Twilight Sparkle along with her friends and family were sitting around a table in Princess Celestia’s chambers after Twilight’s Coronation Ceremony had been completed. There were bite-sized foods spread out for them as the Princess had wanted to give them time for a private meal, knowing how hard anything else might be given the pomp of the occasion and the press waiting outside just waiting for a chance to take pictures and ask questions of the new Princess. But thanks to Celestia’s intervention the friends were able to enjoy a quiet dinner. At least as quiet as anything could be with Pinkie Pie bouncing around.
The doors to the chamber opened, letting in a grand cacophony of paparazzi ponies pleading to get an interview as the royal guards held them back and the rest of the Princesses walked into the room as swiftly as dignity would allow. The doors slammed shut behind the three bringing the room into relative silence again, and Twilight couldn’t help but feel a bit curious about what kind of a spell Celestia had that allowed the room to cancel out that much noise. Once inside the regal ponyages noticeably relaxed, with Cadance flopping down beside her husband and loading a plate with some sandwiches and cookies and Celestia pouring herself some tea, not into a dainty cup like she so often used in public but into a large mug she could take satisfying gulps from. Luna for her part melodramatically flopped down onto a nearby couch. “Dearest sister, thou couldst not possibly pay us enough to attend such a function again at this unholy hour.”
Celestia silently chuckled at the dig Luna had slipped in there at her days. “It’s quite alright Luna, I doubt that we’ll be seeing anything like this again for a long time. Why don’t you take a nap. We wouldn’t want you going though your duties half asleep after all. We might end up with a night sky where the constellations looked almost exactly like…”
The rest of Celestia’s words were interrupted by her having to duck out of the way of a flung cushion. “We shall thank thee not to bring up embarrassments from over a millennia ago, sister. If you will excuse us.” The Princess of the Night gave a brief nod to the others in the room before opening one of the other doors in the room and marching into the royal bedchambers in a huff.
A giggle spread throughout the room after the door had closed again. Celestia gave a dramatic sigh and launched into an apology easily loud enough to be heard through walls that hadn’t been treated to cancel out sound. “I’m sorry for Luna’s departure, but I’m afraid the poor dear just gets so cranky without a nap.” While Luna didn’t yell back anything in response, her thoughts on the matter were still made clear when a blanket materialized behind Celestia wound up like a rope and swatted Her Royal Highness’ rump before falling to the ground lifeless. The room erupted into laughter as Celestia casually brushed the place she’d been spanked with her tail and took a drink from her mug.
After the laughter died down Twilight rose from the table and bowed to her mentor. “Thank you so much for all of this Princess Celestia. I… I’m not really used to getting all of this attention. It was getting to be a bit too much for me.”
“It’s quite all right, Twilight. Being in the public eye is something you’re going to have to get used to, but it’s probably best to take that at your own pace. Besides, I’m well aware of the value of having some time away from the crowds occasionally. Though to be honest I had another reason for inviting you up here for dinner.”
Twilight’s head cocked quizzingly at that statement. “Princess?”
“Twilight, I think you may want to consider just what it is you want to do now. You still may have a lot to learn, but you are also going to be expected to do something with your new station.”
Twilight looked down as she puzzled over what Celestia had said. What could she do as a Princess now? She’d been studying a lot about friendship and magic, but she honestly didn’t know much about how to act like a Princess. Her thoughts were soon shaken however by a hyperactive pink pony bouncing up and down practically on top of her. “Ooh, ooh! I know! I know what Twilight could do!”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. Throw a party?”
Pinkie was grinning like a maniac now, which honestly wasn’t that far away from her normal grins. “Yup, a party! She can put on the most super, amazing party in the whole wide world and invite everypony in Equestria and the Crystal Empire!”
The room suddenly shook as an even louder shout than Pinkie’s excited tones came from the bedroom. “WE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!”
Everypony glared at Pinkie, who sat back down and blushed a little. “Heh heh… oops.” Then the party animal turned towards the bedrooms and shouted back “SORRY ABOUT THAT, PRINCESS LUNA!”
Applejack quickly covered Pinkie’s mouth with her hoof. “Okay, that’s enough sugarcube. Your idea is nice and all, but this has to be something that Twilight comes up with. Besides, I don’t think there’s any place big enough to hold a party for everypony in Equestia.”
The rest of the meal continued in relative silence, whether it was from enjoying the food, thinking about what could be done, or simply not wanting to incur the wrath of a sleep deprived Princess. Finally after everybody declared themselves full and they started piling the plates for the servants to take back down to the kitchens later, Twilight spoke up. “Princess Celestia, I think I know what I’d like to do.”
The Sun Princess raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what is that Twilight?”
“Like I said in my speech, I couldn’t have become a Princess if it wasn’t for my friends. They taught me so much, and those lessons in friendship have helped me more than once. I’ve shared my reports on what I’ve learned about friendship with you, but I was thinking… could I share them with everypony else as well? I… I could put my old reports together and publish them as a book that others could read to help them understand the magic of friendship the way I’ve come to understand it.”
Celestia smiled warmly. “I think that’s an excellent idea, Twilight. I’ll have copies of your reports made and delivered to the library.”
Rarity spoke next. “Why not include the reports we’ve written as well? I know we don’t always have our most shining moments in some of those letters, but I know that Twilight has helped me to learn about friendship as well, and if she’s going to share what she’s learned I don’t see why we shouldn’t help her out with this as well.”
The rest of Twilights friends quickly gave their consent to have their reports be included as well. Cadance then giggled and said, “You know, you girls almost make me want to write a book. Actually… why not? My special talent has given me a lot of insight into love, and I know that’s something a lot of ponies are interested in. Twilight, would you mind if I sent you some of my advice on that as well?”
“Not at all, Cadance! I’d be honored if you wrote something too.” Then Twilight turned to the rest of her friends. “Come on girls, let’s head home. I think we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”
The writing of the book was a bit more effort than some of the ponies imagined it would be. They all still had their day jobs to perform and chores to do, which left little time in the day to get together to work on the book. They had to correct some of the mistakes that had been made in writing some of the letters to Celestia, and at times found they wanted to add more in as they knew more about friendship then they had when they first wrote the friendship reports. There was also the question of how to arrange the reports, and how to incorporate the advice that Cadance had sent once Rarity had stopped pawing through it for something she could use. There was even an argument if the book should be kept as a collection of letters or rewritten entirely. But the friends enjoyed being able to spend the time reminiscing about the things that had caused them to write those reports in the first place, and their friendship grew stronger as they worked together on the book. And when it was done, they all contributed to one new friendship report on working together with your friends towards a common goal.
The girls were all excited when Twilight levitated the first copy of their new book out of one of the packages that had been dropped off at the library. The purple alicorn proudly turned to the others. “Well it took us a while, but here it is. Everything we’ve learned about friendship is in this book, and soon ponies across Equestria will be able to read it and hopefully learn about the magic of friendship themselves.”
The girls cheered and clapped their hooves at their work finally being done. Unfortunately this meant it took Twilight a few minutes to realize Fluttershy was trying to say something. “Um, Twilight? I hope you don’t mind me asking, but… well… how are we going to distribute it?”
Twilight put a reassuring hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. Princess Celestia already promised to send a couple of palace servants to help us with that. We just have to give the copies to them and they’ll spread them out for us.”
“Ooh, okay. I just hope this isn’t a bother to them.”
“Relax, Fluttershy. Acting as a messenger is a part of their jobs. It’s not going to be a bother to them or anypony else.”
Months passed. Over in Manehattan a middle-aged mare turned her head when a knocking came at her door. “That’s odd,” she muttered to herself, “I wasn’t expecting any visitors.” Walking over and opening the door she saw a couple of young stallions she’d never seen before standing on her doorstep. They had friendly smiles on their faces and overstuffed saddlebags brimming with books on their backs. The one on the left, a unicorn, was levitating one of those books in front of the two.
The other stallion smiled even wider as he said, “Hello, ma’am. Lovely day, isn’t it? We’re in your neighborhood today to deliver a special message given to us by the alicorns that have appeared in our day. This book we have here, the Book of Love and Friendship, is one that can help all of us grow closer to those around us and live more fulfilling lives. Do you have a few minutes where we can talk about what’s in this book and leave a copy with you to read?”
Almost instinctively the mare did what so many others had done when Twilight’s messengers came around. She slammed the door and went back to her meal.
Author's Note
This fic was inspired by a piece of fanart that had Twilight reading a Book of Mormon. It seems a bit silly to me to depict characters following religions that don't exist in their setting (though expies of said religions don't), and I said as much in the comments for that image on Derpibooru. But that got me thinking about what would create some kind of Mormon equivalent in Equestria, and I decided that rather than wait for something else to come along I'd make something up myself.
Apologies in advance if you don't think this is particularly funny or interesting. I fully acknowledge that I'm not exactly a master craftsman when it comes to writing. Or anything else for that matter.
