A Waste of My Time
I had always been a pony that had lived the high life. After all, I had been to many important dinners and they were all the same…boring and dull. It seems for only a moment that every time I would go to these important functions, I would experience the same thing over and over and over again.
But tonight was perhaps the worst of them all, when I, Princess Celestia, had come to the castle of my former student and youngest equal, Princess Twilight Sparkle, with the hopes of meeting her student, Starlight Glimmer. Here, I would sit and spend my night waiting for an important engagement that would never happen.
How did it all start, you say? Well, it all started when Twilight had asked me to come to her castle for an important dinner and I, for one, was looking forward to it. I had met Starlight Glimmer for the first time when she was just a filly, looking for a chance to be mentored by someone like me. For a while, she tried her best, trying to be close to her friend, Sunburst. Sadly, she couldn't keep up to his level and left to pursue her ideal of a society where everypony's cutie mark was all the same, much to my reluctance.
Now, I was happy at the fact that she was in the process of a second chance under the tutelage of Twilight Sparkle, a pony that had gone far to where she was today. This was supposed to be a night of reuniting and catching up on how Starlight was progressing, but of course, it wasn't to be.
Instead, I arrived to only the silence of a large dining hall, fully decorated with streamers and a banner that had my picture as well as Starlight's. The silence of course was only broken by the sounds of an already melting ice sculpture of a pony that was part of the decoration.
"Where exactly is Starlight?" I thought to myself, my eyes looking over to the spot where she was supposed to be. "Something is not right and I want to know why this is happening right here and right now."
However, I can sense that Twilight wasn't going to tell me the truth. She had made plenty of mistakes during her time as my student, but this was a mistake that should not have happened to begin with. She is a princess now, and a princess always maintains a high standard when it comes to important functions. Furthermore, my patience is often times strained and I can already start to feel it rise up inside of me.
"Starlight Glimmer should be here any minute," chuckled Twilight nervously, but I was not buying it one bit as I looked down at her with a disappointed look on my face. "Any minute now."
I looked over to a lowly fork that was part of the set up that Twilight had made on the table and picked it up with my magic, twirling it around like a toy as I continued to listen to the lies and false truths that Twilight was beginning to tell me.
"How about if I introduce everyone?" asked Twilight, the sound of her voice further confirming my suspicions that things were not right in the slightest bit.
After a moment, I dropped the fork from my magical grip and turned my attention back to Twilight, who still had that nervous and embarrassed look on her face. A look that wasn't going to change my mind in any way possible.
"Our friendship lessons are going SO well," she continued, trying to hide her look of embarrassment on her face. "She made three new friends."
Twilight then directed my attention over to three supposedly uninvited dinner guests at the other end of the table. I could tell that these guests were forcefully brought here just to impress me by Princess Twilight, they didn't come on their own free will and from the looks of it, Starlight Glimmer had not made friends with these guests.
I mean, something was not right about them.
There were two ponies, a gray Pegasus pony that had a plate of muffins in front of her; a white unicorn pony that had a pair of headphones on her ears, listening to music that I wouldn't even dream of listening to; and then there was Cranky Doodle Donkey, whose wedding I had attended recently with Luna. As far as he was concerned, he was the only one who was trying to at least make an effort to make the best of a bad situation. I could feel sorry for all of them, but I couldn't do so, for all my attention was focused right on Twilight.
"She has such great taste in friends," chuckled Twilight nervously, as I gave the guests a deadpan look of disapproval. "I don't know where she would have learned that."
"No Twilight, it's clear to me that Starlight has no great taste in friends whatsoever," I thought to myself as I continued to listen. "You've made many mistakes in the past, but this is something that I will not tolerate in any way possible. You should know better than to waste my time with something that is not even important at all, such as this so called 'important dinner.' I am a princess of Equestria, and there are more important matters that need to be at my attention."
Finally, the silence of the three dinner guests was broken by Cranky and I could tell from his choice of words that confirmed my suspicions: Twilight had indeed broken one of the four cardinal rules of being a Princess: never force anypony to do your bidding by any means necessary.
"Starlight Glimmer?" remarked Cranky, who had the head of hair from his wedding now standing on end thanks to a random bird. "I thought you said 'nose hair trimmers.' What's going on? I'm hungry! And my nose is too hairy."
The sight of Cranky showing his hairy nose to me made want to leave right then and there. However, out of a mutual respect for Twilight, I continued to stay at my seat. But, I was not amused by Cranky's actions, but this wasn't his fault, it was Twilight's. Part of me wanted to scream at Twilight over how awkward this night was, but I didn't want to embarrass myself in any way that would embarrass my reputation as a ruler.
However, I was starting to become irritated with Twilight. She knows very well that I maintain a high standard and that my time is not to be wasted by false promises like this one.
"Ha Ha, Cranky Doodle," remarked Twilight with a very nervous and fake laugh. "You're so funny."
"All right, Twilight," I thought to myself with a look of disgust on my face that was starting to grow more and more. "This is getting absolutely ridiculous. I'm nearly on the edge of getting up and leaving you to sort out this mess you dragged yourself and these so called "dinner guests" into. I have more important things to do, such as eat my favorite desert of Angel food Cake and catch up with all the other events that have gone around Equestria."
Then suddenly, I noticed that she was getting up and walking backwards, still looking at me with that nervous look which was now starting to get old…really fast.
"If you'll excuse me," said Twilight, meekly as she backed away. "I'm going to check the kitchen. Maybe she got lost among the, uh, artichokes."
Letting out a small nervous chuckle, Twilight was gone towards the kitchen. Now, this night was starting to become a true waste. However, part of me knew that Twilight had worked so hard to make this night important and thus, I continued to wait. Maybe she had only gone for a few minutes and would return with Starlight Glimmer in tow.
Then, the hours started to tick away. I could hear the sound of a clock ticking in my head, telling me how much time had passed since Twilight had left. Even if she did bring Starlight Glimmer back from wherever she was, my night would not be salvaged at all. With each minute that passed, the awkward silence that had returned after Twilight left was now continuing to grow and grow. Furthermore, I noticed that the ice sculpture of the pony that Twilight had brought out was half melted, much as my patience was.
Finally came the question that caused the straw to break the camel's back and end my night on a disappointing note.
"How do you get your hair to do that all the time?" asked Cranky and all I could do was roll my eyes and sigh in disgust. I finally decided that my patience would not be tested any more than it already was and I got up from my seat and walked out of the dining room. However, it was not before I had some parting words for the three awkward dinner guests that probably have suffered much as I had tonight.
"When Twilight returns," I finally said with my voice filled with irritation and disgust. "I want her to come to Canterlot and give me the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what has transpired tonight. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
Out of the three dinner guests, only Cranky nodded without saying a word and I turned to leave the dining room, feeling angry and abandoned that my night had come to an end like this.
As I left, I took to the air and noticed fireworks coming from a small area of Ponyville. The sight of the fireworks managed to at least divert my mind on the situation that had transpired and destroyed my evening.
But all in all, I can honestly say that this was certainly….One Wasted Evening.