A Lesson in Thinking
Rain thumped steadily against the windows of the palace, forming a constant beat in Twilight's ears as she pored over the text in the book before her. It may have a simple pleasure, to be curled up with a good book on a stormy evening, but still, she could think of no greater pleasure to indulge in.
"It doesn't get any better than this," she told herself, smiling and stretching out on her bed. Her relaxation was interrupted, however, by a pounding on the door.
"Twilight!" Spike said, sticking his head inside. "Sorry to interrupt you, but... well, Princess Celestia is here."
Twilight's eyes widened. Princess Celestia, here? It was a rare occurrence for the Princess herself to come visit Twilight—normally, it was Twilight who visited her. If the Princess was in Ponyville, then the circumstances must have been rather unusual indeed.
"Princess Celestia, here?" she asked, quickly setting down her book and getting to her hooves. "Did she say why?"
Spike shook his head. "She just said she wanted to talk to you about something important. Other than that, I dunno. She's waiting for you down in the map room."
Twilight nodded. "In that case, I'd better not keep her waiting."
Twilight and Spike left the bedroom and hastened down the crystal staircase towards the map room. Sure enough, Princess Celestia was waiting there, standing by Twilight's throne, her expression unreadable.
"Princess!" Twilight said happily as she approached her. "Good to see you!"
"Ah, Twilight," Celestia nodded. "I'm glad I caught up with you."
Something about Celestia's tone gave Twilight pause. It wasn't the friendly, motherly tone she was accustomed to. This tone was too clipped, too businesslike. A couple of hairs stood up on the back of Twilight's neck. That tone usually meant something bad—she'd heard it many a time as a filly when one of her experiments went awry.
"Ah, okay," she said, rubbing her foreleg with her hoof. "Um, can I get you anything? Tea, coffee...?"
Celestia shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't intend on staying very long, anyway." She turned to Spike. "Spike, could you give us some privacy, please?"
Spike swallowed. Evidently, he had picked up on her tone, too. "Ah, sure thing," he said, bowing slightly as he backed out of the room.
Once the two were alone, Celestia turned to Twilight. She didn't speak at first, but instead merely looked at Twilight. Observed her, almost, as if she were trying to find something in her that had changed since they last met.
By now, butterflies were beginning to prickle Twilight's stomach. What in Equestria could Celestia be here about?
"Um... Spike said you wanted to speak to me?" she said when the silence became unbearable.
Celestia nodded. "Indeed I did." She stepped a little closer to Twilight, still wearing that observant look.
"Earlier today," she continued, "I was speaking to Starswirl."
"Oh, really?" Twilight smiled. "Catching up with your old mentor, eh? How is he?"
Celestia did not smile in return. "He's doing well, thank you," she replied. "Still adjusting to modern life, but that's not why I'm here."
Twilight's own smile faded. "Well... why are you here, then?"
As she asked that, she swore she could see Celestia's face harden slightly. Her heart sank. It was definitely bad news, whatever it was.
"Well, to be more specific, he was talking to me about the circumstances under which you released him and the other Pillars from Limbo," she replied. "And he gave me some rather concerning news about how the Pony of Shadows was released."
She arched an eyebrow slightly as she looked at Twilight. "Is it true that you were responsible for the Pony of Shadows being released into Equestria when you freed the Pillars?"
Oooooh, boy. Twilight swallowed. She'd had a feeling that that particular mistake would come back to haunt her. "Well..." she began.
"Well what?" Celestia asked. "Is it true or not?"
"Well... yes, it is," Twilight admitted. "When I released the Pillars, the Pony of Shadows was released along with them. I didn't really see it coming, to be honest, I was so focused on..."
Twilight cut herself off as she saw that Celestia was giving her a new look. And this look was not a look she wanted to see from her. This was the look of a parent who'd caught their child scribbling with magic marker on the living room wall—a look of part anger, part disbelief.
"You released the Pony of Shadows into Equestria without taking any measures to prepare for it?" she asked, not even bothering to hide the disbelief in her voice. "Why in Equestria would you do something like that?"
Twilight's ears flattened at Celestia's harsh tone, and she instinctively took a step back. "Wait, it's not what you think!" she protested. "I didn't do it on purpose! None of us saw it coming! I just wanted to release the Pillars, not the Pony of Shadows, too! That's-"
"Twilight," Celestia said wearily, placing a hoof to her head. "I have never insulted your intelligence before, so please do not insult mine. Starswirl told me that you got the idea to release him and the other Pillars after you translated his journal, correct?"
"Well, yeah," Twilight replied nervously. "Why?"
"Would this be the same journal which talked about a 'last stand' at the base of Foal Mountain?" Celestia continued.
"Yes?" Twilight replied.
"And when you went there, you saw the imprints of the Pillars during said last stand?" Celestia checked.
"That's right," Twilight confirmed. "We saw them telling the Pony of Shadows that they came to contain it before sealing themselves away."
"Right," Celestia said slowly. "So... you read about how the Pillars were making a last stand. You read about the Pony of Shadows, which was clearly being built up as a serious threat. You saw the Pillars seal themselves away in Limbo, which I think we would both agree is a measure not to be taken lightly and not to be done unless it's considered absolutely necessary."
She gave Twilight that same disbelieving look. "And yet you honestly expect me to believe that a pony of your intelligence saw no correlation at all between the Pillars' sacrifice and the Pony of Shadows' imprisonment? It never once occurred to you that one may have been necessary for the other to continue?"
Twilight winced—the tone Celestia was using reminded her of the one Starswirl had used when he was chewing her out. "Well, when you put it like that, I guess it was a bit short-sighted..."
"A bit?" Celestia repeated.
"Okay, a lot short-sighted!" Twilight blurted, now sounding and looking thoroughly flustered. "I wasn't thinking straight, okay? I had a chance to release the Pillars of Equestria, for Faust's sake! Is it any wonder I was rushing a bit and overlooked something?"
"And what was the rush?" Celestia asked simply. "Equestria was in no mortal peril at the time. Certainly not enough that justified releasing a shadow monster into our world."
"But... but... it wasn't even that big a threat!" Twilight said, waving her hooves wildly. "The Pillars said it themselves, there's way more light in Equestria now. There was nowhere for it to hide."
"You didn't know that at the time, though, did you?" Celestia asked pointedly. "You aren't clairvoyant, Twilight. Even I'm not clairvoyant. For all you knew, you could have ended up releasing a threat on par with Discord or Tirek, without even making a cursory attempt to prepare for it!"
"But we didn't!" Twilight snapped, finally losing her patience. "Are you just going to get hung up on that and overlook how we saved your mentor? How we saved Stygian? How-"
"Twilight, I am well aware of what you accomplished, and I do not need to be reminded," Celestia snapped back. "That does not change the fact that at the time, you went ahead and released the Pillars without a second thought, despite having read about the Pony of Shadows beforehoof. A Princess of Equestria has a duty to keep the ponies safe, Twilight, not put them in potential danger by acting without thinking. Frankly, I thought this sort of acting blindly was something you outgrew after the Want It, Need It incident."
By now, Twilight was looking thoroughly upset and agitated. Celestia looked at her with not just anger, but something far worse—disappointment.
"Twilight... what in Equestria were you thinking?"
Twilight had heard Maud ask Pinkie that exact same question once upon a time. And she had a similar answer as she bowed her head, tears pricking at her eyes.
"I... I guess I wasn't," she muttered. "I was just... I was so excited at the idea of getting to meet Starswirl in the flesh, and b-between that and the chance to bring more protectors into Equestria... i-it just... it impaired my judgement." She let out a sob. "You're right, it was stupid and short-sighted. I wasn't thinking, I was charging ahead when I should have slowed down. I was an idiot. Just a big, stupid..."
"Twilight."
Twilight looked up and saw through tear-filled eyes that Celestia's demeanour had changed completely. She gave her a gentle, reassuring smile as she placed a hoof beneath her former student's chin.
"Twilight," she said again, "don't say that. I don't believe you're an idiot, not for one second. What you did was foolish, yes, but it's not irredeemable. This was just 'tough love,' as the saying goes. I want only the best from you, Twilight, and sometimes that means putting you back on the right track." She chuckled. "Just like after that Want It, Need It fiasco."
"R-really?" Twilight wiped her eyes. "So... I'm not in trouble?"
"No," Celestia assured her. "All I ask is that you try and use some better judgement in the future. And if you ever have any doubts, just tell me about them. I'll always be more than happy to offer any advice I might have." She smiled. "This old mare is more than a pretty face, you know."
Twilight smiled back, pulling her old mentor into a hug. "Thank you, Princess. I will, I promise."
"I'm glad to hear it," Celestia replied as she returned the hug. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd better hurry back before Luna decides to monopolise my share of the dessert tray."
Celestia's horn lit up, and with a flash of light, she had vanished. Twilight took a moment to compose herself, silently vowing to check and double-check any plan of hers in the future that could potentially lead to any sort of danger.
"It's probably just as well that I didn't tell her about my idea about harnessing the power of the Mirror Pool to speed up labour efficiency..." she murmured to herself.
END