Twilight all she needed to confirm her beloved was on the other side.
“Celestia!” she shouted after parting the books. She threw her arms around Celestia’s neck and held her close. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been occupied with research.”
“Proving that other ponies declared me to be divine won’t make me stop teasing you every time you shout ‘Oh Celestia!’ in the bedroom, dear.”
Wind, wind, wind. Wind, wind, wind. Twilight twisted the gears into place with delicate ease, only stopping when the metal snapped into place with a decisive ‘clink’. A piston went here. Here, a set of wires disappeared into a shimmering box of gold and copper. To the left she could see the springs straining against their bounds. The horn vented steam with a gentle hiss. A clicking noise coming from her left ear told her the motors were running. She closed the metal casing gingerly, taking time to avoid trapping her hoof between the artificial feathers. She looked down at the blueprints, then looked back up at the machine in front of her and smile. A quick check told her she had roughly another forty minutes before Spike would be back and she would have to wander back out into the real world, back into the loneliness and the world of regrets and failure and never letting go.
Fabrics floated in gusts of steam generated just behind the eggshell white audio sensors that qualified as ears. If she squinted, she could almost call them graceful. They didn’t have the same volume as the original, but the colours were spot on last she’d checked. Which had been--she glanced over at the blueprints--two months ago. She could hear mechanical noises that once had been meaningless chatter assemble themselves into the words “my faithful student”. The voice was not quite right--too rigid and jerky--but she could fix that in time. She checked the time again. Another thirty minutes, and then she’d have to come back to her world of failure and never letting go.
It was not, and would never be, of course, a replacement for what she had lost. It was more of a tribute, a work of art dedicated to the wonderful pony she had lost. She was resolute on that. For, she had declared those many months ago, she did not deserve anything less than to lose that which she loved most, and a replacement would be to cheat that well-earned punishment. Even if nopony else agreed. Even if the original model for this bad imitation would not have agreed. For every night, her dreams swam with the screams of an Empire dragged into slavery and shadows by the dark magic of its tyrant-king. Every night she heard them accuse and despise her, saw herself claimed by that door and saved at last only by that wonderful princess from on high. Every distant daydream reminded her of how she and her friends had been saved from the curse, how the others had not. Her sister, her brother. It had just been her. And every minute she was not building, she was living the self-exile she had imposed for her failure, which would never let her go.
Another twenty minutes, and then Spike would be back and she would be back to working on the spells to reverse it all. Time travel. Summon magic. Shadowmancy. Dispelling mind control. Another twenty minutes and she would throw herself back into her world of failure, but until those twenty minutes came…
Twilight folded up the tear-stained blueprints, walked her way towards the tribute to the mentor she no longer deserved and raised it up by its arms. She wrapped herself around the substitute and cried away her failure, hoping it would never let her go.
Twilight twitched in irritation as she looked over the documents before her. Tossing one aside she thought, ‘No. Too bulky.’ A pair more met their end in a trashbin with similar thoughts as she huffed in irritation and a strand of her mane curled. A dozen after that she nearly yelled, “Is there nothing that would fit her? Nothing at all?” A shadow twitched in the corner behind her, shaking silently, almost laughing.
Resigning her campaign against the documents for now, Twilight got up and made her way out of the room, walking a little more forcefully than she intended.
‘We meet again…’ Twilight thought as she scowled at the large paper pile. She dove in again, tearing through a dozen more documents.
A knock sounded at the door. “Twilight? May I come in?”
Twilight’s ears perked at the welcome distraction as a small smile worked its way to her face. “Luna? Of course, it’s unlocked.” Almost instinctively she nodded, despite Luna not able to see the gesture.
The door opened and Luna stepped through, shutting it behind herself. She gazed at the stack of seemingly-important documents that Twilight was working on. Her eyes widened and she asked, “Is this a bad time?”
Twilight followed Luna’s gaze. Her horn lit and the stack shuffled into one of the desk’s large drawers. “No! No no. This isn’t really important right now, just a pet project. What do you need?”
Luna smirked, it seemed she stumbled upon a secret. Her horn lit and overpowered Twilight’s, setting the stack back on the desk. “It seems like you need my help more than I do yours right now, Twilight Sparkle.” She fixed a serious look on her face before pointing at the stack with a hoof. “Now, what do you need help with? We can get to my issue later.”
“No, really. It’s nothing–” Panicking now, Twilight tried to grab the stack again only to be rebuffed by Luna’s magic. Luna noticed that Twilight’s panic brought a blush to her face.
“It certainly is not ‘nothing’, Twilight. If this is a secret project, I will keep it so, but you are obviously in need of some help with whatever this is.” Luna stepped forward, sitting at the desk, opposite Twilight.
Twilight’s voice squeaked softly, “You promise?”
“I do. Do you wish for me to Pinkie Pie Promise?” Luna held a hoof up, almost starting into the motions.
“No. I trust you, Luna. I… just do not tell Celestia about this.” Luna quirked an eyebrow as Twilight continued, “You will see shortly why.”
Nodding once Luna’s magic faded from the documents and she replied, “Very well. What do you wish for me to do?”
Twilight sighed. She motioned to the stack. “Help me find a blueprint.”
“A blueprint?” Luna’s curiosity piqued and she leaned forward slightly.
“Yes.” Twilight nodded once.
“For what?”
“A starship!” Luna deflated slightly, her posture slouching.
Luna shot a flat stare at Twilight. “That does not answer my question, Twilight. For what reason are you looking for a blueprint of a starship?”
“It…” Twilight’s blush returned and she looked away. “It’s for Celestia. She’s mentioned feeling useless after Equestria turned into a republic.” She looked back at Luna. “I wanted to help her.”
“With a ship?”
“Of course! We can sail the stars, helping everypony in need!” Twilight’s voice rose, her excitement on display for all to see. Her wings unfolded halfway before she reeled the reaction in.
“We?” Luna questioned, her eyebrows seemingly never getting the chance to level out.
“I… had planned on going with her,” she whispered.
“So, this is a gift?”
“Yes.” Twilight nodded meekly.
“I see.” Luna thought for a few seconds, choosing her words carefully. “I can honestly tell you this: the ship you are looking for is not in that pile.” Luna stood and made her way around the desk, sitting next to Twilight. “A gift like this must not come from here,” Luna motioned to the pile. “It must come from here,” Luna’s hoof moved and pressed against Twilight’s barrel, “from the heart. Only then will you have found what you were looking for.”
“But I don’t know how to design a ship–” Luna’s hoof met Twilight’s lips, silencing her softly.
“Think of it this way, that pile there is now study material.” Luna removed her hoof. “We need a few more things though, to make it better. Her horn lit and several history books hit the table next to the stack. “Aha! Combat records of each battle complete with statistics, and testing records of those ships that have not seen combat yet!”
“But how will I know what to–”
“Twilight, believe me. You will know.” Luna grabbed a blank sheet of parchment and a pen. “Let me show you what I mean.” She stood and walked back to the door. “Hold still for a moment, please.”
Overwhelmed, Twilight acquiesced, “Alright.”
Luna’s look turned serious as she started marking the parchment. A few minutes passed silently as she continued. Finally she brightened and said, “Alright, I’m done.”
She walked back over to Twilight and proffered the parchment for her to view.
The parchment was a scene of a ship passing over a hilltop at sunset. Just from looking at it, she knew that the ship was unmistakably her. The sharp angling in the wings’ rears and weapon mounts were offset by rounded leading edges, with a long conic body giving it a fast, powerful frame.
She never even noticed herself and Celestia sitting on the hill, Celestia’s wing around her back.
“Luna… it’s beautiful.” Twilight was left speechless. She grabbed the picture with her magic from Luna, examining it in more detail.
“It’s also completely you,” Luna added simply.
“How did you do that?”
“I have been around a long time, Twilight. I have picked up a few things during my life.”
“Could… could you draw one of Celestia?” Hopefully, Twilight’s ears perked up and she leaned forward slightly.
“No. You must come up with the design on your own.” Twilight’s ears fell as her head dropped. Luna lifted her chin with a hoof to look Twilight in the eyes. “But I can help you.”
The wind was knocked out of Luna’s lungs as Twilight sprung at her, wrapping her in a hug. “Thank you! Thank you thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou!”
Luna laughed weakly, clearly enjoying Twilight’s enthusiasm.
Several years later, Luna sat with Twilight and Celestia as they looked over the completed Celestia.
Luna’s horn lit and a thought landed in Twilight’s mind. “You know, had I drawn Celestia that night, you never would have come up with this ship.”
Twilight smirked and looked at Luna from the corner of her eye. She sent a thought back. “I know. And thank you for pushing me like that.” Another thought floated to Luna after a moment. “You know, I never did find out what you wanted.”
“I was bored and wanted something to do,” was Luna’s cryptic reply.
“Yes.” The shorter pony nudged nudged her crown so that it sat straighter on her head. “We walk in on the second fanfare, proceed to the bottom of the stairs, turn and bow to the emissary from Cambul. Then we turn to the crowd, smile and wave.”
“Don’t forget the kiss.”
“Ugh...must we? You know how I feel about public displays.”
The taller pony chuckled quietly as the first of the trumpet fanfares started. “The kiss is part of the dance, part of the play and the audience expects it of two happily married mares. We have to follow the script. Now get ready, we have just a few seconds before the curtains go up.”
The trumpets blasted again, louder this time, and the curtains pulled away to reveal a titanic crowd of ponies and camels that started to stomp and shout as the Princess of the Sun and the Princess of Friendship were announced over the loudspeaker system. They smiled brightly as they did indeed proceed stately down the stairs, their formal vestments flowing elegantly behind them. The crowd’s roar became deafening as they reached level with the Cambul emissary and bowed. It somehow became even louder when they turned and waved to the crowd.
“Time for that kiss, love.” Celestia whispered in the purple colored ear of her companion. “And make it passionate, too!”
They turned to face each other and reared up to place their hooves together before leaning their heads together.
“Stop teasing me! This is important!”
“Yeah, your first lesbian kiss in public.”
The Princess of Friendship huffed and puckered her lips as the other mare leaned in closer with that playful twinkle in her eye that said she was about get a mouthful of tongue. Time seem to slow to a crawl as she reminded herself that she loved this pony more than anything, teasing aside. Her lips made contact and not for the first time, it was like fireworks going off.
Only this time, fireworks were going off. Out of the corner of her eye, a camel came out of the crowd, his traditional robes billowing out as he charged up the stairs. He had a vest on underneath and he had a wild look in his eyes to match the lit stick of dynamite clenched in his teeth.
She shoved Celestia away and whirled on the attacker, her horn flaring with a bright purple aura. The camel made it two more steps when a shield of solid arcane power slammed into place around him. “I’ve got him!”
“Now, Twilight!”
The Princess of Friendship lifted the shield up off the ground in case the explosive force of the dynamite was enough to shatter the shield and endanger the crowd when one of the camel guards standing by the emissary morphed into Twilight Sparkle. The alicorn vanished a split second later and appeared inside the shield with the crazed camel and then both of them vanished, leaving the robes, vest and dynamite behind just before it detonated.
The crowd’s cheering turned to confused shouting and a near stampede broke out, but the Royal Guards quickly had them back under control and moved safely away from where the royals and diplomats were composing themselves. Twilight Sparkle reappeared in a flash of light with a now unconscious camel as an elderly male camel stepped forward from their congregation.
“Princess Sparkle. You are as skilled as the legends say.” He smiled crookedly and bowed respectfully. “I apologize again for bringing such violence to your doorsteps, but the factions in my home nation continue to clash.”
“Think nothing of it, Ambassador.” Twilight smiled tightly. “With cooperation, it was a simple matter to mislead this extremist into revealing himself. I and Princess Celestia were both on hoof in case it went badly.”
She nodded to the emissary’s body double who morphed into the rainbow maned Princess.
“And then we had Princess Cadance and my brother, Shining Armor standing in as us to act as both bait and to shield the bystanders.”
She pointed at the doubles for herself and her wife and Celestia dissolved into the pink Princess of Love. Her own double turned white and her hair became electric blue and shorter, but the body remained the same.
“Brother?” The emissary raised an eyebrow.
Shining Armor looked down at himself and groaned before fixing his wife with a glare. “Cadance!”
“What? I meant it when I said you were going to get your first public lesbian kiss, my sweet Gleaming Shield. Now pucker up!”
“Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked, her head tilted adorkably as she snuggled into Celestia’s waiting wing.
“Yes, Twilight?” Celestia looked down at the filly.
“I think something’s missing. From my room. I haven’t seen it for a few days.” Twilight squirmed slightly, trying to crane her neck upward.
“Oh? What might that be?”
“I can’t seem to find one of my notebooks. One of the ones you got me for my birthday.”
“Oh dear.” Celestia hummed for a second before speaking again, “I think I may have an idea where it went. Let me check in the morning, okay?” She kissed Twilight softly just under her horn.
“Okay, thanks Princess.” Twilight snuggled into the wing and was quickly asleep.
Once Twilight had fallen asleep, Celestia lifted her wing and levitated the small filly to her bed to rest. Standing and quietly leaving her chambers, she made her way to Twilight’s room.
Closing the door, she lit her horn. “Come on out, I know you’re there.”
Something shuffled behind several stacks of books to her left. Acting swiftly, she grabbed the entire set with her magic. Something in the stack shrieked.
Separating the pile of books “Ey, ey mare, don’ shoot! Don’ shoot!” Separating the books from her target, she revealed a small chest. It seemed to shake before whining childishly.
Celestia frowned. “Did you take something from this room’s owner?”
The chest shook again as it muttered something.
She brought it closer, and set the books back down. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”
“No mare, I don’ take nothin’ from th’ room!” The mimic’s hinge swung open slightly as it talked, revealing sharp teeth.
“My student says she has a missing notebook, one I’d gotten her. If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it’s got gold lettering on the front and back.” She brought the mimic closer, almost bumping her muzzle against it. “If you are lying, I will be back.”
Her threat levelled, she set the chest down, out of sight from the doorway, and left.
The next morning, Twilight excitedly arrived at her lessons with Celestia.
“Good morning Twilight, may I ask what has you so excited this morning?” Twilight’s good mood was infectious, brightening up Celestia’s morning.
She rummaged through her bag and brought out a notebook. “Good morning Princess, I found that notebook I asked you about!”
“Oh? Where was it?” Celestia’s ears perked up in interest.
“On one of the higher shelves in my bookcase. I must have forgotten I put it there.” Twilight set the notebook down and opened it up. “What are we learning today, Princess?”
Celestia pulled a large book out of a nearby chest and set it on the table. “Today, we will be learning about Equus’ various magical creatures.”
“Like gryphons and dragons?” Twilight inquired, her quill at the ready.
Celestia shook her head softly. “Not quite, we will be learning about the more ‘magically constructed’ species, like oracles and guardians.”
**AAAAAH-CHOOO** The sneeze went off in the quiet library like a bomb. Twilight Sparkle, unicorn, was sick. She'd spent the last day and a half running about the Everfree Forest in the dead of winter looking for... well, she wouldn't tell anyone what she was looking for, only that it was of the utmost importance and she had to find it soon. She'd achieved her goal, but in the process caught a cold that doomed her to bed rest and plenty of liquids.
She groaned in her bed, wrapped head to hooves in her blankets. “Spike? Spike?” She called, “Where are you? I need more tissues.”
A racking cough started deep in her chest. The hoarse barks as she coughed covered the sound of her door opening and closing.
“Here you go Twilight.” A melodious voice came.
Fuzzily Twilight looked up, trying to focus bloodshot eyes. “You're not Spike.”
Celestia laughed. “I'm glad you noticed. Spike sent me a letter telling me you were sick. I came as fast as I could. I, um, I brought soup?”
Twilight perked up a little. Soup sounded good. Nice warm soup. She gratefully accepted the bowl from Celestia and carefully managed to spoon up some of the broth.
“This is delicious,” She sniffled. “So good, and warming... did you bring this from Canterlot?”
Celestia smiled. “I made it Twilight. It's a special recipe. My mother used to make it for me when I was sick. Now I make it for my loved ones when they are sick”
Twilight choked on her soup. Coughing she sputtered a little. Celestia patted her on the back and rubbed her hoof in a small circle.
“Now can you tell me why you were out in the snow for so long?”
Twilight pointed towards her dresser. There on top, in a small pot was a flower. It had a thick stem, but the flower bud was delicate. A sparkling white, it had a bright yellow core that shone like the sun. It gave off a warmth that brightened the room. The flower was the only source of heat, but it had the room feeling cozy and wonderful.
“Helleborus Thaumaturgis. It only grows in the Everfree and only blooms in the middle of the winter. I... I really wanted you to have it.”
“It's beautiful Twilight. But you didn't have to catch a cold just to get me a pretty flower.”
“I just wanted you to have something to make you happy. Something to tell you how much I...” Twilight broke out into another long series of coughs.
“I have you, that's more then enough.” Celestia moved in close to Twilight.
“Don't come close! I'm contagious.”
“I don't care, now come here,” Celestia drew Twilight in close to her and planted a kiss on her lips. “I love you too, Twilight.” She then settled into the bed beside Twilight and wrapped her in a warm wing. The two settled back, relaxed and warm. Twilight drifting off into sleep while Celestia hummed a song.
Three days later Twilight was feeling miles better. She checked the temperature of the soup on the stove. Using her magic to ladle it into a bowl, she carefully carried it up to her bedroom. Pushing the door open, she looked inside, “Celestia? Are you feeling better? I brought you soup.”
A rough coughing resounded through the district as Twilight made her way through them, on her way to the coughing’s source. As she rounded the last corner to gaze upon Canterlot’s finest armoring forge, the alicorn checked her tray again. There normally weren’t guards posted at the door, but the pair currently posted kept peering questioningly at the closed oaken doors.
Trotting up to the doors, she knocked. “Princess? It’s Twilight. I’m back,” she spoke clearly. The coughing stopped for a few seconds as the doors clicked open. Taking the initiative, she parted them slightly and strode in.
Stepping past the threshold, she was assaulted with heat. Immediately, she cast a fire-heat resistance spell on herself and her tray. Delving deeper into the forge, she reached the forge’s chamber and saw it was blasting at capacity and burning brightly. She looked about and saw several differing, yet unanimously in-progress, sets of armor, hastily strewn across ponykins. A rasping cough interrupted her introspection and she gazed inside the hearth. Her wings ruffled in agitation as she flinched from the cough.
“Welcome back, Twilight. Did you get it?” Celestia asked, laying inside, with a wing covering something in the middle. A purple claw reached out from under her wing to a nearby bowl and withdrew several gems before retreating.
“I did!” Twilight nodded before stepping forward and into the hearth. She set the tray next to the bowl and laid down next to Celestia’s outstretched wing. Nuzzling under the feathers, and only purposely tickling Celestia slightly, she stretched her head to see the wing’s occupant, Spike.
He looked a mess, phlegm dripping from his smoking nostrils and bloodshot eyes barely open. He’d caught a dragon’s version of a cold, where his body lost the ability to produce its own heat to fight the illness. In dragon culture, they’d spend a week in a volcano and cared for by their immediate family, not unlike with a sick pony. Having no dragon family, his pony family had to take up those roles and a large enough forge was commandeered to provide the body heat necessary.
“Hey Spike, I got more gems. Are you feeling any better, or do we need to stoke the fire some more?” Twilight asked, her voice trembling somewhat seeing her son-slash-brother in such a state.
Spike shivered a little and groaned out, “More heat, please. I feel so cold…” He curled up against Celestia, his other ‘mother’s’ body, her connection with the sun giving her a far greater body temperature than a normal pony’s and doing wonders to help drive the cold sensation away.
Twilight nodded and retreated from under Celestia’s wing. She stood and nuzzled Celestia, kissing her nose once before saying, “He’s still cold, I’m gonna stoke the fires some more.” Celestia nodded once and tightened her wing around Spike slightly. “Hopefully we’ll have enough fuel in supply.”
Celestia leaned into her fiancée’s nuzzle before responding, “If we don’t, we can put an emergency requisition in from the other forges in the area.” She shrugged her free wing. “Failing that, we can always have more shipped in by train.”
Twilight nodded and left the hearth, going around to the bellows in the rear. Telekinetically, she lifted several hundred pounds of coal and spread it evenly underneath the hearth and pumping the bellows a few times. The flames underneath surged, licking the grate that Spike and Celestia rested upon. Celestia let out an audible giggle as one particular flametip tickled her cutie mark.
The coughing ceased after a short time as Twilight returned and laid down opposite Celestia from Spike, adding her own wing above Celestia’s. She ducked her head under their wings and noticed that Spike was now sleeping again, more peacefully this time.
She retreated, giving him space, but not before hearing, “Thanks, mom.”
Smiling brightly, she closed a little distance with her son and fiancée, letting her form rest against his as she lay her neck across Celestia’s. Celestia returned the favor, nuzzling against Twilight’s neck. Both ponies joined Spike in a restful slumber, inside a blazing forge.
Fuzzy choose to be a naughty pony this week and wrote a mature story. It can be found from his user page in the Hot for Teacher collab. Make sure you have Mature stories visible! Warning: mild gore.
“It’s done Twilight.” Celestia walked into the room she shared with her affianced lover.
Twilight was standing by the window, looking out from the tallest tower of Canterlot out over Equestria. She turned to Tia. “Luna and Cadance are in charge now, then?”
“The governing of the nation of Equestria is officially in the hooves of Luna Morningstar and Mi Amore Cadanza. Everything of import is to go through the Court of the Night. Everything of lesser import is to go through the Crystal Empire. The Sun Court is officially closed for two years.”
Twilight smiled at her. “What a honeymoon. Two years to just discover the world. I know I’m the youngest of the alicorns and that you’ve already seen most everything…”
Celestia interrupted her. “I actually haven’t. While I’ve seen quite a bit, just because I’m an old dinosaur…”
Twilight protested. “ You’re barely 1150 years old! From what I’ve learned of Alicorns, that’s still extremely young! Besides, if you’re a dinosaur… you’re MY dinosaur. Hot-Flank-o-Saurus.”
Celestia chuckled then continued. “Regardless, I’ve had a busy life. Youth devoted to learning how-to and then defeating Discord. Then cleaning up Equestria from Discord. Then… well, when we finally started to get things in order, Luna had her episode.”
“Episode?” Twilight deadpanned, “Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Yes. Episode, it’s mild enough to distract from her goals there.” Celestia replied. “Then I had a full thousand years running a country with a government designed to be run by TWO monarchs. ALONE.”
Twilight kissed her. Celestia smiled, happy to have found someone who as smart and loving and beautiful and purple as Twilight to brighten her days. “Long story made slightly less long, I’m dying to see the world for myself without the trappings of royalty. That I’m going with you only makes it better.”
Twilight turned and looked out the window. “It really snowed last night, didn’t it? Everything looks brand new. Buried under the snow, it becomes a blank canvas. Everything familiar has disappeared.”
Celestia smiled. “The world looks brand new, full of possibilities. Nothing is impossible, everything is possible.”
Twilight looked to her side. Celestia had moved into the gap in a movement that felt natural. It felt right. She smiled up at the larger princess.
Celestia spread her wing over Twilight’s back, pulling her into a tight embrace. Gazing down into purple eyes, she whispered. “It’s a magical world, Twilight, my love. Let’s go exploring.”
Ramping off a large lunar rock, Applejack leapt powerfully from her sparrow’s back, reaching heights normally reserved for pegasi and other flying creatures. As she watched her sprite transmat the sparrow to safety, she spied everything below her for a few seconds before settling on a target. A trio of Fallen Captains clustered together back to back, fighting off a Hive Thrall horde closing in quickly, completely disregarding the rocks and littered spaceship debris as obstacles. Deciding to make her battlefield entry an impressionable one, she activated her Hooves of Thunder ability, her helmet modifying the ability to allow her a targeted aerial drop. Her armor was instantly sheathed in electrical arcs, bouncing about randomly.
It activated and she shot forward, arcing to let gravity assist her fall. With a battlecry rivaling a Fallen Captain itself she hurtled at them. Only one had the time to turn before she slammed hooves first into the ground. The three Captains vanished into ash as the electricity discharged into the area and as the wave expanded, the first two ranks of Thralls were consumed as well.
Most of the Thralls stopped, recognizing the danger this new foe presented. Several consumed pony Thralls cautiously approached and each dropped before reaching within a yard of Applejack, a single bullet slamming into their skulls.
“Thanks for the coverin’ fire, Tia. Twi, you comin’ over’r not?” Applejack spoke into her helmet’s radio. She looked to her sides and made sure her weapons were loaded.
A moment later, another pony touched down next to her. “I’m already here, AJ. Tia, love, can you come on over? Let’s dance,” Twilight spoke so sweetly that AJ thought her radio would turn into cotton candy.
“Alright, but only because you asked so nicely.” A dust cloud kicked up and the final pony, ex-princess Celestia, in their fireteam settled into position as the spear. She craned her neck around and looked between her two comrades. “Shall we show them the one-two step? I cannot imagine that it would be out of their skill to learn.”
Twilight nodded, telekinetically lifting her fusion rifle. “I’m sure we can help them learn.” Applejack nodded, pawing at the lunar dirt once.
Celestia launched into a charge, her horn levelled at the first Thrall she found, Applejack and Twilight in tow. She lifted her long-ranged scout rifle in her magic as she closed the remaining few yards.
She crashed through their line like a juggernaut, trampling those directly in front of her path. Twilight took to the skies, easily soaring over the ground-bound Thralls as she rained fire down on them. Occasionally, she’d pick up on a Thrall acting particularly troublesome and dive-bomb it, destroying its body with her speed and armor’s weight. Applejack blurred as did what she did best against the Hive: punch, buck, and wrestle. Every Thrall that went into the whirlwind that AJ kicked up came out in pieces as it dissolved.
After a minute, only Applejack, Celestia, and Twilight remained, the surviving members of the horde broken and retreating, or dissolved to just pieces of armor and strewn about the battlefield. Twilight set down next to Celestia, who panted heavily into her helmet. “That was fun, Twi. It’s been quite a while since I had last danced, thank you.” Celestia leaned down and nuzzled her helmet against Twilight’s, the armor not impeding the romantic gesture’s intent in the least.
“No problem, Tia. I know I can’t dance, but I still love to watch you.” Twilight surveyed their surroundings and spotted the downed ship. “I hope the cache is still inside. It wouldn’t be fun to have to track it down again.” She and Celestia made their way to the ship as Applejack kept an eye out for more Hive or Fallen.
The spaceship’s fuselage was still mostly intact, with only a few pony-sized holes blown into one side. Twilight hopped down into the trench that it had dug when it crash-landed, immediately followed by Celestia.
Celestia spotted the cargo-hold’s emergency release hatch first and with a flick of her horn, popped the door’s seals loose. The door immediately dropped open and out tumbled a massive, armored crate. Two Knights tumbled out the hatch as a Wizard floated out behind them.
“We got trouble!” Celestia yelled. That was all it took to get Applejack turned and sprinting to the ship. Before she could reach them, the Wizard flew up and straight past her, a scream on its lips. She prioritized and turned back around, intent on making short work of the magic-wielder.
The two Knights reasserted themselves and drew their massive blades as they stared down at the ponies in front of them, easily as long as Big Macintosh was tall. With a resounding warcry that shook the ship to its plating, they charged a pony each. Twilight deftly dodged as she took to the air, peppering her Knight with her semi-automatic scout rifle. Celestia dodged her Knight’s overhead strike with a sidestep, sheathing her own armor in electricity and activating her own ability.
Unlike Applejack’s ability that released its charge all at once, her armor allowed her to create a weapon. She dodged and ducked as a sword, literally made of the electricity coursing off her armor, materialized in the empty scabbard she kept. Once it was fully formed, she drew the blade magically. She knew it wouldn’t last more than a minute, but it would be enough. As it drew, a sharp crackling gave the knight pause. The sword matched the Knight’s for length, but wasn’t as physically bulky.
Whipping the blade once, she drew it back and set into a defensive stance. The Knight pointed at her with its blade before charging. It threw another vicious overhead strike once it was in range, but Celestia angled her blade and deflected the blow to the side. The Knight’s blade dug into the ground and was left vulnerable. Celestia used the momentary advantage and thrust her own blade into the Knight’s chest. It screamed in pain as a dark smoke poured from the wound and wrenched its blade from the ground. The Knight’s free hand came up and knocked the side of Celestia’s head, his bulk throwing her backwards. Wheeling about, Celestia charged, her sword ready. The Knight drew into a defensive stance as she closed. Feinting left, Celestia flapped her wings once and sidestepped the Knight’s guard. Bringing her blade down, it cut through the Knight’s armored helm like it was nothing, continuing on to bisect the enemy vertically.
Twilight had dispatched her own Knight with a pair of grenades, sending its soul screaming back to the Hive’s chambers. She whistled appreciatively at Celestia’s moves. “Wow, Tia. I knew you could dance, but you played him like a fiddle!”
“Thanks, Twi. It’s good to hear I’ve still got it after all these years. Now, let’s go return this cache.” Under her helmet, Celestia blushed.
Applejack slid down into the trench and caught up with the two. All three ponies looked at the crate. It bore the Vanguards’ seal. “Well, that was easy. We even know who it goes to. Let’s get it home.”
Twilight held up a hoof to block the glare coming off the huge spotlight that was attached to the forward prow. The light beam it cast in front of the airship illuminated the wet, grey-colored walls of the nearest cliff face. The craggy surface dripped with moisture coming from the thick fog bank that surrounded and all but blinded them.
The cliff was the one thing outside the ship that existed in the depth of night. Twilight kept her eyes glued to it as the HRMS Eclipse sailed onward, using it to gauge their relative speed and position. She’d been at it for hours and so far there had been little change of worthy note.
Twilight tried to stifle the yawn, but when it hit her she couldn’t stop it and stretched her jaw to the point of popping. That was all it took to get her to feel the weariness in her hooves and the ache in her neck from standing watch for so long. She rolled her head to ease the tension and did a little dance in place to get her blood moving again.
“Hey, Twi, any change?”
Twilight started at the sudden intrusion of another pony into her world of ship, cliff, and fog. She turned and smiled tiredly at Rainbow Dash. “Huh? No...no change.”
“Why don’t you take a break?” Rainbow walked up next to Twilight and blew quietly out through her nose as she gazed at the distance rockface. “It’s been hours since dinner and I can take it from here.”
“If you’re sure.” Twilight flexed her wings and yawned again. “Call me if anything happens.”
“Sure thing, Twi.”
“Oh, and Rainbow?” Twilight lowered her voice and leaned in slightly to the other mare. “When you inevitably take a flight on your own to see what’s out there, be careful, ok? We don’t even know where we are, getting separated would be a bad idea.”
Dash grinned and inclined her head to butte Twilight’s forehead. “I will. You stay focused on getting us all back to Equestria, ok?”
Twilight laughed softly. “I will. I promised, didn’t I? I’m going to see if Princess Celestia has made any headway on that problem.”
She left Rainbow Dash at the lookout and headed back to the captain’s quarters where the Princess had set up as her bunk and their de facto planning room. The doors were closed, but soft, golden light seeped out from under them rather invitingly. Twilight knocked and after a moment the door opened with a hint of Celestia’s yellow aura.
Twilight stepped in and closed the door behind her. Celestia was sitting at the large table that held their notes and charts and now useless navigational tools. The Princess waved Twilight over and one of the stools slid across the wooden floor for the smaller alicorn to sit on. “Any good news?”
Celestia looked up and smiled. “Some good news, I think.” She gestured at the star chart on the table. “As we already know, none of these stars have been visible since the storm, and the few we have seen don’t match any of our charts.”
“And you,” Twilight continued robotically, “have lost contact with the sun.”
“Ah, but that is where I have a bit of good news!” Celestia chirped. She levitated a blank page over and pulled out a quill. She rapidly sketched out a rudimentary grid of the sky. “Here is where the sun should be.” She pointed at a spot on the basic map. “I’ve been searching for it this whole time within that general area with no luck. However, after dinner, I thought I would try something new and I reached out further afield to see if I could pick up anything.”
Twilight brightened. “And...you did?”
Celestia nodded, but she quickly held up a hoof to stall Twilight. “I found a sun. It’s not my sun, and it is really far away.”
Twilight blinked and stared at where Celestia was now pointing at the map. “So, you found a star...but not Equestria’s sun? How does that work? How are we going to get back home?” Twilight licked her lips and ran her hoof through her mane. “I promised everypony I would get us home.”
“And you will. I believe you will, Twilight” Celestia gently put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “I think we can use this information to begin figuring out our position and then…”
“...we can reverse the magic that brought us here.” Twilight finished for her. The junior princess brightened again and smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. We can do this. We can!”
Celestia nodded and laughed when Twilight sprang out of seat and wrapped her arms around the older mare. “Yes, we can, Twilight! We’ll see home again, I know it.”
Twilight giggled and pushed herself up to bring her muzzle to the tip of Celestia’s. Maybe it was the stress of the situation and the need for relief, or maybe it was the hint of relief the news had given them, but whatever the reason, their nuzzle quickly morphed into a full kiss.
Celestia knew she could stop it, she could easily push Twilight away, or say something that would remind her former student of their positions and way friends didn’t normally kiss friends. But a part of her didn’t want that. Part of her wanted to see where this might lead. Part of her wanted to forget the danger they were in, if only for a moment, and revel in the feeling of being held by another pony that she respected.
The kiss seemed to go on forever. Neither one of them pausing except to get a fresh gasp of air, neither giving ground to the other as they dueled. The world shrank to just the two of them, the room with the map table and their exploratory tongues and hooves. Nothing else mattered until the door burst open a moment later and a very wet Rainbow Dash tumbled in.
“Hey, you guys! I found something amazing and...what the heck is going on in here?”
This week, JKinsley decided to be naughty and wrote a mature prompt. Once again, it can be found in the Hot for Teacher collab through Fuzzyfurvert's user page. Make sure you have Mature stories visible! Warning: BDSM and lesbian horse sex.
Sleep is a glorious thing, Twilight decided. Definitely in the top three of all things glorious and grand. The only possible competition had to be Celestia and Books… and she wouldn’t bet on the books. After days of travel, she and her lover had made it to the continent across the eastern sea. After all, she was told, a once in a millenium diplomatic conference of countries was the perfect place to introduce the newest princess of Equestria. The land was Saddle Arabia, and delegates from all the major countries had gathered.
Twilight had found their rooms absolutely charming. In order to keep up the exotic appeal of her room, the hosts had even provided a small, trained monkey to fetch things for her. She had been delighted and played with the small chap until the strain of her travels had crashed her face first into her pillow.
“Doctor Princess Sparkle, Princess Doctor Sparkle, wake up! No time for sleep, we gotta go!”
Twilight didn’t even open her eyes before she responded. “Really Tia, must you?”
The voice was giggling this time. “I really think I must Twilight. I love your new titles.”
Twilight grumbled. “You should, you gave them to me.”
She rolled over in her bed and opened her eyes to gaze upon her monarch. Celestia Morningstar was radiant. Literally. Her hair lightly glowed with the colors of a sunrise. Even at this time, Twilight could do little but gape.
Celestia dipped her head demurely. “Close your mouth, Beloved, the flies will get in.”
“Is there anything I should know about this conference.” Twilight called as she walked over to the breakfast table. The room felt quieter than it should. Looking over the array of fruits and vegetables she grinned. She was famished after all and some of these things she had only heard of in books before.
“Oooh, what’s that?” She asked as she spotted a small wrinkled fruit towards the end of the table. She grabbed it with her magic and floated it towards her mouth. Before she could take a bite, a stronger golden magic slapped the fruit from her grasp and sent it rolling across the floor. It rolled to a stop next to another of the same fruit, with a bite taken out of it that lay next to a small form.
Twilight looked down on the crumpled, sad little body of the dead monkey. “What happened to him?”
Celestia looked at her with deadly seriousness. “Bad date.”
By Foals Errand, a newcomer to the Lightning Round but a familiar face to the collab!
Twilight smiled as she walked beside Celestia. Being out with her like this felt so good that she could almost forget about the six guards surrounding them. Almost. She sighed as Celestia bent down, giving her ear a quick nibble.
“What is it, my dear Twilight,” Celestia whispered into Twilight’s ear.
Twilight shivered as she felt Celestia’s warm breath in her ear. “I... well, I was just thinking how nice it’d be if we could have one date without being surrounded like this.”
Celestia considered the query, causing them to pause their walk. “Captain Thunder Clap?”
The pegasus was by her side so quickly Twilight would have sworn he had teleported. “Yes, Princess?”
“Twilight Sparkle and I wish to spend this night by ourselves.” Celestia smiled down at the pegasus who was trying not to gape.
Twilight was impressed once again by her marefriend’s ability of making an order sound like a request. She shook her head as the new captain finally nodded and he and the other guards headed back to the palace. “You mean we’ve been dating for five months and all I had to do was ask you if we could have a date alone?”
Celestia simply smiled down at the smaller alicorn and wrapped a wing around her. “Well, Twily? Where shall we go?”
Twilight wrinkled her muzzle. “Tia, I hate it when you call me ‘Twily’. That’s what Shiny calls me. It’s just… disturbing.”
Celestia laughed. “Alright, Twi. Is that better?”
Twilight grinned. “Much. Now, there’s a small cafe about a block away from here. Supposedly they have the best, fried rose petal bites and daisy sandwiches!” She licked her lips at just the thought.
Celestia laughed and shook her head. “Two princesses eating deep-fried sandwiches? The nobles will have a fit! Sounds wonderful.”
Twilight nodded and led the way to the small cafe, not noticing the pony trailing after them.
The hostess stared with her mouth wide open at the two princesses before gesturing half-heartedly at an open table that Twilight and Celestia sat at before opening their menus. Twilight scanned hers while licking her lips. Celestia, on the other hoof, slowly looked hers over. A nervous teen pegasus came over and tried not to stammer.
“W-welcome to the Lunch Box! My name is Hot Wing and I’ll be your waiter tonight. Can I get you mares something to drink? Er, I didn’t mean mares! Princesses! I’m, uh...”
Celestia lifted a hoof to stop the stuttering colt. “It’s alright, Hot Wing. Tonight we are simply two mares on a date; it is fine for you to treat us that way.”
Hot Wing nodded.“Of course! Uh... So, can I get you something to drink?”
“Tea for me, please: iced. Twi?”
Twilight glanced away from the menu. “Oh, I’ll just have water with a lemon, thank you.”
Hot Wing nodded and headed to the back before returning with their drinks quickly. Unnoticed, the pony who had followed them slipped into a seat opposite them and ordered a simple cup of coffee.
Twilight and Celestia sipped at their drinks before ordering a meal to share: a deep-fried daisy sandwich and deep-fried rose petal bites covered in cheese sauce.
“Have you ever had this type of thing before, Tia?”
Celestia sipped at her ice tea as she considered. “No, I don’t think so. This should be quite the treat.”
Twilight’s ear flicked as she heard the giggles of two fillies. They were running around chasing after each other. “Do you think we should say something, Tia?”
Celestia shook her head. “Not tonight. I think the restaurant management can handle it.” She smiled as she reached across the table, taking Twilight’s hoof in her own and leaning forward to kiss her beloved’s lips.
Several ponies were later asked exactly what happened, but none of them were ever really certain.
The fillies were running around...
Hot Wing was carrying the heavy plate of food...
Celestia was leaning forward...
… Hot Wing slipped. The plate went flying and splattered both Celestia and Twilight in rose petal bites and cheese sauce just as their lips touched. A bright flash of light captured their attention as several camera flashes quickly went off before the pony teleported away. Celestia looked at Twilight and grabbed a rose petal bite stuck to her horn and dipped it in the cheese sauce on her cheek before popping it in her mouth. “Tastes good.”
Twilight groaned, then immediately laughed. “Tia, being with you can make even a bad date like this a great date.”
The next morning, Luna opened the paper to see a picture of Celestia and Twilight lip-locked and covered in cheese sauce. She promptly spit out her coffee and cocked her head.
“Tia! Is this another one of those new fetish things?”
By JumbledThought in his debut effort for all things Twilestia!
Boom!
The citizens of Canterlot retreated further into their homes as the final Tatzulworm fell to the cobblestone streets. The three behemoths had spawned from the castle and had caused panic and chaos throughout the whole town for almost an hour now. The royal guard had been ineffectual against their tough hides, and only through the power of all three alicorns within the city had they been defeated.
Kibitz walked through the destroyed great hall and started to shake his head. What had once been a pristine, well kept, and even well organized place of beauty and intellectual discussion had now been reduced to rubble, splintered tables, and the large mass of a full grown Tatzulworm corpse. He grimaced at the thought of the hours it would take to clean this place alone. And then twice that amount for the paperwork.
He chuckled to himself as he headed out the somehow still standing arch that used to be the entrance. Not that the doors were still there. No, Luna had ridden one of those all the way down the mountain after the first beast had been killed. I think I even recall her yelling, ‘Wee’, all the way down.
Finally, he made his way down to the city streets outside the castle where his radiant princess stood now. Always on schedule, always courteous, the exact symbol of what a good leader should– “Oomph!”
Celestia looked down at the pinned stallion beneath her and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Where is Twilight?”
Kibitz blinked for a few times before putting his immense focus on the one thing he did so to. A small, dull, yellow flash erupted beneath Celestia and tutted at the princess. “Just because you and your sister think it is funny to contradict me about what I was just thinking, I do not. Now, I am not going to help you until you calm down. At least one thing must stay stable after such a disaster and that thing should be you.”
For a moment all Celestia could do was make her eye twitch. Her beloved was gone, rubble was in her mane, and Luna was probably still skating her way down the mountain. Or climbing it. I think one of these monstrosities may have gotten her wing. She shook her head clear once she remembered that she had more important things to worry about. “Kibitz, please do not be stubborn this time.”
“Do you know how much overtime I’ll have to schedule for the servants. Oh the complaining I’ll have to listen to.”
“Do not joke about this!”
“You think I’m joking? Just coming down here had me calculate a displacement of three of your upcoming meetings. Do you know how troublesome some of these nobles can be? I’ll probably even have to actually spend time with that awful nephew of yours. Blue Balls I believe.”
Celestia smacked herself with her hoof and took a deep breath in. “His name is Blue Blood.”
Kibitz smiled and stood a little straighter at the shift in tone. “Ah, now see, that’s more like it. Now, about these damages–”
“Kibitz.” Her face came very close to his. “If you do not help me find Twilight right this instant I will…” Celestia paused for a moment before finding the perfect threat. “I will take a day off as I am allowed.”
The already somewhat pale stallion turned white as a sheet at the words and stammered out, “We-well, if you put it like th-that, I see no good reason to delay finding your, erm, friend, as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, I see no reason as well.” With the deal struck, they both set off in search. Hi and low they did scavenge for the missing princess, but not even forcing Kibitz into the sewer prevailed. While the two run down the street they started, Celestia keeping a fair bit of distance from her now smelly assistant, they both heard a muffled, “Help!”
Celestia’s ears twitched and she stood stock still until she heard it again. Turning her head only brought her to the final Tatzulworm, but that shouldn’t have been possible. Right? Slowly. the solar princess cut open the side of the beast and a magical blast of purple magic sent juices flying everywhere. Slowly, Twilight crawled out.
She soon found herself in a tangle of white hooves and being embraced by somepony. Looking up from her dazed state, she spotted Celestia, the pony she loved. “You…”
“Oh I am so happy to see you are all righ–”
“Bitch!” Twilight spread her wings and quickly flew above Celestia. “I am covered in gastric juices. I just had to fight, for over half an hour, a creature I never wanted to see again in my life. Before you say anything more, I need to know why the buck you summoned them?”
Celestia swallowed hard and rubbed one hoof on the other foreleg. “You said you wanted tonight to be adventurous.”
Twilight’s eye twitched for a moment. “I… meant… the… Food!”
Celestia blinked a few times. “That… that actually makes a lot of sense. So no Tatzulworms?”
Twilight sighed. “No, no Tatzulworms.” She looked around herself at the ruins of the street. “I need to relax. I’m going home. You know, Ponyville, where the crazy shit at least isn’t from another pony’s fau–” She stopped as the memories of chasing Philomena, her mane on fire, and especially The Smarty Pants incident as it was now referred to. “I’m going to bed.”
A single hoof stopped Twilight. “Try again next week then?”
Kibitz stepped up. “Now, now, we don’t need another disaster on our hooves. Besides, you two will be busy repairing the town. We have buildings to repair, ponies to heal, and don’t get me started on the paperwor–” Two rocks suddenly leaped from the rubble and knocked the poor stallion out.
Celestia glanced at Twilight as both of their horns turned off. “Your reflex to more paperwork.”
“Uh huh.”
“Neither of us will speak about any of,” Celestia waved her hoof around, “this, again?”
“Agreed.”
She moved closer to Twilight. “And I get a second chance to make you dinner next week?”
Twilight paused and then glanced at the beast beside them. “Know any Tatzulworm dishes?”
Celestia smiled. “No, but I can make a spaghetti and mold it to look like one.”
Twilight nodded. “Then deal. For now though, I need to get home and rest.”
Both nodded and Kibitz raised his head. “Paperwor–”
12:37 a.m. Nineteen miles out from Powder Springs, Georgia [USA]
Shadows jumped as Officer Jerry Reynolds swept his flashlight over the field again. A couple of eyes, low to the ground, reflected the light back for a moment when an opossum looked his way before scurrying into the underbrush at the treeline. Otherwise, this area of the pasture was clear.
“This is going to be one of those stories that gets passed around the precinct, I can jus’ tell.” He spit into the grass and turned around to carefully make his way back to his waiting patrol car and the cuffed drunk in the back.
Officer Reynolds dropped into his seat and took a moment to buckle himself in while he started the old Buick up. He radioed in the situation and backed up around the parked pick-up that was near the gate which lead to the pot-marked, nameless access road, which in turn lead him back to 278 and the county drunk tank. The patrol car bounced over the shallow culvert and he hit the gas once the wheels were on the asphalt.
“Hey,” Reynolds looked into his rearview mirror at the disheveled man in the back, “why don’t you tell me what happened out there, Marty? We got a little bit of ride back into town.”
Marty stared out the window morosely and shrugged, which caused him to belch loudly. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.” Reynolds grinned. “I’ve been doin’ this job for nigh on six years now and I keep hearin’ all kinds of stuff. Besides, you’re gonna have to give a statement once we get back in. Might as well get that part out of the way.”
Marty grunted and slumped in the back seat, bouncing along with the old Buick’s shocks over the rutted road.
“Why don’t you start by tell me why I just picked you up in the neighbor’s cowyard, at midnight, trying to stuff a recently discharged firearm in to yer truck with your pants around your ankles and smelling like the back room at a titty bar?”
The drunk narrowed his blurry eyes at that remark and turned his head to sniff at the shirt he was wearing. He scrunched up his nose and then leaned back to get as comfortable as the cuffs would allow him to. “My rifle went off accidentally.”
“Of course it did.”
“I mean it!” Marty’s eyes flashed, scowling. “The safety was off, I bumped it while I was trying to get my pants back up. Had it tipped on a stump. It fell down and went off.”
“Yer lucky to be alive then, Marty. Don’t look so sad!” Reynolds chuckled and shook his head. Up ahead he could see the fences on both sides of the road end as the access road merged with Sawgrass Way.
“I’m lucky the noise scared away the aliens. Coulda been abducted tonight.” Marty burped, loudly, for emphasis. “I saw the lights between the trees. I seen going on fer a week now. Told myself I was gonna get to the bottom of it. Do ya blame me for taking a gun?”
Officer Reynolds stopped at the end of the bumpy old asphalt. “Out here? Nah, I don’t blame you for that. But it ain’t hunting season, and you were on a neighbor’s property. It’s also Sunday night and this is a dry county, Marty.” He checked in the mirror on his door but the pastures behind him were dark beyond the reach of the patrol car’s brake lights. The sky was a slightly brighter than the land and he could just make out the silhouettes of a few horses. Or maybe they were cows. Hard to tell in the dark.
“What does that matter? It ain’t illegal to drink on Sunday, just buying.” Marty smirked. “I bought it last Friday, been sipping off the case of Bud since then. It’s not like I planned for this to happen while I was piss drunk.”
“I don’t expect you plan much of anything, do you Marty?” Reynolds hit the accelerator again and the car rumbled onto the smoother State-maintained tarmac of 278. “Still don’t tell me why you had your pants down. I was under the impression that the pants came off during the abduction, to better facilitate the probin’, rather than before it starts.”
“I..” Marty looked back out the window at the passing trees and distant houses that lorded over the patchy farmland of the north Georgia hills. He sighed and looked back toward the front. “I saw two aliens, Jerry. You ain’t gotta believe me, but I swear it’s true.”
“What did these aliens look like?” Reynolds kept his eyes on the black stripe of pavement. “Little grey men with the big eyes?”
“They had big eyes alright.” Marty chuckled to himself. “But they weren’t no little grey men. They looked sorta like horses, really.”
Officer Reynolds laughed and cracked his driver side window to let in the cool air and the smells of a late summer night. “Marty, that pasture you were in is zoned for mixed use. It has cows and horses in it!”
“I know that! But they wasn’t actually horses, Jerry, listen to me fer cryin’ out loud!” The drunkard rolled his eyes. “They looked kinda like horses. They had four legs, long necks, little pointed muzzle...mouth...things. Tails like one too. I didn’t get close enough to see if they had hooves too, but it sorta looked like it. One of ‘em, maybe both...I dunno...had wings and both of ‘em had like, a narwhal horn.”
“A what horn?”
“Narwhal, you know, long, pointy and kinda spinny. Its some sort of fish.”
Officer Reynolds chuckled again, harder this time. “I know what a narwhal is, ya ‘git! But what yer describing sounds like a unicorn. My little girl has posters of them in her room. Your aliens look all majestic out there in the field?”
Marty burped again and grumbled an apology. “How is Katie doin’, anyway?”
“She’s just fine. Thanks for asking, Mart.”
“Good.” Marty paused, seemingly lost in thought for several seconds. The road rounded a corner, and for a moment, the glimmer of town lights and distant Atlanta came into view. The city vanished just as quickly as it appeared with the Buick followed 278 into a wide valley. “Unicorns could still be aliens, if they come from another world, right?”
“Uh...I guess so.”
Marty nodded to himself at that and straightened in the seat. “So, anyway, I been seeing lights through the trees. Colored lights that flashed at random times. Sometimes there was this buzz that I could feel in my teeth. I thought it was teenagers or something at first, ya know? Like those reports over the news a few weeks ago ‘bout that school up north where they had that supposed visitation and the rainbow-colored lights? I read ‘bout that one. But it kept happening and I got this feelin’ something weren’t right at’all. So I went to scope it out. I knew I was onto something when I didn’t see any fresh tire tracks. I parked my truck away a bit and slipped into the treeline to get a good blind spot. Found me a deer stand and I waited for the lights.”
Reynolds nodded and rolled the window down fully to rest his arm where the wind could hit it and cool him down. No sense running the AC when the Georgia weather was being cooperative. “How long you sit in the stand?”
Marty shrugged. “Maybe ‘bout an hour? My phone died somewhere along the way or else I’d have pictures of the aliens.”
“Hmmph! Convenient.”
“Yeah...well, anyway, the lights started, right there in the middle of the field where there’s that dip? I can see it from my back porch. But there ain’t nothing out there to cause it neither. And before you think it’ll be funny, don’t go suggesting to me it was swamp gas! There ain’t even a creek back there.” Marty snorted. “Outta the lights walk these two horse alien things. They weren’t real big, understand. The biggest one was ‘bout my size, maybe? Iffin’ I was a horse. It was white colored, I think. But it had hair like some kid took a box of crayons and some glitter and colored on the sky. It was like CGI in a movie.”
“Honestly?” Reynolds glanced back at his passenger in the rear view mirror again.
“Scout’s honor.” Marty bobbed his head back and forth, smugly. “The little one was purple, if I remember right. Had long dark colored hair that was all trimmed.”
“What were they doing?” Despite himself, Jerry felt engrossed by the drunk’s tale.
“Well, they stepped out of the lights and then it got dark again. Those narwhal horns of theirs must be like fireflies or something, ‘cuz they lit up and then they set out a big red and white checkered sheet and a picnic basket. They even had a bottle with ‘em, looked like one of the fancy kind you can get at the package store down on Sweetwater St.”
“Oh come on!” Officer Reynolds barked with laughter. “Jus’ when I thought you were going somewhere with this story and the alien horse things are having a picnic? Like with a real, honest-to-god picnic basket? Like outta Yogi Bear?”
“Yeah, jus’ like the ones in the old cartoons!” Marty’s face lit up and he laughed along with Jerry. “I’ve never even seen one in real life, and then here comes a couple of horses with one out on a picnic. How’s them apples, huh?” Jerry didn’t answer as he was trying to catch his breath, so Marty continued. “So yeah, these horses...or maybe they were more pony-sized...aliens sit down and start talking. I could understand ‘em too. Thought maybe I had drunk the wrong stuff or something when that happened. But it sure sounded like they was talkin’ in english.”
“What...heh...what were they going on about?”
Marty shrugged again. “I didn’t catch the whole thing. I was in the deerstand set back a pace. But I know I heard ‘em talkin’ ‘bout a long weekend getaway and leaving someone called ‘Sunset’ in the care of someone else they called ‘Applejack.’”
“Like the drink?” Reynolds shook his head. Of course this all still led back to alcohol.
“Maybe?” Marty glanced out the window at his side again as the traffic started to pick up and the lights from the city started to wash out the stars above. “I dunno, it was like a normal conversation. Like one our wives would have at a barbeque. Weird.”
“Weird doesn’t even come close to covering it, Marty. I still want to know why your pants were down ‘round yer ankles.”
“Uh...heh…” Marty cleared his throat and looked down at his lap. “Um, well, after they talked for a bit ‘bout nothing in particular, they started eating what was in the basket. It was too dark by then to see real good, but their glowing horns kept them where I could see ‘em. They didn’t go for long and then the horns went dark. I thought they might have just vanished when I started hearing...well...hearing ‘girl noises.’”
“‘Girl noises?’” Reynolds frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Well, you know the noises girls make on those college girls on spring break DVDs?”
Reynolds coughed. “You mean the drunken hollerin’ part?”
“No the part where they go back to the hotel room and start kissin’ an’ feelin’ each other up, Jerry. What other part would I be referring to, huh?”
Officer Reynolds cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, the horse aliens were makin’ out?”
Marty nodded and grunted. The patrol car topped the hill and the lights of Powder Springs lit up the car enough to reveal the blush on his cheeks. “Their horns started glowing again and I saw the whole thing. I...I was sorely confused, Jerry. They were horses, but they were also like people and the little purple one was on top and doing something I’ve only ever seen in porn to the big white horse. I’m sorry to say...it had an effect on me.”
The old Buick was silent for a time. The road widened, traffic got heavier as they drew closer to the downtown area. Jerry Reynolds rolled his window up and sighed. “Jeezus, Marty.”
“Please don’t tell my wife, ok?” Marty looked wretched in the back, his voice soft. “Thanks for letting me zip up before you cuffed me, Jerry. I appreciate that.”
Twilight softly stared into her drink, blushing. Celestia was very pointedly and very politely smiling at a piece of wallpaper about two feet to the left of Twilight’s head. One of them cleared their throat. Restaurant patrons buzzed a mixture of work stories, small talk and snatches of conversation about horse shoe polish and the need for limousine carriages. Somepony coughed somewhere. The silence between the two mares was at last broken by what had served as the probable source of it to begin with: One Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, smiling an over-wide smile and glancing between the pair of them expectantly.
“So what do you two think is the biggest moment when either of you have had to trust one another?” Cadance’s voice had a sing-song cheer to it that suggested that Twilight and Celestia had lost a bet with her. Which they had, but that was besides the point.
“I gave Twilight my magic. That was difficult.” Celestia said with all the enthusiasm of a deflating balloon.
“I guess it was the time I--y’know, Cadance, I don’t think it’s fair to withhold crucial information on the stakes for a bet. Stakes, like, say, that when you said we’d be dating mystery ponies of your choosing if we lost you meant we’d be dating each other.”
“You never asked after the terms and conditions.” Cadance said in a sing-song voice.
“Only because you wouldn’t have told us who you were planning to set us up with anyway.” Twilight blew a raspberry. Cadance stuck out her tongue, then rolled her eyes.
“You still haven’t answered the question.”
“Fine!” Twilight threw her hooves up. She settled down into her chair with her arms folded, then looked down for a moment longer. “Freeing Discord, for sure. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever yelled at Celestia before or since, so that’s gotta count for something.”
“Hehe. The only time you yell around Auntie is when somepony is failing to heap sufficient amounts of praise on her.” The slightest trickle of red entered Celestia’s cheeks, and Twilight’s face lit on fire. Cadance’s smile turned utterly diabolical. “Of course, the feeling is mutual. I’ll never forget the look on that poor guard’s face when you snapped at him.” Cadance looked over at Celestia with a devious smile. “‘Twilight Sparkle is a gift to the ponies of this kingdom, whether or not she understands the meaning of certain subtleties of common conversation.” Cadance straightened herself to stand in an elegant poise. “Remember that well, my little pony.”
Twilight snickered a little at this, her the bones of her back at last going slack where before they had been tensed and hunched. “I...I didn’t know you stood up for me like that.” Twilight scratched the back of her head.
“You spend more than enough time championing me, dear.” Celestia smiled a quiet smile. “It seems only right that I return the favour.”
Cadance cooed, and what could have been a tender moment immediately fell flat. The two ponies sighed, then looked back at their menus.
Cadance opened her mouth again. “It’s not like this is the worst bet you’ve ever lost, Auntie. Maybe I should tell her about the time you had to shave your belly for--”
“You know, Twilight my dear, if there’s one good thing about losing a bet on how well our countries did in the Equestria Games, it’s that it gives us an excuse for some long-overdue private time.”
Twilight sighed. “Hardly. We’re gonna be explaining to the newspapers that we aren’t actually dating for months. We’ll have to make a press release, and there will be questions at conferences--”
Celestia gave a wry grin of her own. “And we’ll be gossip at all the dinner parties, and Luna will tease us--”
“--So will Shining--”
“And we won’t hear the end of it from our mutual friend,” Celestia cast a glance to the chair beside her own, “until the end of the month at least.”
The two sighed in unison. Twilight perked up. “But you’re right, we are getting some time together at last. Time to talk about books, time to talk about magic, time to talk about friendship and history and the courts and chess and teas and--”
“--The embarrassing memories I have of the both of you!” Cadance injected. “After all, no date is ever complete without an embarassing story.” She winked. “I think the best one to break the ice would be--”
“Hold up.”Twilight held her hoof aloft to denote her need for a pause. She and Celestia shared a look, speaking volumes with a simple glance alone in the way that only two oldest of friends, lovers or family can. Then, at last, Twilight spoke up with an evil smile of her own. “You know, Tia, it seems like despite our best intentions to live up to the bet, we’re not having a very good date. I’m thinking as to why that might be…”
“You’ve both been standing in silence the whole time! It’s only now that you’re--”
“I agree, Twilight. Having a spectator does seem to be problematic to the spirit of the bet. I hardly imagine the Royal Honeymoon would have been quite so ‘idyllic and dreamy’ if one of us had been spectating the entire time.”
“You won’t hear me disagree. So I was thinking of showing off a little trick Rainbow showed me for getting out of just this kind of situation. After all, our publicity after this is already gonna be a nightmare.”
“Our ship has sailed, you might say.” Celestia grinned the grin of somebody indulging in a private joke.
“You aren’t thinking of outflying me, are you? Twilight, I love you, but we both know you’ve barely learned how to keep in the air. And you haven’t flown anywhere yourself since last year, Auntie. Besides, you both lost fair and square and I demand a--”
“FOOD FIGHT!” Twilight threw a plate long into the sky and ducked for cover. Celestia’s eyes widened, then settled on Cadance with a look filled with the infamous diabolical wit that she so rarely got to excercise. Cadance’s own meal upended itself upon the pink princess’ multicoloured mane, and Celestia disappeared under the table.
“What just--You can’t ju--” Cadance was cut off by a plate of spaghetti hitting her face, then another plate of steak, and then at last by a very stern looking waitress glaring down her nose at her.
By the time Cadance had squarely pinned the blame on her companions and decided to lift up the table cloth for proof, Twilight and Celestia were already enjoying a quiet moment overlooking a waterfall on Canterlot’s mountainside. Celestia leaned her head against Twilight’s at exactly the same moment that a hoof was laid on Cadance’s shoulder.
“Now, then, let’s try that again.” Twilight sighed. “I mean, I’ve been trying to tell you--but Cadance kept getting in the way, and we were in public, and I--I’d like to. I never thought we’d lose, and when we did I got all nervous and annoyed and then, well, it turned out to be you. And it made me, I dunno, excited. I wanted to--” Celestia put a hoof on Twilight’s mouth. She looked down at it, then let it drop with a tender smile.
“I have something to say to that, but we’ve been cut off too much tonight. Go on.”
“I wanted to, Celestia. To go out with you, I mean.” Twilight smiled a quiet smile. “I mean, after all, I love--” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “--you.”
Celestia’s thought sputtered at the whisper, and she wrapped her wing around Twilight. “I bet you, my dear, that we don’t need any trust exercises or mortifying family stories to know that that feeling is mutual.”
“There’s more on your left, Tia!” Twilight called out as the pair galloped down Canterlot Castle’s hallways. A veritable storm of parasprites chased them, eating everything they could along the way, excepting the stone that made the castle. Their wings forced any conversation to be held at a shout.
“I see them!” Celestia took a drag of the cigarette in her mouth, letting the smoke out her nostrils as she stormed down the hallway.
A window exploded, more of the little balls flying in. They stopped only to munch on the fine carpeting. Both ponies sped past them, the newest swarm joining their comrades after snacking.
Celestia took the lead, her longer legs lending her more speed. “Follow me, we’ll sort this out in the Royal Armory.” She thundered down the next right, leaping down the staircase that followed.
“Right!”
At the bottom of the stairs were a set of double-doors, easily twice Discord’s height. Without slowing down, Celestia’s horn lit and the doors slammed open hard enough to leave them barely hanging on their hinges. She hit the bottom and slid, her hoofcovers sparking on the tile. After clearing, the doorway opened up into a massive barracks in which Celestia took wing, picking up even more speed.
Twilight followed suit, hot on Celestia’s fetlocks. She didn’t slide, instead opting to take wing and soar through the doors with her smaller wingspan. After Celestia took to the air, she struggled to keep up, having to teleport two dozen meters in half as many seconds.
Celestia homed in on her target. An unassuming door, more a thin steel plate, was yanked open and tossed behind her, to the right. She snapped her wings shut and slid through the portal, the waxed hardwood flooring letting her slide a little easier. Twilight followed suit, sliding through the doorway with ease.
The swarm steadily chewed their way through the barracks. Parasprites of all colors rampaged, tearing the room apart. A jet of fire erupted from the doorway, garnering the flooding parasprites’ attention.
Celestia stepped through the doorway, a long, grey tube in her magic. The tube wound behind her, to a pair of large tanks underneath her wings, one more that was larger still on her back. She noticed a pair of parasprites had started to eat the door. Twilight followed behind, a dozen more tanks held in her magic feeding three hoses.
Celestia lit her horn and her still-lit cigarette moved to tap against a small protruding tip on the hose she held. A small flame lit on the end, before it moved to tap against Twilight’s. After a second, all four hoses were lit. “Alright, Twilight. Now we’ve got their attention. Let’s get cookin’!” She smiled cockily, drawing her cigarette back to herself. With the worst Scoltish accent Twilight ever heard, Celestia yelled, “Theh canno’ have ouwa castle as lon’ ‘s weh stahnd!”
Despite the horrible accent, Twilight set into a defensive stance. “Just so you know, Tia, if we don’t make it through this… I love you.”
“I know. I love you too. We’ll just have to live to see that love blossom.” Celestia’s stance mirrored Twilight’s.
A parasprite screamed and charged, prompting a part of the swarm to follow. Celestia raised her hose and squeezed a small trigger. A liquid spurted from the hose, touching the fiery tip, before igniting and spraying all over the rushing parasprites. The group turned from devastating parasites to charred and flaming balls of fluff in seconds. The burning balls screamed before going still as the stench of burning flesh wafted through the air.
The rest of the swarm charged.
Twilight took the left side, three hoses spraying madly as Celestia took the right. Where Celestia only had one, she used her own magic to ignite entire sections at a time with fireballs and launching other streams of magickafire from her horn. Scores of the little things fell and started piling up around their hooves.
Queasy from the feeling of stepping over the dead parasprites, Twilight nimbly dodged those that made it through her three flamethrowers’ reach. Celestia’s swarm already waning, she spared a glance over at Twilight. What she saw left her cigarette forgotten, already down to the filter as she watched Twilight dance among the parasprites.
She was caught off guard as one made a daring move of going after Celestia’s flamethrower, chewing a hole in the hose. It was rewarded with gallons of fuel and Celestia’s weapon winking out.
Twilight looked over and her eyes widened. “TIA!”
Celestia whirled around just in time to see her flamethrower’s nozzle being eaten by a dozen remaining parasprites. Her ears pinned back and she moved for the first time, charging forward. She telekinetically threw the tanks at Twilight’s flaming swarm, grabbing Twilight herself. The parasprites ignored the ponies in favor of the discarded weaponry momentarily.
Celestia held Twilight in front of her as she made for the door they’d originally come in. Twilight wobbled in Celestia’s telekinesis, only able to see behind them through Celestia’s legs. As they crossed the threshold, Celestia pulled Twilight against her before slamming down onto the floor on top of the younger alicorn. A deafening explosion rang out in the room, before a wall of fire washed over the pair. As the air rushed to fuel the fire, both ponies could not breathe. Celestia did her best to shield Twilight from the fire with her body.
A few seconds later, air rushed back in, letting both ponies gasp and sputter for breath. Celestia shakily stood up and looked back into the room. Twilight moved to stand next to her, her breathing heavy.
“Is… is it over? Did we get them all?”
Smoke was still pouring from the room, but it wasn’t low enough to conceal the carnage. Where the epicenter occurred was nothing but blackened, melted stone. Not even parasprite corpses remained. The area around it was still flaming as the wood floors burned away to the stone underneath.
“It looks like it.” Celestia sighed, sitting down heavily. Cheekily, she leaned over to Twilight. “So, you love me, huh?”
Twilight turned beet red before sputtering incoherently. She turned away, kicking a hoof against the stone.
“Well, Twilight, I said I loved you too.” A hoof came over and touched Twilight’s chin, causing the younger mare to freeze. Closing her eyes, Celestia leaned in and spoke, “I think it’s later, and we can let that love start to blossom.” She lifted Twilight’s chin before planting a kiss on the younger mare’s lips.
Twilight was still frozen in surprise as Celestia pulled back. Her eyes opened and she noticed Twilight hadn’t responded at all. “Twilight… Twilight?” She poked one of Twilight’s forelegs with her own and garnered no response. A few seconds later, she noticed Twilight wasn’t even breathing. Acting swiftly, she pushed Twi back to the ground, a hoof compressing heavily over Twilight’s barrel. After three pumps, she touched her horn to Twilight’s barrel and administered a shock. Returning to the pumping, she forced her lips against the younger mare’s, for an entirely different reason. She forced air into Twilight’s lungs and with her hoof pushed it back out. After three more rounds of shocks, Twilight twitched.
“Wha… what ha-happened?” Twilight coughed heavily.
Celestia carefully scooped the mare up into a hug. “We won, Twilight. Between you and I, we beat the parasprites trying to eat the castle.”
“I remem-remember that, but w-what happened afterward?”
“I kissed you.” Celestia tightened her hug somewhat. “Then you stopped breathing.”
“I s-see.” Twilight coughed once more. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, love. You’re not dead, and that’s all that matters to me.” Celestia leaned down, fully intent on kissing Twilight once again.
Twilight buried her head in Celestia’s neck, sobbing softly. “I’m sorry.”
“Twilight, love, what’s wrong?”
“If I can’t remain conscious after a single kiss with you, how can I expect to do anything else with you?”
“With practice, love.” Celestia laid back, letting Twilight lay on top of her, wrapping her wings around her little love. “I will love you, no matter what, and if I kiss you into unconsciousness, then I will just have to help you build up a tolerance. Alright?”
Twilight sniffled once. “Alright.” She looked up at Celestia's face, smiling softly.
“There we go.”
“Now, we’re both filthy, my back is covered in soot from the explosion, and I know it stinks in here. How about we go get cleaned up?”
Twilight nodded once.
“Alright.” She leaned down and quickly pecked Twilight on the lips. Twilight remained conscious this time, moaning softly. Celestia lifted her wings, letting Twilight go, and both ponies quickly left the destroyed barracks behind them.
A woman was running along a trail in the Everfree forest. Her long multicolored hair flowed out from under a simple golden helm. She was armored, golden highlights the only indication of the value of her armor. She carried a shield and a lightly glowing sword. As she ran, her eyes kept scanning the trail, following the signs of previous usage. She’d been pursuing for hours, yet showed no signs of tiring. It wasn’t her lungs that were burning, but her heart.
As she passed a particularly large tree, she caught a flash out of the corner of her eyes, throwing up her shield, she barely caught the blade of an axe as it flashed towards her heart. With a loud clang, she was sent her rolling along the ground, coming to a rest in the middle of a glade. She rose to see a massive man in stepping out from the forest. He was easily three times her size and wore a hulking black armor with red highlights. He carried a massive axe with the ease of prodigious muscle and long practice. His uncovered hair was blond and his eyes were green, but there was a darkness at the corners that didn’t look natural.
“You’re here to stop me?”
“Eee-Yup”
“I see the shadow of the Nightmare in your eyes. There won’t be a peaceful resolution to this, will there?”
“Eh, Nope”
She sighed. “Fine then, I don’t have time for this.”
He swung his axe at her, a slow, lumbering movement that she easily sidestepped. Her return swipe was blocked by the axes haft. They circled each other, carefully probing with measured strikes, attempting to get a feel for the others’ fighting style or find a weakness in their defense.
She took a quick step towards him, thrusting her shield out in front in an attempt to punch him with the inches of steel. He blocked it with the head of his axe, then swung the haft up underneath the shield in a quick attempt to get a hit in.
She danced backwards, skipping out of his reach. As she did so, he took his axe by one hand and swung it towards her shield again. Odd, she thought, but then realized his intent as he managed to get the head of the axe hooked over the top edge of her shield. He then grabbed the haft by both hands and heaved. In one swift movement her shield was ripped from her arm and sent spinning across the clearing, it clanged off a rock and skidded towards the edge of the clearing.
She took her sword in hand, sliding her right hand further up the hilt so her left could join it in a two-handed grip. She took a chance and charged at him, swinging with a broad overhanded stroke. The massive axe was slow to intercept, but it made it. For a time the clearing echoed with the clanging and grunts of exertion.
After a time, she felt she was getting the upper hand, her strokes continued to have the same speed and frequency, but his were slowing down, coming more infrequently as he focused on blocking. At the last minute though she realized her mistake. Just because he wasn’t hitting as frequently, didn’t mean he couldn’t.
With a sudden flurry he moved onto the offensive. Swinging his axe around as if it weighed less than her sword he pounded her defenses. He found his opening and instantly pounced on it, dropping his axe and punching her in the face with his mailed hands. She staggered back, her vision blurring as he picked his axe up once more.
Her guard was still open as he raised the axe in a massive overhead blow, putting his full weight behind it. She barely got her sword up in time to intercept it, angling it off to the side. Had she taken the hit, it would have split her in two. As it was, the blade of her sword snapped as it hit the ground still carrying the force of the axe on it.
He stood over her, hefting the axe, as he raised it for the final blow, she gripped the shattered sword with her hand. “I’ve got one last trick in me.” She growled, tracing the magic runes inscribed on the hilt. As they activated, she could feel the power gathering, when it hit its peak, she thrust the hilt towards the man and yelled. “Aurora surgit!” A light, pure and hot, blasted out of the sword, slammed into the man and sent him flying backwards. He slammed into a tree on the far side of the clearing and was held there by the channeled sunlight. When it finally faded, he slumped to the ground. Smoke rose from his armor as he lay crumpled in a heap, unconscious.
Tossing the now melted hilt to the side, Celestia limped over to her shield. When she picked it up, she traced three runes on the backside. They lit up and formed a glow in her hand, as she pulled it back from her shield, a new sword formed in her hand, identical to the destroyed one she had discarded. She As She walked from the grove, flames licking up the trees behind her, she muttered. “I’m coming Twilight, hold on for me. With Sol as my witness, they shall not keep you.”
“So what was it you wanted to show me?” Twilight leafed through the bookshelves of Celestia’s study, silently nodding along with choices she agreed with and giving a periodic frown at those she quite clearly did not. “Some kind of new artifact? A surprise?” A dark thought came to Twilight, and she suddenly wheeled around. “Discord isn’t involved in this, is he?” The scholar cast shifty glances to either side, biting her lower lip.
“No, dear.” Celestia waved a hoof and chuckled. “I promise nothing so dire. This is something more...intimate.” Celestia made an effort to look at Twilight with genuine emotion, her face forcing itself out of the eternally reassuring smile. Celestia’s cautious optimism fought its way through walls of false serenity. She even managed to blush a little, despite herself. “I’ve been meaning to show you for a while.”
“Intimate?” Twilight turned towards Celestia, her previous line of inquiry discarded in favour of another. “What kind of ‘intimate’?” “Perhaps it would be better to show you.” Celestia lit her horn, walking towards her vanity. “It is not often I show ponies what I am about to show you, Twilight.” She gave a wary sigh. “After all, you know how I like my privacy.”
“What have you got for me this time?” Twilight trotted up to her mentor’s side, eyes wide and shining.
“What if, Twilight, I was to tell you this was not my room?”
The unicorn nodded, giving Celestia a quiet smile. “Go on.”
The teacher carried on at the learner’s prompting. “I don’t often show others my proper room for reasons that should become obvious in a brief moment.” A spell washed over Twilight from the other side of the portal. She recognized it as a ward. And not a light ward, either. This was a ward stronger than she had ever known before, and was, of all things, a ward against heat, not magic, force or light. “This is where I sleep,” Another ward, this one against pressure, “where I think,” and a last against radiation, “and where I breathe. Some of my most treasured possessions are in this room, and I would be very grateful if you did not touch them. At least, not without permission.”
“Absolutely.” Twilight smiled.
“I suppose for most ponies this would not have quite so much ceremony. For you, though, this will be quite the experience. Shall we?”
“Please.”
“Very well,” Celestia’s smile mirrored Twilight’s own this time. A flash of gold rose along her horn, and the vanity rippled away to reveal a large portal. “Welcome to my room.”
Twilight stepped out of her own world, and into a world of the truly alien.
The little alicorn’s jaw dropped, her eyes bulging at the wonder in front of her. The word that first struck Twilight’s mind was “otherworldly”, but it was quickly replaced with the word “beautiful”.
Arches of fire danced all around the room, rising up from the sea of molten plasma that served as the room’s floor and rising up directly over the heads of the two ponies. Bursts of liquid hydrogen trailed like molten sparks in lazy patterns towards the sky. All of it was framed by a pure silver metal that Twilight could not identify, as well as magic that sent dazzles of light in intricate patterns spinning and wheeling across the walls (or, what she presumed were walls) of the room.
“Where’s Equestria?” Twilight asked, knowing exactly where she was and yet needing the confirmation nonetheless. Her eyes searched the skies, and it was little surprise to her when Celestia pointed a hoof at a tiny twinkle in the distance. “I...wow.”
She looked down at the floor, only to remember that there was none. To her surprise, however, a yoga mat lay beside the bed, of all things. “Part of how I keep thin.” Celestia said sheepishly.
“Well, thin-ish.” Twilight smirked. A wingtip smacked her over the withers for her trouble.
“I take you to my most private abode and what do I get? Fat jokes. It doesn’t matter if we’re in the depths of Canterlot’s mines or on the surface of my very own sun. Fat jokes. My sister sees me get second helpings? Fat jokes. Cadance reads a story about one cake I scarfed in private? Fat jokes.” Celestia sighed a long-suffering sigh.
Twilight snickered. “What does an egghead like me know, anyway? So what are we on right now? This is solid magic, yes? And the glimmer,” She pointed to specs of light that were chasing each other in intricate circles around the floor, “and dim effects are just added visuals?”
“Quite right, my dear. I didn’t want the light blinding my guests, naturally, so I made sure the light looked more like a slow burn than the blinding . I, of course, have no such problems. And I imagine that, with time, you won’t either. In the meantime, we can see some of the products of my work. Most of it comes from times when I was younger and skinnier.”
“And not half as good-looking for it.” Twilight smirked again. This time, rather than exasperation, she was met with an honest-to-goodness blush from her old mentor.
“I...flatterer. You made me lose my train of thought, you devious unicorn.” Twilight looked around, searching for what Celestia might have been thinking on.
“You were going to say something about adapting to the stars.” There were all about the star that streched from one side to the other. “I harvested some of the products of the star to make what you see here. The room itself is aluminum. Most of the furnishings--the bed, the mirror, and, of course, the many, many bookshelves--were gifts from friends and family. If I am cold, I cast a basic counterspell to drop the wards by a minute degree. If I am tired, I can dim the light magic to total darkness.”
“That’s so…” Twilight looked around the room, “I mean…” She continued to work her jaw, thoughts bubbling up and being quashed under the magnitude of what she was processing.
“Twiligh--” Celestia was cut off by a purple torpedo hitting against her lips. She fought and failed to keep her balance, toppling backwards against the soft walls of her domain of pure magic.
“You made all this?! You, with nothing but spells, made all this?!” Twilight looked back around, then kissed Celestia again, this time with the slightest hint more restraint. She pulled back at last.
“Air, Twilight, I need air…”
“You’re an alicorn, you’re fine. Look at all this! I--I love you! I empirically, unequivocally love you! I mean, wow! You’re so--wow!”
“Ready for one last wow?” Celestia paused for a moment. “Hopefully one that will not dislocate my jaw in the process?”
“I only hope my poor heart can take it.” Twilight’s eyes glistened with her raw amazement, emotion soaring through her entire body.
“I empirically, unequivocably love you, too, Twilight. Which is why this isn’t my room any more.” Celestia dusted herself off. “It’s ours. I showed you the spell to get here, and I know you were watching well enough to learn how. Welcome to our room, Twilight. And, I hope, a new part--”
“Of our relationship.” Twilight gazed around at the stars. “Of our--wow.”
Celestia draped a wing around Twilight, watching fire lace itself in delicate streams along the surface of the sun. “Yes, dear. Of our wow.”
In many ways Twilight could call herself a very fortunate mare, perhaps more fortunate than she deserved. Having a relationship with the kindest, most loving and most beautiful pony in all of Equestria was one of those ways. Better still, the flames of their love ignited on the same week of the month, right down to the day. It was common for mares who took their heat week off to take the day before it off as well; for Celestia, the court was closed to give way for an office day of peace and near-solitude, which Twilight always made sure to spend with her.
If estrous was a raging firestorm of lust that burned away all other thoughts and left only the purity of carnal bliss, the day before was the calm preceding that storm: a gentle flame, the kind that blanketed you with its soothing warmth and could lull you off to a pleasant rest, yet with a budding spark just beneath the surface, tensing, gathering its fuel before it finally blazed with all its might. For Twilight, too aroused to want to leave Celestia’s side but not yet aroused enough to actually do something about it, the simplest and most mundane of things seemed even more magical, shimmering in burning mirages as if they were part of a dream.
Walking through the palace halls was just like a leisurely stroll along a warm beach. Drifting, nearly aimless, filled with as many little snuggles as they could get in without tripping over each other and the occasional tease of so much more, while all the wonderful ponies around them glowed incandescently; Twilight could only wish they too knew the kind of love they shared. Waiting for Raven to return with something they asked for, or pondering on how to respond to one missive or another, was just an excuse for fire to dance between their writhing tongues. Eating lunch was less about the food and more about their endless giggling at jokes that weren't actually all that funny while their minds wandered over the round, smooth shapes of the vegetables, constantly reminded of all the hot things they would do to each other the following evening. It didn't matter what they did; as long as they were together life was perfect.
When the night was still young they stoked their flames in bed together, smoldering with slow foreplay before kissing each other to sleep. Twilight knew they would see each other in flaming dreams, eagerly awaiting the next morning when their desires flared to a prominence only this blessed week could give them--only then the real fun would begin.
“Long ago these mighty creatures roamed the earth. For seven million years they were the most successful animals on the surface of the planet. Then, suddenly, a change in climate wiped out all of them. We believe it was volcanism, which then led to the acidification of the oceans and the loss of vegetation across the surface of the planet.”
A bright-eyed little student watched her teacher in awe, taking notes as quickly as her little forearms could manage. The teacher turned from the rest of the class to give her a quiet smile, then turned to look at the bones assembled before her. There were large, spike-backed reptiles with brilliant protruding wings and fiercely curved claws. Some sort of bird with back legs more at place on a cat was suspended mid-flight from the cieling. “Can you imagine it? Vast herds of them, lost to time and space itself. We think that these features on their heads--yes, the horns there--were used mostly for display. At this point in time it was very common amongst the animals alive in the period to have six legs, two made for flight, it is also known that there were vestigal creatures--such as this one.” The teacher paused, her attention turning to a skeleton with a massive, heavy skull and dozens of flattened teeth with blunt cusps on the end. Eye sockets larger than the students’ own heads stared back at them lifessly.
“This one we know lived in some sort of forested area. Some of the pollen from the deposit we found it in comes from plants still found there to this day. Apples, wheat, oats, grasses, oak and elm trees are all known to have grown in the area. You can see the powerful back legs,” she gestured with one arm to the animal’s thick limbs, which terminated in a single toe made of a powerful platform of calcium and keratin, “here. It’s a matter of debate as to what they were used for. Some believe that the reinforced back legs were used so the creature--which we call Ineptahippus verus--could prop itself up on only two legs and reach the apples found in the area surrounding. Others suspect they were a defense against predators, and still others think it may have used them to kick down trees in order to reach its food. Until we find more evidence, we may never know for sure.”
The students were mostly too busy staring at the strange giants before them to internalize any of what was being said. That lost world that had been brought to them in fragments was not of interest to most of them. Instead, only its most immediate fruits drew their focus. But not the bright-eyed little creature near the front of the class. As ever, the immensity of the world around her fascinated her, and it seemed to be getting ever bigger as time passed by. She stopped by a pair that especially fascinated her, hoping she might draw the eye of her teacher.
The skeleton of two giants were curled around one another, forelimbs interlocking. Their thin, long arms ended not in claws but in more of the blunted toes. The two skulls were touching, and one appeared to have caved in partially under the weight of the other. The necks were bent, for the giants were of unequal size. One was only half the height of the other, and yet they still dwarfed the little feather animal in front of them. She searched her notes for what they might be, but nowhere did it state that there was such a species presented. “Miss Butire? What about these ones?” She pointed a scaly talon at the two creatures before them, the enormity of the five-pronged bones sprouting from their back suddenly drawing her focus. “Do we know anything about these two?”
“We do, in fact. They are the most recent animals from the Equizoic we have in our collection, actually. That means they lived the closest to our time period. We think they’re a unique species, and we call them Alicornus regalis, which means “royal pure horn”. Their horns were known to be much longer than those of any other species around them, and we think that their large size and spectacular horns and wings were part of the sign that their species was dying. When animals are about to go extinct, you see, they usually get bigger as an attempt to survive. A kind of last hurrah, really.”
“Do we know why they died holding each other?”
“We don’t really know why, actually. We know that there were social animals amongst these creatures, but a lot of theories have been put forward. The most popular one is that they died fighting each other, possibly over territory and food. That is the only reason why animals so different from one another would be buried together in the modern day, after all. But the modern day only shows us so much.” The two hollow, lifeless figures stared out at the assembled classroom, daring them to try to understand the lives they had lead so very many years ago. “Whatever kind of life the two of them lead, it’s almost all lost to us now.”
The students stared for a while at the strange-looking creatures on display, as if they were in a freakshow of the lost worlds of yesteryear. Then, at last, once the teacher noticed that the freaks of the old world had started to bore them, she shepherded them away from the ancient animals. Her littlest and brightest student stayed a moment, though, staring into the eyes of those creatures so long removed from their ancient world and lives, so much forgotten and neglected by those living just the same on their world today. At last the little student broke away to join the class, and the two giant alicorns returned to their world of half-remembered secrets.
The Twisaurus Rex was finally awake and ready to roam. With her plastic claws, paper met spikes, and vampire fangs(because princess Tia wouldn't let her have real fangs) she was ready to hunt down her prey. The little beast gave a great roar to tell all around her that she was to be feared and that they would soon be breakfast.
"Rawr!"
Celestia turned around and saw her little foal of an apprentice crawling along her belly, staring at Celestia while in some sort of costume. A dragon? No, I think dinosaur fits better. She turned to Kibitz who was having tea with her and put her hooves to her cheeks. “Kibitz, whatever shall we do? There is a mighty monster running loose in the castle!”
The pale pony checked his watch and sighed. “I suppose I can give you two minutes to play with it.”
She smiled at him and mouthed thank you. Meanwhile, the Twisaurus Rex was fast approaching her unwary target. Her skills at sneaking had truly proven too great even for her mighty mentor and soon she would dine on marshmallows. I will even get to have some of dat tea she dwinks.
However, the great Celegosaurus started to move. Have I been spotted? No, but I must speed up my plan. She tensed her haunches and let out a mighty roar as she charged forward. A very ‘surprised’ Celestia glanced at her student just before impact and felt a slight thud on her thigh. She gave a slight giggle as she had to admire how high the little filly had gotten.
But then the great Twisaurus Rex sat there, and only for a moment succeeded in keeping her monstrous pride before letting out a great bawl because her muzzle hurt. Celestia was down upon her charge immediately, snuggling into her barrel. Her lips came against the soft skin and the Twisaurus Rex felt her pride fall even faster as small giggles escaped her lips.
Once sure that Twilight had suffered no real injury, she brought the foal up ot her table where Kibitz glared at her and tapped his watch. Celestia rolled her eyes. “I am sorry Kibitz, but I must make sure this dangerous beast is sated so no other pony is hurt by its tyrannical reign.”
Twilight furrowed her brows at the word tyrannical, but soon her attention and shame evaporate. There in front of her lay three double chunk chocolate chips. She let out a gasp as a golden tea cup came in front of her and took a sip of her teacher’s tea.
Celestia smiled at her student as she drank. This smile evaporated as Twilight spit it out and covered her face in it. She glanced down at the big eyes that now looked at her and the dark purple tail that wrapped around herself. She let out a sigh and drank some herself before spitting it into Twilight’s face, causing the foal to start pawing at her face as she flailed on the table. Truly, the great Twisaurus Rex’s greatest failure/success.
The office was quiet, the only sound the ticking of a clock on the bookshelves lining the wall. Twilight Sparkle was bent over her desk, intent on the documents before her. She could be heard quietly muttering arcane formulas and half remembered thaumaturgic theorems.
Behind her and unseen, the door slowly opened. On the far side a pair of magenta eyes twinkled mischievously as they met with a smaller pair of emerald eyes. “Go get her.” Celestia whispered.
The peace and quiet of the office was shattered with a mighty roar. “RAWR IMA DINASAWR.” With that mighty pronouncement a flashing green and blue blur flashed across the room. Twilight spun on her cushion with a shriek just in time to fall to the floor with a grinning bundle on her chest.
“OM NOM NOM, IMA EAT YOU UP MAMA!” Suiting action to those words, the small mouth started chewing on Twilights ear.
Twilight started giggling uncontrollably. “Dawn, Dawn! Not my ear, I’m ticklish, hahaha, please no more, hehehe, I surrender!”
A golden glow surrounded the small blue pegasus filly and lifted her off of her mother. As she floated through the air, Twilight recovered enough to reassess the situation. Her two favorite ponies in the world were standing in her office… wearing costumes. Her daughter, Dawn Morningstar, was dressed in a green suit with a long stuffed tail bedecked with felt triangles lining it. Her head was tucked into a larger hood with more felt spikes and some long white felt teeth that came down around her face. Topping the whole ensemble were two large eyes. Celestia on the other hand, was wearing a simple hat. Well, not that simple, in fact, it was rather goofy. It was a knit wool cap with a hole for her horn to go through, above that hole were two more knit horns. Celestia was also wearing a t-shirt with the words, “Juvenile Torosaurus” printed on it.
Twilight looked to her wife. “I like the new look Tia. It oddly suits you, I’m also loving what you’ve got our daughter in. May I ask where you got it?”
Celestia raised an elegant eyebrow. “What, a mother can’t create a costume of something her daughter loves just to see her wear it?”
“Rarity?”
Celestia deflated a little. “Rarity.”
Twilight moved over next to Celestia and nuzzled her. “Alright, I can see where this is going. You two are dinosaurs and I’m about to join you, aren’t I?”
“Pwease Mama? Mommy Tia said you’d take us to the museum. They have dinasawrs!” Dawn looked at her mother with excited eyes. “Can we go see them?”
Twilight put her hoof to her chin. “Hmm, let me think about it. Celestia, do you have any input on this proposed expedition?”
Celestia grinned. “I proposed it, of course. I want to see them too. All of those dusty old fossils… and these ones won’t beg me for political favors!”
“Well, since your mother said it was ok, your other mother agrees. We’ll go to the museum, then if you’re good, I think Mommy Tia will buy us both ice cream.”
Dawn erupted in joy, “Yay! I love ice cream, I love dinasawrs, I love Mommy, I love Mama. Yes. Yes. Yes. Let’s go!” She punctuated her exclamation by bouncing around in a circle around Twilight, her plush tail flopping all over as she celebrated. The tail folded under her hooves and caused her to faceplant on the floor. She popped up instantly though and continued her dance around her mothers.
Celestia and Twilight looked on with soft pride and burning love. As they did so, Celestia leaned over and nudged her wife. “I’ve got a hat for you too”
“Are you sure, Twilight?” Celestia asked, a gut feeling making itself known. Either that or indigestion.
“I’ve got it all planned out, Tia. Don’t worry!” Twilight’s horn flashed, and the pair vanished.
Birds scattered as a flash of purple light dumped two alicorns out next to a tree. A massive creature stomping behind them caused both alicorns to look around warily. After a moment, the stomping travelled away.
“Twilight?” Celestia asked.
Twilight’s right wing tapped Celestia while her left moved to her lips and she shushed the elder alicorn.
Nodding, Celestia crouched lower and whispered into Twilight’s ear, “We’re in the right location?”
“Yes,” came her soft reply. “Now, to set up our picnic.”
“Why did you pick here of all places?” Celestia took a good look at the clearing. A beautiful little pond sat where a stream from further up the hills in the distance dumped out. Absolutely massive trees, most of their trunks larger around than even some homes, littered the area and provided plenty of shade while little bushes gathered where the sun still shone. Further down, the pond flowed off into a small valley, with quite the view of a forest below and the mountains beyond.
“You can thank Fluttershy for this.”
Celestia quirked an eyebrow and prompted Twilight to continue.
“Actually, thank the pony who called herself the Evil Enchanter and hexed Fluttershy,” Twilight explained. “She sent Fluttershy to right around this area, and when Discord and I arrived to save her…”
A small caw preceded a pterodactyl the size of a kitten landing next to Twilight. The little flyer nuzzled right up against her before settling down for a nap. Twilight laid down and curled around it. Celestia’s heart leapt to her mouth at the sight.
Twilight covered the pterodactyl with a wing. “We managed to save this little one after hiding from a few predators. They’d taken his mom--he was so tiny and defenseless, we had to. He’s taken a liking to us, and I thought… maybe if I brought you here and showed you, we could bring him with us, back to Ponyville?”
Celestia was stunned. “I… you want to bring a pterodactyl, from the ancient past, to modern-day Equestria?” Celestia sounded the logic out loud. Her voice was even, but still had a questioning inflection.
Twilight prepared herself for a denial, tears already gathering at the corners of her eyes. She looked down at the little sleeping dinosaur in her wing.
A wing made its way to Twilight’s chin, forcing her to look Celestia in the eyes. “I feel like you’ve been abusing travelling to this time because you’re as attached to him as he clearly is to you…” said Celestia. A tear fell from Twilight’s eye. “But,” Celestia continued. “I am willing to make an exception.” Twilight’s ears perked. “Just.” Celestia’s wing removed itself from her chin. “This.” It moved to her right eye, clearing the tears. “Once.” The wing moved and cleared her other eye. Celestia nuzzled against Twilight’s cheek.
Smiling now, Twilight replied, “Thanks, Tia. I know Fluttershy and I will take care of him.”
“Twilight, if he does grow up a danger to my little ponies…” Celestia spoke seriously, “I want you to know this. I will not hesitate to defend them if it comes down to that.”
“I know, Tia.” Twilight looked down to the pterodactyl once more, sleeping comfortably.
“I will admit, he is adorable,” Celestia cooed, muzzle poking under Twilight’s wing. She accidentally bumped up against one of his wings, nudging him slightly.
It had the effect of waking the young pterodactyl up. Small little eyes opened and he uncurled to stretch, yawning cutely. Tapping against Twilight a couple times, the wing moved away and he climbed all the way up Twilight’s side. His eyes set on Celestia and watched her mane wave, wiggling slightly along with her moving hair. After a moment, he lost focus and fell over onto his side with a squeak.
Both ponies giggled as he sat back up and lost himself looking at Celestia’s mane again.
After an hour, the little pterodactyl had a small fish and settled down for another nap. “Whenever you’re ready, Twilight, we can head home.”
Twilight nodded and all three, pony and dinosaur, vanished, just as quickly as they came.
Twilight slumped over in her seat,her head leaning on her Princess’ shoulder. I’m soooo tired… the carriage ride was so uncomfortable. Silly Pinkie wouldn’t shut up about the ‘Yay! You’re Back!’ party. She snuggled closer, listening to the royal chariot purr as it cut through the air. In the back, Spike snored gently and Owlowiscious shifted on his travel perch, but made no sound.
“I’m so glad I’m home, Tia.” Twilight muttered sleepily.
“Yes. I missed you terribly.” Celestia’s hoof fell over hers. “I’m really glad you’re back home.”
Twilight laughed tiredly and snuggled closer, tightening her grip around Celestia’s foreleg. “Pony be sleepy.” Twilight paused for a long moment. “Sleepy enough not to care about mangling Equish.”
“We’re almost there.”
“Uh huh.” She pressed her lips against the fur of Celestia’s shoulder. “You’re going to stay with me tonight, Celestia, right?”
There was a short pause after her quiet question and Celestia’s hoof pressed against hers. ”Yes.”
“Mmm, good. I want to snuggle.” Twilight giggled again and rubbed her face into the warm, off-white coat before lapsing into sleepy silence.
Eventually, Celestia directed the chariot into the front courtyard of the Ponyville Castle, Twilight watched through heavy eyes as trees and familiar houses passed by in the night. Celestia had the guards park in front of the royal tower building .
Twilight groaned. “Now we’re going to have to go up all those stairs because of my luggage and the assistants! It’s no fair! I’d teleport, but I always miss when I’m tired.” She unbuckled the straps that held her travel trunk and levitated it and a still unconscious Spike out of the chariot. Her second assistant hooted softly and took to the air. “Let’s get it over with.”
Celestia paused, still sitting, but Twilight was already heading for the door. She heard the older mare directing the guards to return to Canterlot and a moment later, a golden glow joined her own in lifting the heavy luggage. It took a whole lot more playful whining and huffing, but they managed to get up the stairs with the oversized steamer trunk and catatonic dragon without waking Spike once. Twilight slumped against the wall outside of her bedchambers.
The double doors swung open with a golden glow and Celestia looked back at her. “We’re almost done, Twilight.”
“I know, I know. Oh beautiful, soft, Equestrian mattresses! Thank Faust!” She hefted Spike back up onto her back with a groan and dragged her tired hooves inside. Twilight pushed her trunk to the side and lowered Spike into his basket bed in the antechamber before the main room. Her saddlebags dropped with a thump as soon as she crossed that final threshold. Much like her mentor’s personal room in Canterlot, the room was fairly spartan with only a few essential pieces of furniture. Unlike Celestia’s, however, two of the walls were completely dedicated to over stuffed bookshelves. “I want to just collapse...but I think I have to pee.”
Soon, Twilight was in the bathroom while Celestia made sure Owlowiscious had water and a window open to go hunting when he felt like it. The bathroom door opened and Twilight peeked around it, a bright blush as her face. She stepped out and tugged on the hem of her silken, chocolate-colored shift. A gift from Rarity, to celebrate her return from abroad, and it barely reached mid-cutie mark on her. Her crown was already put away, and her mane was tied back into a simple braid.
“D-do you… need to…use the bathroom?” She muttered quietly, edging towards the only bed.
“Give me...a moment to...freshen up. It won’t take long.” Celestia muttered as she looked at the floor, the bed, anywhere but directly at Twilight.
A short while later, Celestia return, crownless, royal peytral removed, and shoes long since gone. She pulled up short at the door. Dim candlelight lit the area around the bed, where Twilight sat, chewing the end of her braid idly.
Twilight dropped her hair when she noticed the Princess standing there, and clapped her hooves together nervously. “H-hey…Princess.”
“Hey…” Celestia’s eyes skittered away nervously from the vision on her bed. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen this.” The Princess smiled ruefully. “Just when, in my thousands of years, did a ‘few weeks’ turn into ‘too long?’ How do you do this to me?”
“Aren’t you…” Twilight stopped and blushed brightly again. She stretched out her legs, one corner of her mouth turned up. “Aren’t you going to kiss me like you did at the port?”
“Do you want me to?” Celestia asked quietly when she stepped up to the edge of the narrow bed.
Twilight nodded quickly. Celestia eased herself into the bed neck to Twilight and reached out to slowly take her chin and turn her face upwards. Celestia cupped Twilight’s face, lifting it towards her. As their lips met, Celestia dropped one hoof, letting it graze over Twilight’s nighty and coat until it reached her butt and squeezed softly. Both of Twilight’s forehooves gripped Celestia’s coat and pulled the rest of her body up against the older alicorn.
The kiss deepened. Their mouths opened wider, and pressed together as teeth clicked against each other, tongues exploring. Celestia’s grip on Twilight tightened, pulling the mare closer. Twilight’s arms snaked up around the larger mare’s neck and she ran her hooves through Celestia’s mane. Hesitantly, Celestia took Twilight’s full bottom lip into her mouth and sucked lightly. Twilight trembled slightly and rocked her hips forward, a small sound rising from her throat.
Celestia released Twilight’s lip and wrapped Twilight’s braid around her hoof, cupping the back of Twi’s head. Tia angled her mouth over Twilight’s, forcing another small whimper to escape the smaller girl.
Not to be outdone, Twilight captured Celestia’s tongue and did to it, what had been done to her lip. Their mouths parted a moment later and Celestia kissed her way over Twilight’s jaw, using her hold on Twilight’s mane to move to her head to the side. Celestia bit down gently and sucked the skin on Twilight’s neck, until Twi moaned in need.
The junior Princess began to writhe beneath Celestia’s mouth and whimpered, digging the edge of her hooves into Celestia’s skin. The larger mare’s hoof on her ass slid down and traced the curve of her where thigh met butt.
Celestia trailed wet kisses down Twilight’s shoulder and then leaned back to look into Twi’s eyes. “Have I told you, I’m happy to have you back?”
“Y-you might...have mentioned it...yes.” Twilight muttered breathlessly, tugging at her silken shift. “I’m glad to be back, now...let me get this off.”
Celestia moved away from Twilight’s skin, a reluctant rumble deep in her chest. She let Twilight pull the sleepware over her head and smiled at the sight before she snuffed the candles with her magic.
Celestia glanced up as a soft knock came against her door. The visitor did not wait for a reply and walked in. The princess’ heart soared at the sight of her beloved, purple mare. She went from the door to her in a flash, the year’s absence having made her feel cold and she craved the warmth.
Twilight reciprocated to the touch, shaking from the joy that filled her. For but a moment they held each other close. This moment was only theirs and was one of many they cherished. But like so many before, it was not to last as a white pegasus guard came in and saluted them.
Celestia blinked away a tear and stepped forward. A letter was presented to her and she let out a soft sigh. Quickly she read it before turning to Twilight. Her student spent a moment with her mouth open. Celestia begged for Twilight to tell her to stay. To command her to disregard her duty for their time together. It was not to be though, as it never was, and soon she left the room with the parting words stealing the warmth from her body.
Celestia walked into the throne room with a slight limp. Her hair was disheveled and her armor scuffed. Somewhere along her journey, she had lost her shield. She had fought through every challenge she faced, but had finally made it to the center of the Castle of the Two Sisters.
“Luna! Luna come out and face me!” She yelled into the seemingly empty room.
“Luna isn’t here. Luna will never be here again.” A sibilant whisper came from the shadows.
“Well I’m not calling you Nightmare Moon.” Celestia replied.
A dark haired woman stepped out of the shadows, she was shorter than Celestia, though not by much. Clad in a set of black armor with a silver sword at her side. “What do you want, Celestia Morningstar? Why have you fought through my lieutenants just to see me?” Nightmare Moon growled.
Celestia smiled grimly. “You know what I want, Luna. I want her back.”
Nightmare smirked. “Then come and take her.”
Celestia launched into motion. Swinging her sword overhand, she charged Nightmare Moon, who drew her own sword and parried neatly. With a flurry of thrusts, slashes and parries, they danced around the throne room. Swords clanging together as the battle raged.
They moved back and forth across the room, Celestia matching her sister stroke for stroke even through her exhaustion. Nightmare suddenly burst into a flurry of movement, striking from her right, her right, her left then her right again. Celestia struggled to counter each stroke, moving her blade to intercept. Nightmare started getting fancy, adding more flourishes to her strikes, her confidence building as she could see her sisters stamina flagging. She struck from the left and when Celestia parried, she started to spin to her right for a strike. However, the instant her back was turned, Celestia surged forward and slammed her fist and hilt into the back of Nightmare’s head, who collapsed in a heap, her sword falling to her side as she was dazed. She rolled over to face her sister only to feel cold steel at her throat.
“You always favored the dramatic over the effective.” Celestia said coldly, holding her sword steady.
With a gulp, Nightmare yelled. “YIELD, I YIELD!”
“Where is she?” Celestia asked coldly.
Nightmare called out. “Twilight, could you come here, please?”
A door on the far side of the room opened. A shorter woman walked out, her purple dress in tatters. She clutched her side and her hair was ragged, looking like she’d had a rough time, which she had. She walked stiffly towards Celestia, focused on her princess, hope dawning in her eyes. Celestia moved towards her, her sword arm dropping, her other hand raising towards Twilight Sparkle. Their eyes met, and the rest of the world faded into the background.
Shadows flickered and Twilight moved towards Celestia, smiling weakly, tears forming in her eyes. Suddenly she stopped, her eyes widening. She looked down at her chest in shock, at the point of a sword dripping blood. “Cel-Celes…” she breathed out as she collapsed.
“I may have never matched your physical prowess, but I was always your better at stealth and treachery.” Nightmare Moon snarled, pulling her blade out of Twilight’s back.
“NOOOOOO!” Celestia screamed, flashing forward towards Twilight. “NO! Twilight! Don’t be… You can’t.. Don’t leave me, please, I’m begging, don’t leave me. Hold on!”
Even as she crossed the distance between them though, it was too late. Twilight’s breath slowed and with a final gasp, she lay still, her eyes still staring at Celestia.
Celestia fell to her knees. Tears freely falling from her eyes. “No…. no… nononononono… NO!” She screamed, jumping to her feet and facing her sister. She growled unintelligibly, raising her sword in a mindlessly aggressive stance.
She dashed towards her sister, flailing her sword at Nightmare Moon, she hammered her down, forcing her into a defensive stance. Her sword flashed down again and again, her rage fueling her speed and strength. Nightmare tried to put up a defense, somehow managing to get her sword into a position to block every strike, but she could not gain any momentum, she struggled merely to block the strikes of her sister. Celestia’s face twisted with rage as with a final strike she slammed Nightmare’s sword to the side and drove her own sword home.
Nightmare Moon gaped at her sister, sinking to the floor, Celestia followed after, going to her own knees with her sister. Panting heavily, she took a moment to calm her rage.
Celestia stared into Luna’s eyes, possessed by the night mare and impaled on her sword and whispered. “Never again.” She traced her finger over several runes on her hilt and channeled her full power into them. Feeling the strain of magical effort, she didn’t stop, instead she poured forth all of her grief and pain, powering the spell to critical levels. A beam of light exploded into being, connecting her sword and the sun.
The light grew in brightness, the heat of the room rising with it. Celestia crawled over to the body lying on the floor. She gathered Twilight’s smaller form into her arms. Smoke started to rise from her armor. Before the burning light overwhelmed everything, Celestia whispered to her love. “Wait for me Twilight, we will be together again.”
Valentines/Hearts and Hooves Day - Knight of Cerebus - March 6, 2015
Twilight Sparkle was not a mare of complex tastes. Books, of course, were her ideal present, and getting her one was sure to win her instant gratitude. Her ideal location for a dinner date would have been a burger shack, and more specifically one with quasi-illegal levels of grease topping their meals. She had, Celestia mused, taken to the inability to die of heart attack quite effectively. That was another problem, of course. How could she top the gift of a disease-proofed body with heightened magical powers, wings and a title to her own kingdom by way of gifts? She mused with no small amount of amusement that Twilight would probably cherish the book more than she ever had her princess status, and not because she disliked said princessliness. So there she was, searching for books that would cover some facet of their relationship effectively. The Egghead’s Guide To Solar Cycles jumped out at her, but so did Alicorns At Court: A History and Sol Invictus: Changing Art of our Unchanging Ruler. She closed her eyes and felt the sun’s position in her head. It was already almost midday. She held back the curse trying to force its way past her lips. Celestia nullified her frustration by musing on how she had arrived at this somewhat desperate point. She decided that she had, perhaps, put this off too long. In fact, she likely would have forgotten that Twilight might even be expecting a gift or any kind of special occasion if not for Cadance’s stern reminder to both her aunt Celestia and her aunt Luna that this was a very special day to make their very special ponies (she had looked pointedly at Celestia at that) feel as special as they were.
Given that this required she make a personal statement about Twilight, she had (quite understandably, she thought) only worked up the nerve to finally begin looking roughly an hour ago. She scanned the shelves again, pondering on why precisely her emotions wrested control of her behaviour away from the logic and patience she was so used in almost every scenario tying to her loved ones in some way. She stopped almost as quickly as she had started when the words “there can only be one Princess in Equestria” flashed through her head. “Twilight isn’t Luna,” she chided herself. The store clerk looked at her for a moment, but when she gave her usual calm and neutral smile he returned to waiting for other potential customers. Celestia, in the meantime, steeled herself, trying to piece together a logical and diplomatic solution to her problem. Twilight loved books, that much was clear. But Twilight also had a library stacked full of books that were amazing in every way and spectacular beyond belief. So, naturally, it followed that she had to somehow draw Twilight’s attention to this book in particular as being different from books gifted to her by Rarity, Spike, Rainbow Dash or Shining Armor, for example. Which meant she had to find a good way to grab Twilight’s attention. She held back a smirk and a blush once she hit upon the immediate answer: She herself turned Twilight’s head far more than any other object in the universe, up to and including her entire library of books or (arguably) her own friends and family. Thus, she needed a book on herself. But Twilight almost certainly had many of those (perhaps too many, if she knew her Twilight as well as she thought). Which meant, of course, she needed a book about herself that only she could give Twilight. Which meant, of course, that she had an answer. If she could not give Twilight a book about herself, she would give Twilight a book by herself. Which meant that she had quite a journey to to make, and, given she was expected during the evening, not a lot of time to make it. She spread her wings, preparing herself for long expedition she was soon to undertake. It was the perfect plan.
---／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼---
Twilight Sparkle collapsed into her chair with a sigh. Everything was set up precisely as was, she reasoned, most likely to make Celestia happy. And it was killing her a little bit inside with the panic that she had to repress every time. The thought of imperfection, or worse, dissymmetry, was driving her to distraction. And yet, this was exactly what she needed at the moment, and she knew it well. This was what Celestia wanted for Valentine’s Day, she was sure, and thought it was an undertaking of mythological scope, she had fought hard and well for this victory of mind over matter. Her room was catastrophically filthy. Books lay strewn lazily upon the floor. Her furniture was out of line. An empty tea cup long since sipped dry was present on the askew coffee table. There were charts, diagrams and notes covering the surface of her table and scattered about the floor at all areas. She viewed the room with a grim satisfaction. This was a day like no other. This was a day that she would remember well. For this was the day…she started acting casual. She only hoped it wouldn’t end in total disaster.
She levitated a set of notes with prompts for her over to her side table, making sure some of the corners were folded and the papers were not aligned. Ideally Celestia would never see it, but practice and repetition were the best teachers a mare could ask for, to Twilight’s way of mind. One last touch was all she needed. With a delicate touch, she gingerly rolled a set of cowlicks out at the front and back of her hair. Not enough to look like the porcupine’s mane that signified her latest descent into madness, but enough that it would look like she was ready to feel at-ease with a mare of her equal status and not a superior to herself in every way, shape and form. It was the perfect plan. Twilight heard somepony knocking at the door.
---／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼---
Celestia looked around the room in confusion, her eyes taking in the state of dissarray that was Twilight Sparkle’s library in utter confusion. “Tia! How’re you doing...yo? I hear that you signed a treaty with our, uhm, bros the griffons, yeah? So that’s s’all good.”
“Err, yes, quite.” Celestia said absently, taking in the room. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Not at all. I have everything just on the low” Twilight looked up for a moment, mouthing some words to herself “-down, just the way I want it.” Her eye twitched, causing Celestia’s brow to crease in concern.
“Twilight, is everything alright? You seem...not yourself.”
“Nope, everything’s s’all good.” Twilight flopped down on the couch. “Just spent some time working on Tank’s helicopter with Spike...yo...and making sure the Cutie Mark Crusaders don’t get into trouble for my girl Dash.” Celestia could feel Twilight’s brain screaming against its restraints from where she was sitting. Twilight looked like she was about to press onwards, but at last looked up at Celestia’s face. “I--hmph. This isn’t, err, well, I mean, I wanted this to go a little bit different from what we’re doing now.”
“Oh?”
“Never mind. It’s just a little--stilted. That’s the word.”
Celestia’s mind set to work analyzing what Twilight might have been attempting to do. She immediately reached a conclusion and, given the lack of danger should she end up wrong, took a gamble. “Hearts and Hooves Day jitters, I presume?”
“Something like that, yeah. You see, Cadance implied none-too-subtly that this was a big deal, so I started wondering about stuff you liked that might make today special and then I thought about how you want to be just another pony and then I thought about how I might change things up today and then--” Twilight paused for air. “I decided to get a little bit too creative, I think. Anyway, umm. I’ve made a Hearts and Hooves resolution, I guess you could call it.”
“As have I, as it so happens. I have had quite the epiphany regarding how I need to start thinking of you, and as a result, I had the clarity of mind to think of something I know you’ll be excited to see.” Celestia revealed the ancient scroll hidden under her wing.
“Oh wow,” Twilight’s eyes went wide. The little alicorn scampered over to Celestia’s side immediately, causing the older pony’s smile to widen into that doting beam that was saved just for a happy Twilight Sparkle. “This is amazing! This must be--oh.” Twilight’s face scrunched up. The drop in Twilight’s tone was like a piano playing its lowest chord by mistake mid-concerto to Celestia’s listening ears. “It’s this.” Twilight immediately recovered, giving a grin that Celestia would best describe as generous. “It’s, err, well, I had it assigned for history class one year, and I’ve read the whole thing in the archives about seven times over. But, um, it’s nice to have an older copy.”
“We have a copy of my writing in the archives?” Celestia blinked.
“Right under authors “E”. Everfree, Celestia Morningstar.” Twilight recited with the certainty granted only to those who had memorized the strange arcana known as the Dewneigh Decimal System. “Anyway, it’s, you know, nice. But I’ve read an older edition, you know.”
“But I--” Celestia sighed, laughing. “Do you remember what we originally had planned today?”
“I think it was a talk on politics.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think, perhaps, we might have more fun with that?”
“I think so.”
“Perhaps, then, we should cast aside sweeping revelations. I think I have a paper in mind for you, special holidays and brilliant intrigue be hanged.”
“I think that sounds like a very special holiday to me.” Twilight smirked, setting aside the scroll and the notes with a flick of her magic.
Valentines/Hearts and Hooves Day - ultra1437 - March 6, 2015
“Twilight? What are…” The words on Celestia’s tongue were lost when she entered their shared chambers. Arrayed around the room, literally, were dozens upon dozens of lit candles. The bedspread had been changed to a deep crimson, with flower petals scattered about on top. Twilight herself was nowhere to be found, but hoofsteps could be heard from their suite’s bathroom.
Not paying any attention, Twilight trotted out of the bathroom, humming a small tune to herself. Her eyes were closed up until she hopped onto the bed. She lay herself down provocatively, and opened her eyes. Immediately they widened at Celestia’s gaping stare. “T-Tia!? What are you doing back so early?” She sat up quickly in surprise.
Her brain thoroughly going through its unexpected shutdown procedure, Celestia spoke, “I… forgot to get the thing… with the stuff.” Celestia couldn’t help but stare unabashedly at her wife. She’d really cleaned and prettied herself up, going so far as even having lingerie, that outside being seen by Celestia, wouldn’t even be considere lingerie.
“The… thing with the stuff?” Twilight inquired, skeptical.
Celestia nodded, a blush spreading under her coat quickly. She coughed into her hoof once. “Yes. I forgot to grab the latest report for Luna.”
Twilight passed the report over, immediately knowing what Celestia had meant. “Thanks.”
“You know what? Screw it.” Twilight took the report and teleported it away. “Let’s get our night started early.” Her eyes half-lidded as she stood up.
Celestia’s blush deepened as Twilight walked, no strutted to the closest end of the bed, her body swaying hypnotically with each step. She noticed Twilight’s horn hadn’t gone out a moment before the door shut firmly and clicked. She squeaked in surprise when Twilight’s magic brushed against her neck just right, and a squeal turned into a moan when a few select feathers in her wings were tweaked.
Twilight, for her part, was a giant pony-shaped bundle of nerves up until that moan. ‘Whew, that section was right. This is a lot tougher than it looks,’ Twilight’s thought broke off as a ‘whoosh’ toppled and extinguished the closest candles to Celestia, her wings standing up suddenly.
Twilight hopped down and strode right up to Celestia, continuing to tease and excite the older mare.
“Twilight? Why are–” She was cut off as Twilight planted a passionate kiss right on her lips.
“Happy Hearts and Hooves Day, Tia.” Twilight’s eyes shone brightly before she leaned in and nuzzled against Celestia’s neck.
Celestia’s eyes widened, she’d completely forgotten. ‘Today was Hearts and Hooves Day? How did I lose track of that?’ She took a step back. “I–”
“I know, you forgot,” Twilight spoke frankly. Celestia’s ears pinned back. “That’s alright. I was planning on surprising you, so… surprised?”
A nod was accompanied with, “Very much so.” Celestia leaned down and kissed Twilight in return. Her sudden action, coupled with it’s sheer passion, stunned Twilight for a second. The younger mare moaned and returned the kiss with equal passion eagerly.
Parting her lips slightly, Celestia’s tongue pressed against Twilight’s lips. Twilight acquiesced to Celestia’s probing tongue, letting the welcomed visitor in. Celestia’s left foreleg instinctively stroked up and down Twilight’s counterpart lovingly. Their tongues writhed and danced together for a few minutes. They ended up side by side, their closest wings’ feathers melding together. Mutually, their impromptu make-out session ended with both parties panting heavily.
Twilight smirked and turned around, her tail stroking against Celestia’s chest. “C’mon. Let’s have some real fun.” She hopped up on the bed and patted the spot next to her as she sat down.
Celestia was all too happy to oblige.
Valentines/Hearts and Hooves Day - Foals Errand - March 6, 2015
For this prompt, Foals Errand wrote a mature story. As usual, head over to Hot for Teacher and check it out (listed as "Conception"). Content warning: futa, impregnation
Sunset Shimmer: Forgotten - Knight of Cerebus - March 14 to 21, 2015
“I brought somebody to see you, Sunset.” The young, bubbly blue-coated volunteer cast a smile over at the pony currently reading the Canterlot Times. “She’s an old friend of yours.” The quiet gold-coated mare looked up from her place beside the fireplace, setting aside the paper with a smile.
“Who do you have for me this time?” She crooned, peering out through her reading glasses to watch the other pony. Before her towered a giant of an alicorn, her thick blue and pink mane swirling in a cosmic breeze that wasn’t there. She set forward a set of flawless lavender hooves, step by careful step. Though everything about the alicorn suggested a sense of harmony and peace, the pony in the rocking chair beside the fireplace cringed in place and recoiled from the sight.
Twilight gave Sunset a bittersweet smile. “Hey, Sunset, I just came to drop off some more books for you. I know you wanted to finish all the greats before--well, you know.” She gave a wince. She set down a copy of Tropic of Prancer beside the other twelve that had accumulated thus far, then placed the fifth edition copy of Hoof of Darkness over by the fourth and eighth editions she’d brought the last two times. The rest of the books were new. She liked to remain optimistic.
Sunset, for her part, was still making her best effort to disappear into her chair. “Principal Celestia! How did you even--? I--never mind. I-I-I know this looks bad, and I know it probably is bad, but--”
“Shhhh.” Twilight’s well-practiced librarian voice proved its worth once more. “It’s not her, Sunset. It’s Twilight Sparkle, remember?”
“Twilight...Twilight?” Sunset grasped the book between her hooves protectively. “What have you found out about me this time?” Her eyes narrowed. “The crown is mine! I deserved it! No...wait...we weren’t...we were friends, right?...I taught you how to write, didn’t I?”
Twilight smiled that smile that hurt to wear again. “Of course you did. I just...wanted to see how you were holding up.”
Sunset smiled to herself. “It’s been great! All the time spent with friends...or that was spent with friends.” She frowned all of a sudden, and realized the odd sensation of her heart breaking without her knowing why. “I...think it’s still spent with friends, isn’t it? Have my reports to you been okay? I hope you learned something from ‘em. I know I did.” She gave a nervous chuckle, then winced when it came out a croak.
“Maybe we should reschedule, your highness.” The young helper pony chimed in. “You know how she gets. Some days she’s sharper than me and twice as busy. Then you get some days like this.”
Twilight sighed. “I know, Humble. But you don’t need to be as sharp as she is--was--to know that the good days are getting shorter, and she doesn’t have them half as often as she did.”
“They’ve been good days.” Sunset said defensively. “Except last week. You know how Dash can be.” She gave a wry chuckle, and Twilight made a token effort to join her.
“Yeah, I do.” The alicorn swallowed on a ball she hadn’t noticed forming in her throat. She turned back to the nurse. “How long do you think she...do you think she has?”
The smaller pony shook her head, her mask of smiles slipping to reveal an aura of exhaustion taking shelter underneath. “It’s never clear in cases like these. It could be two months or it could be next week. But what you’re doing is good for her. You have to keep them busy and keep them loved. You’re doing both, and it’s been great for her. For both of us, honestly.” She gave Twilight a smile that was decidedly genuine.
Twilight gave a good-natured smile back. “You’re reminding me of my wife. I keep trying to get her to come here, but she says it’s ‘not time yet’. Heh. She’s just too proud to admit how much it tears her up. Seeing her old student like this, I mean. I love her to bits, but that pony couldn’t show her heart to the world if it would kill her. Anyway, ah, I should be thanking you for everything you’re doing, not the other way around. Even if I had the time off, there’s no way I could stand seeing this every day,” She gestured quietly at Sunset’s currently blank stare and open mouth. The bookish alicorn made her best efforts to pull her out of her stupor. “Would you like to read with me, Sunset? For old times’ sake?”
The elderly mare’s face reclaimed her recently-lost trademark wicked smirk, which peaked its way out through the wrinkles and gray hairs along her muzzle. “Think you can keep up, egghead?”
Twilight shot back a quiet, painful smile. “I think so, yeah.” She said more to herself than to Sunset. She set a book in front of each of them, resting a young and vital hoof over top of her old friend’s own withered and slender limb. She set to reading alongside the older pony, trying to ignore how quickly she was going compared with her famous counterpart. It was only because Twilight chose to ignore it that she didn’t notice Sunset’s eyes run over the same photo of herself and six other girls again and again and again.
Sunset Shimmer: Forgotten - ultra1437 - March 14 to 21, 2015
She walked despondently down the empty street. What city she was in wasn’t important. Neither were any of the houses or stores she trod past. All she saw was a broken-down town to match a broken-down mare.
As she approached a half-destroyed fountain in the city’s square, she looked up to the moon. It hung almost limply in a corner of the sky, casting long shadows off the buildings. She sighed and sat down heavily next to the fountain.
She eyed the ruins. “How long has this town been forgotten? Probably a lot longer than I have…” A flash of alabaster in the corner of her eye drew her attention to a particular building.
Heaving herself to her hooves, she trudged over to where she’d sworn she saw the flash. Sitting against the building was a single feather. The mare’s horn lit, a bright cyan glow cast about her, and the feather lifted to her eyes.
As her eyes widened, she dropped the feather against her yellow-orange hoof and nudged it with her nose. ‘It can’t be…’ The feather’s scent was faint, but unmistakable. It was ‘her’ scent, bringing memories back both good and bad. Fearfully, her ears pinned back against her head, against her red and yellow mane, and she dropped the feather and scampered away, back to the fountain.
As she rounded to the fountain’s opposite side, a spot of lavender caught her vision much like the white feather had. She straightened up in fear, thinking, ‘I already found one of their feathers. What’s the chance that this is one of the other’s?’ Slowly, she made her way over to the spot of lavender. It wasn’t a whole feather, just a tip, but it was enough. The mare smelled this feather too, and recoiled worse.
She veritably screamed and took off at a gallop, previous direction forgotten. At the edge of the town, she tripped before breaking down into uncontrollable despair where she lay.
Princess Luna stood on a nearby hill overlooking the town. She could clearly see the mare, Sunset Shimmer, weeping fearfully where she’d fallen. ‘Is she truly so scared that even a hint of them sends her into a spiral of fear?’
As the mare’s sobbing died away, she made her move, teleporting.
Luna materialized behind a building, away from Sunset’s line of sight. She was content merely to observe for now, but she did know something wasn’t right with her quarry. Usually Celestia’s previous students were ecstatic to see something that reminded them of her, not send them into a crying fit.
As Luna crept closer, Sunset was speaking. Truthfully, she was moaning in despair, but quietly.
“Please, just forget about me.” Sunset hiccuped. “I’m not worth worrying over. Just forget I even existed.” She sniffled this time. “It will be better for all if I just disappeared forever.”
Luna was moved to action at these words. She softly strode up behind the crying mare and knelt down. She made her presence known when she wrapped a wing around Sunset.
Sunset jumped and tried to pull away, but the wing only wrapped tighter. Sunset screamed, “No! Let me go!”
“Calm yourself, Sunset Shimmer,” Luna instructed her simply. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
Sunset struggled harder, forcing Luna to wrap a hoof around her and hold the mare against her chest. As the minutes passed, Sunset’s struggling slowed until she was reduced to panting for breath.
Fearfully, she turned to face Luna. “W-Who are you?” she asked, noting that Luna was an alicorn.
“Who I am is unimportant, Sunset Shimmer. I have watched you for some time now, and come to offer help.” The wing trapping Sunset lifted to wipe the tears from her eyes, and the hoof loosened its grip slightly. “You fear the Sun-Princess and her pupil, yes?”
Sunset could only nod.
“I ask you, why? Why are you so afraid of them? They are nothing if not benevolent. If you fear their wrath for some perceived slight or attack, then your fears are unfounded,” Luna winced at how she ended her statement.
Sunset shook her head. “No! I… I just can’t face them!” Tears welled up in her eyes and she looked away.
Luna shook her head softly and the wing returned to clean Sunset’s eyes. As the mare calmed down, she looked into Luna’s eyes. There was no malice, no threat, only genuine care.
“I-I’m afraid of them.”
One of Luna’s ears perked upright. She said nothing, but tightened her grip slightly, leaning around the smaller mare just a bit.
“I ran away from one, and nearly killed the other with my own hands.” Luna knew the stories from both parties well. She’d seen their occasional dreams, after all.
“Now… now they want to speak with me. I…” Sunset started crying again. She spoke incoherently as she sobbed.
Luna tightened her embrace, cooing softly.
After another few minutes, Sunset calmed down some. Unprompted, she continued, “I know they just want to get rid of me! I’m nothing but a failure and a threat to them!” She hiccuped once more. “So, I’m just going to go away and stay away. Permanently.” The mare’s voice took on a steely edge that set off a few warning bells in Luna’s mind.
“Sunset Shimmer. You are not, and never will be, a failure to Celestia.” Sunset winced at the name. “You are a strong pony who has made mistakes, yes, but these mistakes are not the kind that cannot be forgiven. I am sure that Celestia and Twilight–” another pair of flinches, “–will forgive you. They only want to make sure you are alright.”
“How do you know that?” Sunset questioned, leery of the mare that helped comfort her.
“You truly do not know who I am?”
Sunset merely shook her head.
“I am Princess Luna, formerly known as Nightmare Moon, the Mare in the Moon. I am also Princess Celestia’s sister.” Sunset’s ears pinned back and her pupils shrank. “Twilight Sparkle and her friends used the Elements of Harmony to free me from Nightmare Moon’s possession.”
She leaned in and nuzzled against the top of Sunset’s head. “Trust me, Sunset Shimmer, when I say that they bear no ill will against you.”
Sunset would have none of it. “You-You’re lying! You’re just trying to help them get rid of me!” she shrieked, her struggle to get free renewed.
Luna’s grip became like iron. Her voice echoed, “Sunset Shimmer! I am nothing if not truthful! Why would you think that Celestia and Twilight would want to be rid of you?”
Sunset struggled as she yelled. “Because! I saw them kissing on the night before I stole Twilight’s crown!”
Luna spoke softly, “Is that all?”
“Is that all? Is that all?! Their relationship was clearly a secret and they want to silence me!”
Luna chuckled. “No, Sunset Shimmer. Their relationship is not secret. While they have not announced it openly yet, they do not hide it from view.” She released Sunset, standing tall. Leaning over Sunset, she whispered in her ear. “They probably want to help you to readjust to Equestria again. That and… likely they want to surprise you with a gift of sorts. You are the reason they got together.”
Sunset’s voice cracked as she asked, “W-What?”
“Celestia told me, and you will be the only soul I will have told this to.” She took a calming breath. “When you ran off and disappeared, Celestia fell into a deep depression. For years she thought that there was no hope of finding one of the final Element Bearers, and would have to slay me.”
“Then came Twilight. The little filly that nearly destroyed the tower her test was taken in.” She sat down next to Sunset. “After Celestia rescued her from the magic surge she’d been overcome with… the rest was, as you might say, history.”
Sunset was crying again, but the smile she wore proved they weren’t fearful tears anymore. “You really mean that? That they want to help me?”
Luna stood, a wing helping Sunset to her hooves. “I do. Come, Sunset Shimmer. Let us leave this place for happier grounds.”
Together, the pair strode from the long-forgotten town, toward a brighter future.
The otherworldly dirt kicked up as Celestia landed in a clearing, her gleaming white armor only offset by four green, holographic pads projected from the front of her legs.
A horde of Hive Thralls closed in, chasing her unrelentingly. Where she landed, she turned and faced her pursuers.
As they closed, Celestia’s hooves started moving. Not in a charge, not in a retreat. She started dancing.
The Thralls stopped suddenly, almost as if they were compelled. After a few seconds, they followed along in her hoofsteps.
Celestia’s mouth opened, and she sang, “It's Crota's End time, And something evil's lurkin' in the dark.” She reared up onto her rear hooves and slid sideways a step. Her forehooves clapping together. The Thralls mirrored her perfectly, seemingly entranced.
“Within the Hellmouth, You see a sight that almost stops your heart. You hear a shriek- The Weight of Darkness fallin' on your raid team!” Celestia’s forehooves sprung up in mock surprise to her face as she backpedalled, the Thralls keeping pace, pushing forward toward her.
She clapped her hooves together again as she crooned, “Your knees are weak, As Crota looks you right between the eyes- You're paralyzed!” Twilight landed next to her, joining in effortlessly as both ponies shake their hips. They lock forehooves and Celestia dips Twilight back. The rest of the fireteam laughs as a dozen Thralls partner up and copy their movements.
Celestia’s voice is joined by Twilight’s as they belt out the chorus, “'Cause this is Thraller! Thraller night! And no-one's gonna save you from the Hollowed Acolytes! You know it's Thraller! Thraller night! You're fighting for your life inside a brawler Thraller tonight!” A pair of sword-wielding Knights spin their way in, staying off to the side, but still in sight. They pantomime Celestia and Twilight’s actions, facing the Thralls.
“You hear a great roar! And realize that there's something in your path. You feel the Presence- Of Crota keepin down your team’s health.” Twilight took off, only to be replaced by Applejack. The new couple then spins freely for several seconds, only for Applejack to hoist Celestia above her head. A thundering applause from the Thralls follow.
“You check your synth count And hope that you've possibly stocked enough. But all the while you hear your team screaming about those orbs! You're outta time!” Celestia and Applejack turned to the Thralls, stomping forward several steps. The Thralls backed up in mock fear.
Applejack takes over the chorus alone this time, her alto voice booming off the rocks. “'Cause this is Thraller! Thraller night! There ain't no second chance against him with his Oversouls! You know it's Thraller! Thraller night! You're fighting for your life inside a brawler Thraller Tonight!” The Thralls playfully hit each other, pretending to fight amongst themselves.
Twilight, hovering over them, sings, “Gatekeepers call; And exploding cursed Thralls blend in with the hordes!” Two pale Thralls wander behind them, before exploding impressively. “There's no escapin' the eyes of those Ogre twins.”
Celestia and Applejack sang in the background, “They're raging now!”
Twilight’s voice sounds over their own, “This is the end of your run!” A pair of massive Hive Ogres eyes glow before purple blasts of energy release, crossing above Twilight.
“They're coming to get you; Thralls closing in on every ramp.” The Thralls pair up and one ducks between their partner’s legs lithely before they right and repeat the maneuver with the other Thrall ducking down.
“They will wipe you; Unless you change up the place to hide!” Everyone present hides their faces behind their limbs before peek-a-booing childishly.
“Now is the time- For you and I to take out that Swordbearer. All through the run, I'll save you from the aggro from the Boomers, We'll kill him now!” Twilight lands and takes her place alongside Celestia and Applejack as they slide-step and clap their hooves. After three claps, they turn to their side and mock a predator’s stance, quick-turning to the other side.
Celestia’s voice rings alone again as she sings the chorus, “That it's a Thraller, Thraller night Let’s build this bridge so we can get that ch~est open guys! Guys, this is Thraller, Thraller night So let me pop a bubble and hold this totem, got 'em! Get him! Popped him! Here tonight!” A purple sphere appears behind the three, between the Ogres. A pair of shots cracked out, each finding a Knight’s head, vanquishing them instantly.
“'Cause this is Thraller! Thraller night! ‘Cause when I lock on I can shoot my rocket launcher twice! Guys, this is Thraller, Thraller night Come on guys, let’s take the fight to ‘em! Brawler Thraller!” Two rockets soar over the three ponies, only to veer around and strike the Ogres, killing them instantly.
Big Mac’s basso voice resounds as he intones the final verses. “Darkness falls across your room, The midnight hour is close at hand. Guardians scour in search of loot, To gnaw at Crota's mighty boots.” A massive green Knight steps into view, only for a pair of rockets to shoo him away. Celestia, Twilight, Applejack, and the rest of the incapacitated Hive continue to dance unhindered.
“And whatever shall be found- Without the Oversoul wiping the round- Must stand and face Wizards from Luna’s Moon. And restart their run once again.” Two floating Wizards are struck with multiple bullets, killing them. Their rags float down.
“The foulest stench is in the ‘Mouth, The cheese strewn about for seven weeks. And armored Knights from every door, Are closing in to wipe your team…” Several Thralls drop to the floor as their energy is spent. Others look to be on their last legs, barely keeping up with the madly dancing ponies.
“And though you fight to get your loot… Your body starts to shiver. For no mere Guardian can resist- The call of the Thraller.” The entire fireteam laughed uncontrollably as the final Thralls are finally vanquished. After the last Hive was killed, the music faded.
Setting back down on all fours, Twilight panted heavily. “That… that was exhilarating, Tia.”
Celestia was sweating under her armor, but wasn’t winded. “Well, these new Radiant Dance Machines are something, aren’t they?”
Applejack kept rocking on her hooves to the tune. “Darn tootin’. Never knew we’d have such an easy time against them Hive. Must be some kind of hidden ability’re somethin’.”
Celestia nodded. “I guess they do have surprising social benefits.” Her wings flapped, lifting her to a hover. “C’mon, we’ve still got Crota to slay. It won’t likely be as easy as that was.”
The six ponies continued on, unaware of the consequences from their act.
Celestia sat in her private screening room, the lights already dimmed in preparation for the show to start. She leaned back in her plush chair and looked over at Cadance, where the younger princess was tapping her horn to her drink.
“Re-chilling it again?” Celestia lifted her own cup and checked the ice content. Most of the cubes still remained. “Where is everyone? The premiere is in less than five minutes.”
Cadance took a test sip of her drink and smiled when she found it to her liking. She relaxed in her own seat and shrugged. “I’m not sure, honestly. Luna said she and Twilight had something planned for dinner for all of us while we watched it. I assume they’ll be here soon.”
The words had barely left her mouth when the door opened and long trolley topped with a chromed serving lid entered. The trolley was being pushed by Luna herself and she quickly parked it in front of all of their chairs. Luna glanced up at the clock and grinned, lifting the covered serving tray off the trolley and onto a low table. “Huzzah! Beat the clock!”
“Only just.” Celestia pointed out. “Where is Twilight? The show is about to start, and you know she’ll want to tell us about all the mistakes and bloopers as they happen.”
“Or how the animators managed to draw her ponysona’s ass bigger by half a pixel or something.” Cadance offered with a giggle.
“Ladies,” Luna cautioned, “let us not throw stones. She’s an alicorn now, just as we are, and a more plump posterior comes with the power.” She slapped a palm hard against her hip. “None of us can fault her, or those that create representations of Twilight, for displaying that. Besides, it’s one of my favorite qualities she possesses.”
“Can we please stop talking about my butt like I’m not here?”
The three Princesses all looked at the serving dish, only two of them doing so in surprise. Luna chuckled and lifted the lid, revealing one Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, ‘children’s’ TV star and the luckiest mare alive, naked and covered in an assortment of sushi. She was surrounded by all the trimmings, dipping sauces, fresh ginger, wasabi and three color-coded sets of chopsticks.
Luna set the lid aside and took her seat, the overhead lights dimming further and the huge projection on the opposite wall came life. “Twilight’s Special Premiere Surprise Dinner is served! Grab your chopsticks and dig in.”
Cadance blinked, but she was the first to take the offered sticks and pluck a piece of nigiri from Twilight’s belly. “So...what’s this all about?”
“You know how stressed I get when a new season starts. I needed something to help me relax.”
“And the breathing exercise I taught you wasn’t enough?” Cadance dipped her sushi into a small bowl of soy sauce. “If I wasn’t so tickled over this—and getting free food out of it—I might be upset about that.”
“Oh stop, Cady.” Celestia took up her white chopsticks and some sashimi off of Twilight’s thigh. “Twilight was obviously under a lot of stress making sure everything went right.” She nodded to Twilight. “Isn’t that right?”
“Well...yeah. Now that it’s out for the world to see, I can finally kick back and relax some.” She glanced at the TV where her pony-self was just setting down in the hot-air balloon during the opening sequence. “Plus, you’ve been here without me for the last six months while I did voice overs and promos and all the meet and greets with the show’s fans. I wanted to show you all that I missed you all very much during that time.”
“That is quite admirable of you, Twilight” Luna leaned over the prone Princess. “Thinking of our feelings...our cravings...first, rather than basking in your rightly deserved fame.” She pinched a roll that sat on top of Twilight’s proud chest, causing Twilight to squirm.
Celestia giggled and took another piece of sashimi from Twilight’s body. “So what happens when the show is over and we’re out of food?”
“I get a bath.”
Celestia chuckled again. “Only if the three of us are invited.”
Luna nodded. “It HAS been a long six months without you.”
“And we’re always hungry again, an hour after eating sushi.” Cadance added with a leer, uncovering more of the Princess while a tale of ponies and ideologies played out on the screen.
“Almost, almost, almost!” With her hooves planted firmly on the floor, Twilight kept her focus fully on the ball she levitated—her little tongue sticking out as she concentrated. A few sputtering sparks fell from her horn as she pulled her tongue back in and gritted her teeth. Princess Celestia had left the room a few minutes ago in distress—something about a pony or something that Twilight had been too absorbed in her lesson to really listen to— though she had heard Princess Celestia tell her that she’d be back within the next hour and for her to continue to read the chapter they had been discussing. Twilight had tried—she really had— but at five years old, her attention span was far shorter than even a filly double her age. So when she had seen that globe behind her teacher’s lectern, well, what better chance to work on her levitation?
“Come on, come on, come on…” the ball wavered in her magical grasp, “No! No, stay up, stay up!” Twilight strained, but it was just too much. Five feet from the floor, her horn sparked out and the globe smashed into the ground, shattering into hundreds of pieces across the tiled floor.
It took exactly five seconds for two facts to hit Twilight harder than a buffalo at full charge. One, her magic was a lot weaker then she remembered and two, Princess Celestia’s globe, which was probably hundreds of years older than Twilight could ever hope to be, was laying on the floor, smashed into at least thirty three pieces. “Oh no, this is bad! This is really, really bad!”
Twilight grabbed at her ears and stared at the globe, as if trying to force time to go back to when it hadn’t been smashed. Unfortunately, time didn’t work that way, and the globe remained shattered.
“Okay, okay, I can fix this,” she said as her little voice rose with her panic. “I can! Option one: I run away and leave Equestria and become a... what did mommy call them? A gypsy pony… No, not a great option. Okay option two: I search the Princess’s desk for some type of paste and fix the globe!” Her eyes brighten. “Yes, that sounds much better!” With a nod to herself, she began searching Princess Celestia’s desk, causing various office supplies to fly from the drawers because of her search.
A worn sigh escaped Princess Celestia as she made her way back to her study. The fact that she had been taken from her lessons with Twilight for something as mind numbing as a complaint of social etiquette was enough to drive anypony batty. I swear, sometimes I think that the nobility would be unable to wipe themselves if I didn’t give them permission to do so.
A huff escaped her. At least she’d never have to worry about Twilight Sparkle acting like that in front of her. She glanced at the clock as she passed it by and winced. It had been over an hour since she had to leave Twilight alone but she knew the little filly was very studious. Well we can end the lesson a bit early. Maybe go outside and play hide and seek? Yes, that will be nice! With a smile back on her muzzle, Celestia opened the door to her study and stared at the sight in front of her. is it Twilight Sparkle sat on the floor with a haphazardly glued globe in front of her; her fur caked with paste. Celestia’s lips twitched as she stared at the sight.
“Twilight Sparkle?” She called gently to see the little filly’s head lift in shock, her eyes wide and her bottom lip trembling.
“I’m so sorry, Princess Celestia! I was just trying to practice my levitation! I didn’t mean to break it!” Twilight’s ears pinned back and bits of her mane sprang up. “Please don’t make me go away and become a gypsy pony!”
Celestia blinked a few times before a laugh burst from her muzzle.
The little filly lowered her gaze to the floor, her body quivering. “I-I’m so sorry, Princess Celestia.”
Getting her giggles under control, Celestia smiled down at her. “Oh Twilight! I would never send you away, especially just because you had an accident.”
Twilight sniffled, wiping her eyes with a pasty hoof. “R-Really?”
Celestia nodded and wrapped Twilight in a gentle, winged hug. “Really. Now; since you are going to need a bath anyways before bed, why don’t we go out to the garden and play hide and seek?”
Twilight immediately perked up, her tears gone just as fast. “Oh yes!” Her ears pinned back for a moment, a sheepish look playing on her face. “Um, Princess? Do you think that maybe…” Twilight gestured for Celestia to bend her neck down so she could whisper in her ear. A warm smile tugged at Celestia’s lips as she bent down to listen.
Minutes later, several guards were wondering if something had been added to the water as Princess Celestia galloped past them—a lavender foal on her back giggling wildly. “Giddy up Princess,” the filly squealed as she clung to Celestia’s mane.
One of the guards blinked before returning to stand next to his partner. “Did you see…”
The older guard gave a gruff shake of his head. “No, and neither did you.”
The back alley had putrid stench that made her lip curl. For a nanosec she wished her body didn’t have olfactory senses at all.
Trash and refuse littered the press-crete, collected against the brickface in knee-deep drifts. If the city’s cleaning routines were still operating, it had not been to this side of town in a while. as the neon lights of the larger, populated, alleys and byways faded into an uneasy sort of half darkness. Rats - at least she assumed they were rats or something genetically similar - moved in the deeper shadows cast by ancient rusted dumpsters and discarded bits of crumpled plasti-steel pieces of junked out vehicles. Dirty runoff water from the ever present rains ran in a sluggish stream down the middle of the alley and she was careful to not step in it as she ventured deeper into the underbelly of the city.
Twilight despised what Canterlot had become. The mountain it once perched on like some white and gold bird of paradise was gone. Reduced to a mound of it’s former self all in the name of progress and convenience. It barely even registered as a rise in elevation, the city was so layered on top of it. Here, at least, she could see the sky now and then between the buildings and sky-bridges that directed and ferried the city’s hundred million or so citizens around on their daily, pointless lives.
Twilight frowned, readjusting her thinking. She mustn’t look down on the ponies here. They were not intrinsically lesser than her. She was not some higher being, god-like in her power and ability in comparison. No matter what others might like to say. She was much more a dinosaur than these ponies that chose to live here as ponies just like them had chosen to do so for thousands and thousands of years. It was their choice to either join the Enlightened or not. If they did not, then that was their choice.
Choice is a powerful thing. It was choice that led her now, in the dark, though a fetid alleyway to a place she had not seen with her own eyes in more than seven centuries.
Twilight rounded the corner at the end of the little alley and stopped just outside the beam of light from a partially functional sign hanging low over a set of recessed doors. Between the doors a small kiosk made of plasti-steel with a thick plate of shatterproof, translucent crystal. Behind the glass, a dingy looking pony snored peacefully.
She scanned the building, her bio-enhancements pinging the local network for a full diagnosis of the structure. Twilight used old, cleared credentials for the access request. In part because she suspected the building wouldn’t recognise her current set and possibly, doing so might trigger older defenses buried under the faux-brick exterior to not attempt to atomize her body. She really didn’t fancy a walk back out here if she could avoid it.
The data stream told her everything was functioning within allowed parameters, if the energy consumption was a little high. It was the same standard info it would give any other system that came snooping around. Twilight ignored it and tapped deeper, her enhancements slipping past the security measures with ease. She was careful when she reached the real security armament, disabling the disrupters and force nets until she could reach the deepest, most hidden systems and routines. There she stopped and passively absorbed the data, examining it for signs of corruption or degradation. Anything more would be impolite.
Satisfied that everything seemed to be in order, Twilight walked up to the kiosk. She gave the pony inside a quick scan, confirming that he was a standard Earth Pony with only the minimal mandatory augmentations. She waited for his system to wake him up, taking a step back so that she would appear less threatening. She checked her social interaction protocol checklist on her HUD, stretching her lips into what she hoped was an appropriate smile as the stallion’s eyes fluttered open.
“I’m here to see the Oracle.” Twilight coughed, her voice low.
The pony blinked at her in incomprension, wiping a bit of drool from his chin. Her shook his head to clear it and tapped the button on his side of the plast-steel wall, a communication speaker buzzing to life. “What?”
“I’m here to see the Oracle.” Twilight repeated herself, a bit firmer this time, and stepped forward again so his organic eyes could see her clearly. “I have credits.”
“We don’t take credits here.” The kiosk pony set his jaw, his tone becoming aggressive. “It’s bits and bits only. We don’t take kindly to technocrat Enlightends or their cursed credits.”
Twilight stood her ground. Her enhancements caught him sending out a call through the local communications node of the local net. It was tagged emergency and being routed for the authorities. They would make this more complicated, so she intercepted the call and sent the stallion’s bio-enhancements a false ‘received’ notification. She could see his shoulders relax microscopically as soon as she did.
“I have no bits. I’m sorry. But I really must see the Oracle, it is vitally important.”
“I don’t care, filly! It’s bits or beat off!” He stood, trying to loom over her from inside his tiny castle.
“I’m sorry.” Twilight sighed, reminding herself again that it was choice that separated them. Choice that was driving her on to fix a mistake made long ago. Choice that chased her away centuries ago. So, she made the choice that the pony was going to walk home tonight, wherever that might be.
She reached forward, the end of her hoof breaking apart into several mechanized grippers, and grabbed the kiosk wall. The plasti-steel screeched, crunching under her hoof before the bolts and seals holding it collapsed under the greater pressure and a large jagged piece tore away. The stallion shouted, falling back from the small stool he had been sitting on, his own bio-enhancements firing out call after automated call for help. Twilight blocked them all.
“P-postphysical?! Here?” He scrambled back, pushing himself into the back wall that was covered with old printouts and piled high with the used containers of a few years worth of fast food. “What do you want?”
“I already told you.” Twilight’s voice was calm, unstrained as she tossed aside the wall and stepped into the kiosk. “Please get out of my way. I do not wish to harm you.” She applied a smile to her face and checked her interaction protocol again to make sure it was more reassuring than psychotic. Whichever the effect, it got the stallion moving and he dived out of the kiosk and into the night, leaving her behind.
Twilight didn’t waste any time and ripped the printouts off the wall with a sweep of her hoof. Under that was a layer of plaster and faux-brick which she brushed aside along with the used fast food containers. Behind that, her true prize lay, a molecularly reinforced malmetal bulkhead with a tiny slot for coded entry.
Twilight moved closer, a similar slot in her chest opening and a her neural interface node extended. She jacked into the slot on the wall and felt a slight sort of tug as her consciousness left her body and reformed in a subspace reality that was modeled after the ancient Canterlot of her birth. In front of her rose the mountain, taller here than it ever really was, and on it’s side sat Canterlot Castle, bright and shining in the immortal noonday sun.
Twilight smiled for the first time in a very long time. Her hooves, flesh and blood so far as her mind could determine, clopping happily as she headed for the castle and the pony she knew would be there. Maybe now she could say she was sorry and could come back into the fold, back into the embrace of those she loved.
“Ugh. My head…” Celestia blearily woke to find herself strapped to a table, several diodes attached to her horn, wings, and hooves. Craning her neck, she noticed the leads trailing over to a machine several meters away from her, on the other side of a clear panel. Comprehension was slow to come to her. “Where… am I?”
“You’re in my lab,” a voice answered her question. Celestia’s head whirled toward the voice’s source. A short, purple unicorn stood, eyeing a checklist floating in her magic. A small pair of rectangular glasses sat on the bridge of her muzzle as she scrutinized the paper. “I’ve brought you here to help me with some science.”
“What… why?” Celestia’s mind was lethargic. Thoughts came, but before she could vocalize them, they slipped away.
“Because performing experiments on myself isn’t the best idea.” The mare turned and looked behind herself, her lab coat fluttering as her tail twitched.
“Who…” Celestia’s voice trailed off as her muscle control failed entirely. Her neck slowly slipped back against the table.
“I am Twilight Sparkle. And you are my pretty little test subject.” Twilight finally moved, over to the machine. She picked up a sheaf of paper the machine was steadily recording on, analyzing the results.
“Your vitals are good, despite the anesthetic. Good. That means my first experiment was a success!” She hopped excitedly, lifting her body just scant inches off the ground. She turned back to Celestia. “Now for the other ones…”
She approached Celestia as the older mare shivered.
“Why… me?” Celestia managed to whisper.
“Why not?” Twilight replied casually as she stepped behind Celestia. Something clanged loudly.
Something cold prodded her flank, just between her cutie mark and her left wing. Twilight muttered, more to herself than to Celestia, “I should take some samples first… just to establish a baseline.”
A prick of pain flooded Celestia’s senses. She managed to raise her neck and crane her head around to see Twilight had jabbed a needle into her and was drawing blood into a vial.
Satisfied with half a vial, Twilight removed the needle and smiled. “That’s a good sample.” She stored the vial away, out of sight.
Twilight looked to her checklist and ticked off two items. Another floated up, with a blue liquid in it. “Now, this should restore your energy, but not your mind.” She floated a second and third vial, yellow and orange respectively. “The yellow should restore your mind, but not energy. The orange one should restore both.” Twilight floated the blue and yellow ones to Celestia’s face. “I’m giving you the choice. Pick which one you want to try first.”
As the unicorn waited for Celestia to chose, she moved back and behind the clear panelling. Celestia, meanwhile struggled to remember which was which. Eventually, her nose bumped the yellow one. Twilight floated the blue one away and retrieved a new needle. She spoke as the needle was fit to the vial, “Experiment One - Part Two: Alicorn test subject chose mind restoration vial. Administering now.”
The needle jabbed into Celestia’s side, exactly where the previous one had drawn blood. A cool rushing sensation filled her and after a moment, the fog on her mind lifted. Celestia’s energy hadn’t returned, but she could think freely now. The mare spoke, struggling lightly at her restraints, “Why are you doing this?” Celestia struggled to light her horn, and the machine next to Twilight started beeping.
Twilight shrugged as she turned to look at the readings. “Because I’m not an alicorn, and I want to know more about them.”
Celestia shot back, “You could have just asked!”
“Would you have agreed in the first place? I want to see how much more powerful an alicorn is than a regular pony. The amount of anesthetic I needed to successfully neutralize you would have killed ten ponies. Would you liked to have known, and spoiled a control group?”
“It would have been nice!” Celestia struggled at her restraints. “When I get out of here…”
“Don’t count on it.” Twilight snidely replied. “I’ve enchanted those restraints myself. There’s only one way to get out, and that’s if I release you.” The machine beeped more frequently. “The table is more likely to break than those restraints. You’re here until I’m done with you. Provided you survive, I will release you.”
A slam on the table signalled Celestia’s change of tactic. Her hoof impacted the table, denting it. Twilight’s surprise was apparent as the glasses fell off her muzzle. “How is that…” she quickly turned to the machine, pouring over its results. Reading for just a few seconds, her ears pinned back.
A growl emanated from the center of the room. “I will not be held here against my will. You will not cage me!” Celestia didn’t know where the energy was coming from, but eagerly used it. There was a muffled pop and the beeping stopped. Each hoof slammed into the table, denting the six-inch thick steel. “These bindings will not contain me!”
Terrified now, Twilight backed up. Her perfectly-enchanted restraints snapped exactly as Twilight reached the stairwell. She quickly raced up the stairs, the machine’s readings following behind.
“Run all you like, Twilight Sparkle. You cannot hide from me.” Celestia’s wings unfurled and flapped powerfully, shaking off the various devices attached to her. She looked up and took wing, straight into the ceiling. It crumbled as Celestia slammed into it, letting the alicorn pass through with naught but a thought.
Twilight emerged from the basement to a sight she never expected. As the door opened, the floor exploded. Where her desk usually was, now was the alicorn from the basement. The alicorn’s flowing hair now raged as she stalked forward.
The unicorn cowered in fear as the larger alicorn almost literally towered over her. “I’m sorry. I’msorry I’msorry I’msorryI’msorry!” She curled into a ball and covered her head with her hooves!
Celestia craned her neck down, sternly glaring at the cowering unicorn. She lit her horn and removed the needle, making sure Twilight saw.
Twilight clenched her eyes shut as the needle aimed at her. She knew this was it, she was dead.
Something tapped her on the nose gently. “Gotcha! I win!” floated to her ears. She opened her eyes to see the back end of the vial up against her nose. She frowned as she uncurled from herself.
Celestia stood there, her mane and tail no longer raging in their unknown wind, smiling. “I must admit you almost had me beat, Twilight.”
The little filly cheered. “I’ll get you next time, Princess!” She hopped, eagerly hugging Celestia’s leg.
“I’m sure you will, Twilight.” Celestia’s horn lit again and both the basement and the room they were in returned to their original states, before Celestia had crashed through.
After cleaning up and calming down, Celestia and Twilight cuddled on a big blanket in Celestia’s room. The larger mare spoke softly, “Now, what was today’s big lesson, Twilight?”
“Never just take things from others. Always ask first.” Twilight replied simply.
“And?” Celestia quirked an eyebrow.
Twilight ‘hmmed’ and thought for a moment before responding, “Always make sure to ask before performing any experiments on anypony.”
“Or anything. With Equestria, never know what might actually be alive.” Celestia’s horn lit and suddenly the blanket covered them both completely. Twilight squealed in joy as Celestia tickled her in their confines.
Celebrating our first Lightning Round in a long while, we have JKinsley writing a mature story. As usual, head over to Hot for Teacher and check it out. Content warning: BDSM and toys
A new participant in the Lightning Round, but not a new participant to Twilestia, welcome NorrisThePony!
Thump.
There it was again. This time, the deafening sound of the sky cracking was accompanied by the ceiling above her doing quite the same. Twilight had to leap out of the way as a heavy bit of the castle roof tumbled above, striking the marble floor and exploding.
Canterlot Castle was falling.
Twilight did her best not to care as she sprinted through the imploding corridors. She had bigger priorities, after all.
Fallen bits of mortar and other structural debris blocked the way to the throne room before her, but she dispatched that with a blast of her magic and a few powerful flaps of her wings carried her over the rubble and into the blinding ocean of light that was the throne room.
The sound of pulsating magic was deafening, but not as loud as Twilight’s screaming voice.
“Celestia!”
For a moment, the pulsating magic wavered.
Then, it resumed with added intensity.
“Celestia, you can’t keep trying! Won’t you at least listen to me?!”
Once more, the same wavering in the pulses.
Celestia was thinking. Rationalizing. Collating. Resisting.
Once more, the pulsating magic intensified.
“We all miss you, Celestia!” Twilight screamed. “I miss you, Luna misses you, Cadance misses you!”
When Celestia spoke, it was without volume.
“I can’t give up, Twilight Sparkle. I can’t.”
Twilight grimaced a little as Celestia’s voice cut into her mind—not that it was painful, simply a strange and disorienting sensation. When she replied, she did so aloud, and still at a scream.
“It’s time to, Celestia! It’s time to let go!”
“I can keep it together! Just a little more time…”
“You’re keeping together a barren rock, Celestia.” Twilight’s head sunk. She didn’t have the energy to scream anymore, but somehow she knew Celestia would hear her. “There’s nothing to keep together anymore.”
“Don’t say that! There’s always a way! We’ve always found a way!”
“Yes.” Twilight nodded. “And we did it together, Celestia. Luna and Cadance are already gone. I… have to follow. I want to follow. But I can’t leave you here, holding together some lonely rock in space for the rest of your damn life!”
“Then stay! Help me! You’re right, we can keep Equus alive together! The way we always have!”
“Celestia… I know it’s hard. I know because you said the same to me when…”
Twilight trailed off. Five faces. Five tombstones.
Anger, loneliness, and then peace.
“...but you need to let go, Celestia. Stop fighting!”
Silence. Celestia’s magic continued to pulse, the ocean of white and yellow in the brightest shades forcing Twilight to squint. There wasn’t a pony before her, simply a stubborn miasma of incandescent energy.
“Celestia…” Twilight choked. “You know why I’m here. You know cause I told you last time I was here. I’m… I’m sorry... ”
“No! Don’t be! Don’t finish that! Please, Twilight, help me! We can do this together, I know we can… just a little…”
“Goodbye, Celestia,” Twilight said. Firmly, and softly. A whisper into a void of soundlessness that she knew Celestia could hear anyways. She flapped her wings, once, twice, three times.
She passed over Canterlot, or, what was left of Canterlot. Centuries had been cruel to the city, and not even Celestia’s stubborn magic could change that.
Before long, Equus showed its ragged curvature, missing too many pieces in too many places, like a half-completed jigsaw puzzle.
Twilight continued to flap her wings, forcing herself not to look back. Eventually, she did though, and when she did she was surprised by how much distance she had already placed between her and the pale blue little tennis ball.
She was glad she looked back, though, because the sight of Equus collapsing into itself truly was a great sight. She blinked in bewilderment, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her, if she was experiencing some wishful, delusional hallucination.
When a flare of yellow magic erupted next to her, she knew she wasn’t. For several moments, Twilight was speechless even if she desperately wished to speak, but as usual Celestia was quicker on the draw.
“I hate it when you do that,” the white alicorn said simply. “Fine. You win, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight did not speak. Together in the dark abyss of space, the two alicorns embraced, instead, and stood watching the final dance of rock and light that was home.
When it was over, Celestia was once again the first voice in the darkness.
“Well?” she asked, as if proposing they go off for ice cream. “Onwards?”
Twilight nodded, and together they flew onwards into the darkness.
Twilight slumped in her throne, one leg thrown up on the huge map table and a book floated above her. The cover was a colorful picture of a tan colored pegasus mare flying toward a cat-like creature that stood on top of a ziggurat surrounded by other actual felines. All of them snarling viciously at the oncoming Daring Doo.
It was her favorite Daring Doo story in her entire library. One she’d read multiple times over the years and each time was a fun romp through the jungle dodging angry natives, death traps, poisonous bugs and of course, the aforementioned cats. Having met the real life Daring Doo gave her further insight to the adventure, made clear the parts that were real and the parts that were heavily embellished or edited. It made the read even more fun, like a treasure hunt.
Right now, however, it wasn’t doing anything more than hovering above her. She wanted to open it. She really did. But she knew if she did that, she’d be allowing herself to be sucked into the story, distracted by the narrative. She’d be hiding. Giving up—or giving into temptation to ignore her problems.
Primarily the problem that was sitting across the table from her. The problem that was going on and on—and on and on and on—about the upcoming meeting with Princess Celestia. About how the Princess was personally coming to Ponyville to speak to them both. The problem that was outright gushing about how much of an honor it was, how amazing it was that such an opportunity had arisen. A problem that just had to show the Princess her new mane-cut and tell the Princess how much she’d changed and blah blah blah…
A problem named Starlight Glimmer.
Twilight turned her Daring Doo book over, her eyes scanning the synopsis without actually reading it. The desire to tune out Starlight’s fangirling completely was strong, but she resisted it. Princess Celestia would be disappointed in her if she arrived to find Twilight ignoring the mare she’d turned into a new friend.
It’s not like I don’t tune out Pinkie Pie or the other girls from time to time. There’s precedent. I mean...it’s just so annoying! Twilight tilted the book, peeking over it at Starlight. The mare was still talking to herself, her nose in yet another book about Princess Celestia’s legendary exploits. The more the filly read, the more enamored she became, the more Starlight...hero worshipped.
Listen to her. Thinking Princess Celestia is coming here just to talk to her. Pfft. Twilight tilted the book back to hide her eyes rolling. The Princess is really coming here to see me. She’s coming here to discuss Princess stuff with the other Princess here. Namely, me! Talking to you is just convenient...a checkbox to tick off her itinerary.
Twilight smirked, her mind running over the other items on Celestia’s to-do list. After the little meet and greet came dinner. Check. Dessert of chocolate dipped strawberries on the western veranda while they watched the sunset together. Check. A quiet gathering of just the two of them in the library with the newest books she’d acquired. Check. Passionate make-out session on top of those stacks of books. Check. Lovemaking that made them both walk funny in the morning. Double check!
Twilight sighed, her smirk going soft and mushy at the idea of finishing off that particular item with an all night snuggle session in the Princess’ warm embrace. She could hardly wait until Celestia arrived. Which shouldn’t be too much longer. Surely she could resist opening Daring Doo’s fifth book and silencing Starlight’s inane prattle. Just a little longer.
Daring Doo creeped through the wet, steaming jungle. Her hoofsteps as light as a feather as she navigated the underbrush toward the foot of the huge stone ziggurat. She lifted a huge fan leaf up, tipping warm rain water off of it and onto her safari hat. The ancient temple loomed just ahead of her. On the side shaded from the sun’s early morning rays, narrow steps lead up from the base to the summit, and at every dozenth or so step, sat an immense panther or lean jaguar.
Daring grit her teeth in frustration. She couldn’t fly in with her damaged wing, and going up the steps was a one way ticket to some hungry predator’s stomach. She knew she was going to have to find a different way in. A way that would likely be filled with traps, spiders, snakes and mummies.
Twilight grinned, mouthing Daring’s dialogue. “Why did it have to be mummies?”
“Because the tribes of ponies that lived in that jungle valley followed a funeral practice of mummification for generations. Possibly due to the advanced decomposition rate in rain forests like that.”
Twilight blinked, her mind skipping a beat at the unexpected insertion, which caused her magic to falter for a moment and she dropped the book onto her face. She sat up, polite giggling coming from the other side of the table. Twilight gaped, her cheeks flushing at the look Princess Celestia was shooting her.
“I’m sorry, Twilight.” Celestia grinned behind her hoof. “But I couldn’t resist. I know how engrossed you get in those stories.”
“I...but...why…” Twilight rubbed her eyes. “How long have you been here?”
“Not very long, actually. I was just finishing up a pleasant conversation with Starlight here. I’m very proud of you for helping her start down the path of friendship and harmony.” The Princess turned and looked down at the pony sitting on the floor in front of her. “And please do forgive her, Starlight. I’m sure Twilight wasn’t ignoring you on purpose. She is just very focused when it comes to books.”
Starlight nodded, but she shot Twilight a look that said she was skeptical about that explanation. “If you say so, Princess. I really was enjoying the opportunity to speak to you...alone. It’s such an honor to be in your presence!” She smiled brightly up at Celestia and leaned a little closer.
Twilight scowled, squinting at Starlight’s back. Don’t think I missed that little pause, or the inflection, OR that little lift you gave your tail when she said your name, Starlight. She stood up and lifted the book off the floor where it had settled. Twilight dismissed it with a flash of teleportation magic. She didn’t need to use teleportation to put it away, but the flash had the effect she wanted though. She painted a happy smile of her face when Starlight looked her way.
“Yes, it is an honor to talk to the Princess directly. She’s a very busy pony, obviously. You know that of course, don’t you, Starlight? Of course you do! Don’t be silly! It’s great! Everything...is...great…” Twilight’s eye twitched.
“Wha?” Starlight raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know—”
“Sure you do!” Twilight trotted around the table, her smile firmly locked on her muzzle. The Princess is busy busy busy! Busy ponies have things to do. Busy Princess things. To do. She has a Princess to do.”
“Wait…”
“She has Princess things to do, Starlight!” Twilight’s eye twitched again when the unicorn leaned away from her and closer to Celestia. “Can’t take up her time, now can you? We. Can we. That’s what I meant.”
“Perhaps,” Celestia intoned calmly, stepping in between Starlight and Twilight, “it is time Starlight joined with your other friends, Twilight? I seem to recall they were all meeting at Sugarcube Corner for sweets and dinner?”
“Yes!” Twilight and Starlight said in unison, the unicorn of the two jumping to her hooves.
“Then you had better get a move on.” Celestia smiled and winked at Starlight. “Pinkie Pie has a peculiar talent at making sweets she bakes vanish.”
“Ah! You’re right, I should get going.” Starlight bowed to Celestia gracefully, then shot Twilight another look before she turned and galloped out the door.
Once they were alone, Twilight sighed exaggeratedly. “Sheesh! I like Starlight, but I thought she’d never leave. She’s been going on and on about meeting you in pony all day. Reading books about you. Talking endlessly about the amazing Princess Celestia. As if I don’t already know how amazing you are? Can you believe...why are you smiling at me like that?”
She tilted her head up at Celestia grin and her silent shakes of laughter. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Heheh...Twilight, doesn’t Starlight remind you of somepony?”
Twilight frowned, her mind turned that over. “No. Not anypony I can think of.”
“Not even yourself?” Celestia chuckled and put her wing on Twilight’s shoulder.
“Me?” Twilight scoffed. “That’s silly. I was never like that! I mean...I mean...oh goddess.”
Twilight blanched. “Was I really that bad?”
Celestia nodded sagely, lowering her head to nip playfully at Twilight’s ears. “Yes. You were that bad. But don’t worry about it, my love. There is still plenty of time for Starlight to start looking at you that way.”
“Hey!”
“I’m teasing!” Celestia nickered softly. “Now...is that garlic bread I smell?”
Twilight blushed, holding her ears back and nodded. She sighed, her own wing reaching up to lay across Celestia’s flank. Oh yeah...the checklist...how can I resist?
Anoter new participant in the Lightning Round, but still not a new participant to Twilestia, welcome corvipony!
Twilight sat in her study one stormy night. Listening to the rain hit the roof of the old treehouse library, the rain always made her thoughts wander and most times she found herself thinking about Her… Celestia. She knew her well, and had this little fantasy that one day they were meant to be but Twilight knew her better.
She knew her too well to keep her heart on her sleeve so she vowed to resist her fantasies, her hopes and her dreams. Sometimes though she swore Celestia would look at her like she knew she was the mare of Twilight’s dreams. But she was likely just hoping too hard that it was meant to be
With a sigh Twilight took a long sip of the tea she had at her desk and closed the book she had been staring at for the last hour without really reading it, lost in her own head. She looked at her teapot and realized it was the one Celestia had gotten her for her birthday a year past and gently ran a hoof over the smooth clay and remembered that day. Over the years the Princess had shared many cups of tea her protégé and they both shared that love of the leaf.
She wondered should she give it one try? Or should just resist? She also wondered if it was better to have loved and lost than not tried love at all? She stood from the oaken stool and paced her study trying to think and decide what was the best course of action on this matter. She thought about it a long long time but the truth remained, she couldn’t believe she could be so blind. She imagined it, one look at the scene she imagined was all it took, first time she laid her eyes on Celestia it was all her dreams came true and she knew she never wanted to let her go, and she was the only one for her. Celestia never let her down before so why not take the chance? She paced the floor more as the rain fell and she noticed something wet on her face. She was crying at the thought of being able to hold Celestia and never letting her go but… She realized that she would have to at some point, for she was just a mortal unicorn and the alicorn had ruled for over 1000 years, so even though she couldn’t stop the rain and couldn’t stop herself from loving her. She could stop her herself from hurting her love by leaving her alone when she passed on, so with tears streaming down her face she vowed to resist her own heart.
Yet another returning author, Ultra1437 brings us yet another tale in his efforts to participate in the most LR of any of us.
It had been a long day. Finally back in her own castle, Twilight wanted nothing more than to relax. After grabbing a bottle of wine and one of her favorite novels, she practically flopped down onto her favorite cushion, intent on doing just that. Her weary body eased into a laying position as she opened the book to the bookmarked page.
A small pop sounded in the room as the cork unsealed the bottle, the liquid’s smell wafting up to her nose quickly. Fate had deigned to intervene for the day, it seemed, as somepony knocked on her door.
“Ugh, I just want to relax…” she groaned as she set the bottle down, closed the book, and put far more effort than it felt like she should have to stand back up.
The day’s stress catching up to her left her temper short. As she reached the door she launched into the start of a rant, “I swear, if this is some kind of–”
As she opened it and saw who’d knocked, the words died on her lips and her ears pinned back. ‘Oh, horseapples.’
“Some kind of what, Twilight?” The voice belonged to her previous mentor-turned-kind-of-equal, Princess Celestia. The large mare stood, looking alert and smiling faintly, yet still equally as tired as Twilight herself. The small smile on Celestia’s face seemed to brighten Twilight’s mood a little.
“Nothing… It’s just been a long day, Princess.” Twilight stepped aside, allowing Celestia entrance. The door swung shut softly, behind the older princess.
As it clicked, a bottle floated out from behind Celestia into Twilight’s view. “Twilight, I had hoped we could relax together this evening.” Twilight fixed her former-mentor with a questioning glance, noting that Celestia had chosen a particularly strong rum, not a wine like she’d picked herself. “It’s not often an alicorn is born, nor is it often that a foal that powerful nearly destroys an entire capital city.”
Twilight nodded, before floating a second cushion out for Celestia. “Yes, I was hoping to relax tonight, too,” she said, plopping down on her own cushion, and setting the second down next to her own.
“Well, why not do it together?” Celestia’s voice wasn’t commanding, nor did it have it’s usual temper, it was almost… pleading. She fixed her eyes on Twilight’s, also it seemed they were asking, not commanding, or stating. Celestia really wanted to relax with her, but only if Twilight was really okay with it.
“That sounds wonderful, Prin-Celestia.” Twilight shook her head softly as Celestia laid down on the offered cushion. “Sorry, I keep forgetting you want me to drop the title.” She brought up her own bottle and took a small sip of the fruity wine, not bothering with a glass, much to Celestia’s surprise. “I can’t say I would ever turn down the chance to spend time with you.” Twilight closed her eyes, and nodded as if to emphasise the statement.
That piqued Celestia’s attention. “Oh? You want to spend time with an old mare like me?”
“I would.” Twilight sipped from her wine again before a realization hit her. “Where’s Luna? You two seem to be attached at the flank it seems.”
Celestia’s eyes widened at the comment. Before she could answer, Twilight grinned widely and laughed. The tension in the room seemed to break at the joke, and Celestia smiled and joined in.
After a few moments, they calmed down and Celestia spoke, “Sometimes, I can see how one might come to that conclusion. To answer your question, she’s back in Canterlot, overseeing the night.” Celestia drank from her own bottle, the smell much stronger and pungent, overwhelming Twilight’s wine.
Twilight nodded again, the bags under her eyes showing just a little more. “Good. I hope she’s well after today…”
The two spent most of an hour in silence, occasionally drinking from their bottles, each just enjoying the other’s mere presence.
As the alcohol started to affect her, Twilight’s thoughts turned from introspective to comparing herself to Celestia. The perfect princess who really wasn’t, but strived to do the best she could. Just like herself. Celestia occasionally looked out the window toward Canterlot, as if expecting the mountainside city to fall down because she wasn’t there.
“You know, after today, I know how you feel sometimes.” Both ponies were surprised at the words. Twilight was more surprised the words were her own.
“Know how I feel? I’m sorry, Twilight, I don’t quite know what you mean.” Celestia’s eyes met Twilight’s, a concerned look on Celestia’s face.
“Today, I couldn’t fix the problem myself.” She held up a forehoof as Celestia’s mouth opened. “I know I was more than powerful enough to solve the problem through brute force, but I couldn’t use that much power without hurting or possibly killing somepony.” She took another swig of wine before continuing, “You control the sun, and the moon occasionally, but for all the strength you can bring to bear, it comes at the cost of possibly hurting your subjects if you use enough of it.”
Celestia thought of the major events in the last decade, Nightmare Moon, Discord twice, Chrysalis, Tirek, even the storm earlier today. She shuddered as she thought of Nightmare Moon, she couldn’t exorcise the spirit from her sister without possibly vaporising her. Her ears pinned back as she thought of Discord, who could bend reality to his will at any moment. A shiver ran down her spine, her blood feeling cold as she remembered Chrysalis threatened her in Canterlot, where she couldn’t use much of her power without threatening the city’s stability or population. A spike of rage grew in her breast as she thought of Tirek, a monster who was the only one she could truly face, but their plan demanded she give her power to Twilight instead of fighting the centaur, to keep it from his hands. Like with Canterlot, she could have banished the storm with the sun’s power and warmth, but it would have had much more dire consequences, like flooding the area on the ecosystem, than trying to delay the storm for Twilight and her friends with her sister.
Twilight watched Celestia seem to shrink, the larger mare slouching as she seemed to pull in on herself, curling up slightly.
Celestia tried to choose her words carefully. “I… Yes. There have been far too many days I failed to protect my little ponies. Each time it happened, they insulted and slandered myself for weeks.” Celestia blinked a few times. Why was the room suddenly so blurry. “They were right.” She sniffled once. “I couldn’t protect them, but what they didn’t know was if I did what they wanted, Canterlot wouldn’t be standing. Nor would the Everfree.” She took a swig from her rum, the alcohol’s burn helping steel her resolve. “My sister likely wouldn’t be alive. Discord would likely be ruling Equestria, or Tirek if he’d gotten free.” The tears started flowing freely. “I only want what’s best for them, but I’ve failed multiple times now. Maybe I should step down and let you and Luna lead. That’s what the majority of the naysayers want anyways.”
A wing fell over Celestia’s back. She looked to see Twilight had moved over and was doing her best to comfort the much larger mare. “Shh. Don’t say that. I had just a taste of what you’ve likely felt for years.” She nuzzled under Celestia’s chin comfortingly. “I’m here for you. No matter what you need.” She looked Celestia in the eyes, going as far as using a hoof to force Celestia to turn her head. “Day or night. I don’t care if you have to wake me up, or if I’m in the middle of something. If you need to talk, vent, or whatever else, I’m here for you.”
Celestia’s eyes widened as Twilight nuzzled back up against her. “I… Thank you, Twilight.” A hoof found its way around Twilight’s withers, squeezing her into a hug. “I offer the same promise. If you need me, I will be there.”
Twilight let herself be hugged. “For you? It’s never a problem, Celestia.” She brought their drinks up, floating Celestia’s to her. “How about a toast?”
“To what?” Celestia asked softly.
“Shared misery?” Both ponies laughed softly.
Twilight felt more than saw Celestia’s nod. “Alright.” She clinked her bottle against Twilight’s. “To shared misery.”
Again with old Twilestia hands trying their first Lightning Round, welcome MegatronsPen
She speaks but Celestia merely nods.
It’s hard for her to understand why but there is always a certain limit. A limit she cannot control nor can she fully understand.
When it comes to the workings of the world as a whole there is nothing but clarity. There is nothing but the truth.
A truth she cannot touch, nor can she take.
There is always a moment in her life when she wants to take what she wants and yet in this instance there is nothing.
There is nothing.
Celestia used her magic to lift the teacup to her lips and sip, while Twilight continued on in her incessant rambling.
Eyes flicked to the younger lips and so did they lift to the elder eyes above. The sparkling things above were but an annoying; yet welcomed direction for her attention.
“I mean, don’t find it somewhat amazing that-”
Not as amazing you.
A clenched heart caused Celestia to incline a hoof to her chest, and for her to regard a concerned Twilight.
“Is something wrong? Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Celestia smiled.
“Are you sure? You look… Princess…”
“Are you not a Princess yourself?” Celestia remarked.
“Well, yes--”
With a nod. “Then it is fine.”
“O-okay… well…” Twilight exhaled a sigh. “The thing is--”
“Can I tell you something, Twilight?”
“S-sure!” Twilight approached, concern etched on her features. “What’s wrong?”
Another new face to the Lightning Round and just getting started with Twilestia, here's an entry from Twelve Song!
This situation was completely new to Twilight. The candle flame flickered, the light for more than aesthetic in the dim light of the restaurant. She took in a deep breath, tasting the aroma from the food in front of her. The wine held aloft in the magenta glow of her magic was not helping to calm her in the foreign territory, either.
Dates. She could do dates. Go out with a pony and do something you both enjoy or try something new. The date itself wasn’t a problem. Nor was it the pony across from her. Twilight and Celestia had been in a relationship for nine months, two weeks, and five days, after all. She had learned to relax fully around her date.
It was, more than anything, the stares. Sure, ponies had starred when she had been the Princess’ personal student, and then when she had graduated to princesshood herself, but those had all died down. The two had been able to keep news of their more intimate relationship kept to their inner circle for nine months and two weeks, until a picture of a rather chaste kiss had made it to the press.
Now all eyes in the restaurant were on them. They had been to this restaurant before, just the two of them, on a date very similar to this. It had been very pleasant, with Celestia teasing Twilight, causing her to blush in the way only she could, and they had returned to Celestia’s chambers after.
Now, though, every move they made, every small flicker of their magic, was taken in by prying eyes. With a sigh, Celestia’s fork softly clattered against the plate in front of her. “Twilight?”
Twilight looked up, realizing she had been lost in her thoughts when she saw Celestia’s empty wine cup. “Hmm?” She shifted in her seat, shuffling her wings.
Celestia smiled. “You’re uncomfortable. What’s say we loosen you up some?”
It took Twilight longer than she would have liked to understand what exactly Celestia meant, and by that time, she had already leaned midway over the table.
“Everyone’s watching. Imagine the press in the morning.” Twilight could hear her heart pounding in her ears just thinking about it, and her breath starting coming in shorter and shorter gasps.
Celestia must have seen the panic in the tightness of her eyes or the lay of her ears, because she backed up, just a smidge. “Let the press be the press. If we are to be together, then Equestria should be used to us being a couple.” Her ears flicked forward and she took a breath. “It was going to happen eventually. We should give them the show they’re looking for. Look at me, love.”
After another quick breath, she did. Looking at Celestia calmed her in ways the breathing hadn’t. The flowing mane, the purple eyes, the face that she had loved since before she really understood what love was. Another breath, this one slow and steadying. “It’s okay. We can just leave, if you would like.” Celestia’s smile told of other things she would like to say, her posture of what leaving was sure to lead to, her eyes twinkling with untold anticipation, and suddenly, Twilight didn’t care as much about the ponies around them. It didn’t help that Celestia had taken that moment to lightly rub her hoof, either. A brief moment of silence let Twilight deliberate.
Unconsciously fluffing her wings, Twilight grinned. “You know, exhibitionism is something I’ve never understood. Maybe it’s one of those things you have to have hooves on experience with?”
She glanced around the restaurant, realizing they now had the attention of over half the patrons and a few of the waitstaff, and had yet to do anything. Her heart started racing again, but she pushed the panic down. She could do this. Just this once. It wasn’t like the opportunity presented itself everyday.
Yet another familiar face, welcome back Foals Errand!
Twilight frowned, as she tapped her hoof along with the music that was playing. The Grand Galloping Gala. Twilight now knew why it was so boring. Oh well, I got to help plan it this year, so I was able to fix some things and well... She watched several of her friends on the dance floor, the majority of the nobles having been scared off earlier in the night by either Discord or his date. The after party was shaping up to be a lot of fun, though!
Celestia stood next to Twilight, attempting to catch her eye, but every time she managed to, Celestia would incline her head toward the dance floor, and Twilight would look away. Celestia huffed a bit, but continued to watch over the other dancers until Discord came over.
“My Lady Celestia.” Discord bowed, which didn’t even appear to be mocking before offering his paw to her. “Would you care to dance?”
Celestia looked over to where Twilight was staring at the floor and closed her eyes before turning to Discord and smiled. “I’d love to.” With that said, she allowed Discord to lead her onto the dance floor and wrapped her fore hooves around his shoulders before standing up on her hind legs as he led her in a close but very fast dance.
Don’t look Twilight, don’t… Twilight looked up as she heard Celestia’s laugh over the music. Her eyes contracted as she saw Discord and Celestia both laughing their close dance an example of something Twilight knew she could never do. Not even for Celestia. Without even noticing, Twilight took a step out onto the dance floor, her wings trembling as she looked up at Discord and Celestia until she was noticed.
Celestia beamed before dropping onto all four hooves and held her right forehoof out toward Twilight, who hesitated, causing Celestia to finally grab Twilight and pull her out onto the dance floor. Slowly, Twilight began moving her hooves back and forth staring at the floor until Celestia lifted her chin.
“Twilight, what are you doing?” Celestia smiled as she slowly moved her hooves in the same manner
“D-dancing?” Twilight weakly replied as Celestia grinned down at her smaller lover.
“Well, then don’t look back down. Just keep your eyes on me.” Celestia began moving her shoulders along with the music tossing her head and wiggling her rump.
Twilight stared wide eyed at her while mimicking exactly what she was doing. “You’re holding back… I know you are.”
Celestia added a few spins, spreading her wings and catching Twilight in her forearms. As she danced around her, the few moves Twilight had been mimicking from Celestia combining with Celestia’s new dance to form a dance which had the other ponies stop and simply watch. “Twilight, I love you, dance with me?”
Twilight looked into Celestia’s eyes and nodded grinning as they put on a show. I’ll always dance with you, Tia.
