A Morning as Twilight Sparkle
The sky outside Twilight Sparkle’s bedroom window was still very much dark when the filly woke up with far too much excitement to bear. She leaped out of her small bed, and, by candlelight, got ready all that she’d need for her lesson that morning. She naturally had a mental checklist of everything she required of herself to bring each day. Parchment, quills, ink, notecards, extra parchment, extra ink, and her advanced spellbook, of course. The warm glow of her mentor’s orange sun had only begun to peek through her window before Twilight was all packed and out the door in a flash. Her parents and brother surely wouldn’t be awake for a while, and neither would be Twilight’s brand new little purple dragon, who slept by her bed and had a bad habit of sleeping in. But Twilight’s family had given up a while ago on trying to get the filly to leave the house at an acceptable time for her weekly morning lessons with Princess Celestia.
In their little filly’s own words: "I am the Princess’ personal student. I must arrive early in order to never disappoint her.”
It was impossible for the family to argue, and so it began that Twilight would rise before the sun once each week, and begin the short walk to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns all on her own.
As the little unicorn walked with a skip in her step and a bright smile on her face, her world illuminating around her, her thoughts shifted to the brand new cutie mark on her flank. It had been less than a month since she’d acquired it and was accepted into Celestia’s school, and her mind was constantly buzzing with the possibilities of what a cutie mark in magic would entail. To make sure that her newfound talent wasn’t wasted, she prided herself on spending every free moment of her day studying, and making the most out of her private lessons with the princess.
Celestia’s school was a grand building near the Canterlot Castle, nearly barren this early in the morning, but it was the only time in which Equestria’s busy princess could make time for her little determined student. With magnificent pillars and grand windows, and huge classrooms with the most advanced and up to date equipment, Twilight was proud to be getting her education at such a place. Bolting through the double doors, she ran up several flights of stairs before reaching the great marble door of Princess Celestia’s study. She was early, naturally, and so she did as always, sitting patiently by the door, opening her saddlebag to review her past lessons. Before long, the little unicorn was greeted by two great white hooves in front of her, and had to tilt her head almost all the way back to see Princess Celestia smiling down at her. She bore tired expression, but warm one all the same.
“Princess!” Twilight jumped to her hooves before slowly sinking into a bow, “I’m ready for our class this morning, Princess. I’ve got all I need, and I memorized those spells from last week just like you asked.” Celestia carefully opened the door to the study with her magic, escorting the filly inside before herself.
“Oh Twilight, i’d expect nothing less from my star pupil. I have to admit, I might have rushed a bit in raising the sun this morning just to try and get here ahead of you, but I should have known such a thing wouldn’t be possible. You are the most punctual little pony i’ve met, do you know that?” Twilight chuckled to herself before plopping herself and her saddlebag down on a seat cushion in the center of the study.
“Thank you very much Princess. How did you enjoy raising the sun this morning?”
This was a question that Celestia had gotten used to the little filly asking at the beginning of every lesson they shared. It had stricken the princess as a bit odd at first, but she soon came to the realization that it must have been simply fascinating for Twilight’s mentor to do something as incredible as raise the sun each morning before their lesson. It was natural for the little filly to be curious.
“Oh, I did enjoy it Twilight. Thank you for asking. It’s much the same as always, lowering the moon, raising the sun. It’s quite tiring, I must say, but always a gorgeous opportunity nonetheless.”
The filly nodded excitedly, “One day, i’d like to be able to raise the sun just like you, Princess.”
“Well, with the rate of how your magic is improving now, Twilight, I wouldn’t count it as impossible.” Twilight beamed at these words, the pure felicity of her student causing Celestia herself to smile as well. “Now, let’s get to it,” The princess sat down beside twilight, and the small filly nuzzled herself against the side of her mentor, Celestia herself putting a gentle hoof around her student. She picked up Twilight’s advanced spellbook with her magic, and flipped through the pages with ease. “Let's see here, Meadowbrook's liquid transfiguration spell,” Celestia read in a soft, motherly tone. "We haven’t touched on this particular subject just yet, however I can only assume you have-”
“I’ve read the entire spell, front to back, six times already.” The little unicorn said proudly, “Forgive me, Princess, but I think I can do it on my own.”
“Very well then,” Celestia said with a grin, and placed a small bottle of ink in front of her student, “Let’s say I wanted to transfigure the ink in this bottle into- apple cider.”
“Done and done.” Twilight jumped to her hooves, horn pointed surely at the unsuspecting jar of ink.
“You ready, Twilight?” the princess asked. Twilight nodded, doing her best to focus as much as possible on the jar.
“Of course.” And with a flash of light, she began the spell, the ink in the bottle bubbling violently as the entire room was cloaked in her bright magenta magic.
As the bright morning sun was risen over the hills of equestria, the walls of Twilight’s castle illuminated with the brilliance of a thousand stars, the magnificent crystal walls refracting the sunlight and causing the entire structure to light up like a beacon. For the exhausted purple pony in one of the castle’s main bedrooms, however, this feature of her home was not something she had ever quite gotten accustomed to, nor that she ever enjoyed each morning.
As soon as a sliver of sunlight made its way through one of Twilight’s grand windows, every wall of her bedroom was suddenly bursting with light and color, and it was simply impossible to get back to sleep. Even with the curtains shut, light still managed to find its way in and was made a hundred times brighter by the crystal walls, floor and ceiling. Twilight rolled over under her blankets, shielding her eyes with her hooves, pleading with the world to give her just a few more minutes of rest, since she was certain she had not gotten nearly enough of it last night. Eventually, once the birds started to chirp and her responsibilities for the day came flooding into her mind, Twilight knew there was no use fighting it.
The alicorn dragged herself out of bed, a grand structure that was topped with an all-too comfortable queen size mattress and blankets. The princess’ room was small for, well, a princess, but still had to be more than ten times larger than her old bedroom at the Golden Oaks Library. Mostly barren except for a few shelves, her mirror, a telescope, and a set of doors to her balcony, Twilight’s bedroom was not a place she found herself dallying in very often. For what had to be the hundredth time, she had to stop herself from wishing Spike a good morning, reminding herself that he had his own room in the castle now that he very much enjoyed. There was no snoring baby dragon at her hooves to wake up these days. It was only her.
Slowly and groggily, Twilight dragged herself through a deserted, far too bright corridor to get to one of the castle’s many bathrooms. This one was the closest, but was still a solid two minute walk from her bedroom. After a quick shower and some mental preparation for what lay ahead of her, she descended down the main stairwell and arrived at the bottom floor of the castle. She passed Spike’s room and found the door ajar, the young dragon already awake and roaming the castle. Starlight’s room was empty as well, bed unmade and door wide open. When the princess finally arrived at the dining room, she found her two roommates looking over a checklist Twilight had made specifically for the occasion, two mugs of coffee and a nearly empty box of donuts sitting on the dining table beside them.
“Twilight!” Starlight gave a warm smile to the princess, knowing very well that late night planning and close to no sleep had meant that Twilight was less than ready for an early morning meeting, “You’re up! Good. Here, I made you this.” She handed the princess a steaming mug of coffee, which Twilight took to gulping down as soon as she had it in the clutches of her magic. “Figure you’re probably gonna need it. No offense or anything, but you do seem a bit-”
“Exhausted,” Spike finished, Biting into his last donut. You weren’t up late studying again last night, were you Twilight? Where were you?”
“Celestia and I had to finish planning our meeting with the Crystal Empire delegates, and it-” her sentence was cut off by a long yawn, then an even longer draw from her coffee mug, "-it took a bit longer than expected. I didn’t get back to Ponyville until late last night.”
“Well, Spike and I got everything covered for you, Twi. The throne room’s cleaned and all set up for the delegates, and we bought those books on the Crystal Empire you were asking for. We would’ve gotten back sooner if somepony hadn’t insisted on stopping at sugarcube corner the way back.”
Spike had just finished off his last donut, and spat back with his mouth full: “Well, I needed something as a reward for all the work i’m doing this early in the morning.”
Twilight smiled to herself as she sat herself down and thought of how grateful she was that she had friends who could help her with these sort of royal responsibilities that were all too common these days, and seemed to be at more and more inappropriate times.
“I honestly can’t thank you two enough. I hope I didn’t oversleep too much. Starlight, how much time do we have until the princess gets here?”
Her question was quickly answered by echoing footsteps coming from the direction of the foyer, and soon the main doors to the dining room became cloaked in a golden aura, before opening to reveal Princess Celestia in all her glory. Starlight and Spike dropped into respective bows, while Twilight’s face instantaneously became blushed and panicked, knowing that Celestia was seeing her exhausted self with a still-wet mane and giant mug of coffee, why, she didn’t look prepared at all! But Celestia only beamed at her fellow princess.
After wishing the other two a good morning, she calmly asked the alicorn, “Are you all set, Twilight? The delegates will be arriving shortly.”
“Oh, I- of course! The throne room is all made up for our meeting.” Twilight tried to hide her nervousness, brushing her still-wet mane from her eyes.
“Excellent. A tricky friendship problem they’ve come across, but i’m sure it’s nothing the princess of friendship can’t handle.” She spoke the words with a bit of a smirk, which got a determined smile out of Twilight. Together, the two walked towards throne room to await the delegates by the door.
“Twilight?” Celestia asked rather quietly, as the two stood patiently by the main doors of the castle, awaiting their guests.
“Yes?”
“You know that i’m proud of you, right? Prouder than you could ever imagine.”
Twilight felt herself blush at the words, “Thank you Prin- uh, Celestia. It means a lot. It really does.” The sun princess smiled. Suddenly, the doors to the castle flew open, and into the castle foyer entered a glistening mare and three stallions, bickering and arguing, brows furrowed and voices as cold as ice. Once the laid eyes on the princesses, however, all four of them dropped immediately into bows, the bickering not entirely stopping as they did so.
“Greetings,” Celestia started, she held her head high and outstretched her wings to their full height, Twilight quickly mimicking her pose. “I trust you all had a pleasant trip, and I assure you Princess Twilight Sparkle and I look forward to solving any problems you may have.”
“You better be able to, princesses. I don’t think I can handle even looking at these three any longer.” One of the stallions spoke before marching over to take his seat in the throne room, the others grumbling to themselves before following suit.
“You ready, Twilight?” Celestia asked, worried eyes still fixed on the delegates.
“Of course” the princess replied, and they both took their seats beside the furious delegates, doubting they’d be leaving them anytime soon.