To Fulfill My Destiny

Chapter 1: Clarity

The sudden ringing of her alarm clock made Twilight question, for a moment, the ethical dilemma of destroying an inanimate, defenseless object with a swift strike from her hoof, and then throwing said object against the stone wall with extreme prejudice and no remorse. She raised her hoof threateningly, tensing her muscles for the blow. Despite her overwhelming desire to go through with it, Twilight exhaled heavily and slowly silenced the bell, leaving the clock intact.

        The sound now gone, Twilight wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and return to her dreams. Her day-to-day activities in Canterlot sometimes led to late nights, and last night had been a particularly busy one. Preparations for this year’s Grand Galloping Gala had been underway for a good portion of the week, and organizing such an event was a tedious process. Not that Twilight minded of course, considering that she had volunteered to oversee the preparations herself.

Last night, after a fire in the royal kitchen and a long-winded argument over whose fault it was, Twilight did not get to sleep until several hours past midnight. Unfortunately, with the Gala itself approaching later tonight, sleeping in this morning was not an option.

Despite her body’s protests and the warm blankets trying to drag her back into their soft embrace, she slid out of bed. Once out, she gathered herself together and made her way to the mirror above her dresser. The windows that lined the walls of her room revealed a dim light just over the horizon filling the streets of Canterlot with a low glow, just enough to provide visibility. Twilight took a moment to stare out at the rising sun, its dim, yet refreshing light woke her up a bit more.

        As she approached the mirror above her dresser, she flinched the purple alicorn that stared back. Her hair was nothing short of a royal mess. She imagined, with a smile, Rarity’s screams of disgust at the locks of hair that stuck straight out, while the rest of it lay crumpled and scrunched in uneven mayhem.

        With a yawn, Twilight took a moment to stretch and unfurl her wings. Luckily, the two feathery appendages looked halfway decent. She then set to work repairing the damaged done by last night’s restless sleep.

        As her mane began to look like its former self, there was a knock at her door.

        “Come in.” Twilight said drowsily, as she fought the last strand of uncooperative mane.

        The large wooden door opened, and out of the quiet castle hallway walked in a small purple and green dragon. He held a clipboard in one hand, and a pen in the other.

        “Morning, Twilight.” he began. “Sleep well?”

        Instead of answering, Twilight turned and gave him full view of her face. Despite fixing her mane, Twilight’s eyes were still extremely droopy and small indented bags formed beneath them.

        “That bad, huh?” he observed.

        “Pretty much.” Twilight replied. “Spike, this year’s Gala is going to be the death of me.”

        “Oh yeah?”

Spike looked nervously at his clipboard.

“Then you’re probably not going to like what I have here.” He held it up for her too see. “Just sign at the bottom of each page.”

        Twilight sighed, gripped the clipboard and pen in a purple aura, and levitated them over towards her.

“Where’s the fire this time?” She asked sarcastically, beginning to flip through the pages, signing each one methodically. “Lets see here... Kitchen update, security report, guest list, decorations complete, weather team report, events itinerary... Everything looks good. Anything else?”

“Oh, yeah!” Spike said, as if just remembering. “Princess Celestia is holding a mandatory meeting with the Canterlot nobility in two hours about the Gala.”

“She is?” Twilight looked at Spike in surprise. She immediately turned to a nearby desk, levitated a calendar notebook on the top towards her, and began flipping through it.

“Spike, I didn’t plan for a meeting this morning! The final Gala meeting was two nights ago.” she said, not taking her eyes off the pages. “I’m doing final inspections throughout the entire city! That’s going to take all morning as it is! Did she say what it was for?”

“Only that it was mandatory.” Spike informed her. “She called it last night, during the whole fire escapade. I was supposed to tell you then, but you looked like you were seriously in need of sleep. When’s the last time you had a full night’s rest?”

Twilight sighed wistfully, looking up. Despite having lived in Canterlot for a better portion of the past year, Twilight deeply missed controlling her own sleep schedule at the Ponyville library. With the Gala being her primary focus for the past few weeks, Twilight had not had a restful night’s sleep for some time.

“Two? No... Three weeks ago?” She replied. “Anyway, I guess I’ll have to rearrange my schedule to include the meeting this morning. Hmm... Maybe I could work in a few inspections early, but I don’t know if anyone else will be up right now...”

        Twilight’s voice derailed into incoherent mumbles as she attempted to deal with the unexpected change. After a few awkward seconds of standing in her room, completely ignored, Spike slowly turned to leave, snapping back to look at Twilight every so often as she buried herself deeper and deeper into her notes.

        “I guess I’ll see you later?” he asked uncertainly.

        Twilight only half-acknowledged her assistant, her eyes locked on the page.

        “Mmhm... Oh!  I could inspect the... No, they won’t be up yet. I’ll just have to push it all back... But that’ll cut into my own preparation time and make me late too the opening ceremony... Darn it all...”

*        *

        Order and clear process revolved around Twilight more tightly than the moon around the earth. A meeting like this would usually have her eyes glued to the pony speaking as she jotted down everything important said. However, as the meeting began, it quickly became clear that there was absolutely nothing important being said.

        The attendance, as Spike had told her, consisted of the entirety of the Canterlot nobles. As such, the meeting was essentially just each one standing up and saying how excited they were for this year’s Gala, big events they planned on attending that night, or making known their contributions.

        Twilight’s notebook was turned into page after page of incoherent doodles, each seeming to originate from the void between being entirely asleep and barely awake. The pointlessness of it all frustrated Twilight to the point of nearly falling asleep at her seat in the castle’s council chamber. The wooden desk where she rested her head on her hooves seemed all too comfortable...

        A firm nudge into her side jerked Twilight awake. She looked over, and was greeted by the smiling face of Princess Celestia, who was seated at the desk right next to her. Celestia’s eyes twinkled in understanding. It was easy to admire her patience.

With a deep, silent yawn, Twilight attempted to at least pretend she was listening. Prince Blueblood was speaking at this point, droning on about some imperfections he experienced at last year’s Gala that required immediate fixing, so the pretend part was quite easy.

        Two hours dragged on, and Twilight was ready to burst in desperation to get on with the day’s plans. The fact that she was now two whole hours behind in her final inspections sent twitches of unease throughout her body.

        Finally, after the endless talking ceased, Princess Celestia stood up.

        “Thank you all for coming. Your insightful input on this year’s Gala is most appreciated.” she said with a seemingly genuine smile. “I’m sure you all have lots of preparation before tonight, so I declare this meeting adjourned.”

        With that, and after an exchange of bows between the princesses and the rest of the nobles, the council chamber began to empty. Twilight saw her opportunity and made a beeline for the doorway out.

        “Twilight, wait.” Celestia commented as the last of the nobility left the room, leaving only the two of them. “I wish to speak with you.”

        Twilight cringed inwardly. Already she was running late.

        “Yes?” Twilight asked. She moved closer to Celestia, and the two were face-to-face; though Twilight was still noticeably shorter.

        For a few moments, Celestia remained silent, and her eyes seemed to glaze right over Twilight’s figure. Twilight cleared her throat in anticipation.

        “I don’t want to be rude but I really need to get going, so if this is important...”

        Celestia suddenly snapped out of her trance. She focused back on Twilight.

        “My apologies. I know this meeting was very sudden and rather pointless, but I have not had the chance to speak with you privately in some time and, with your schedule, as of late, you would not have met with me otherwise.”

        Twilight was confused as to where this was going, but she was still itching to get on with her plan.

        “That’s... Nice. But I need to get to my inspections-” she began.

        Celestia raised her hoof, signaling for silence.

        “I’ve already dispatched inspection teams in your stead. They will report to you when they have completed their task.” she assured her former student.

        Twilight relaxed slightly, but was unsettled that she would not be able to take part in the inspection; she had to make sure everything was running smoothly. All the same, it took some weight off her mind.

        “So, why did you want to meet me?” Twilight asked.

        Celestia remained silent for a few more awkward seconds, as if trying to find her words. Twilight wondered what would cause her former mentor to blank like this.

        “I...” Celestia began, uncertainty clear in her voice. “I just wanted to say... Thank you.”

        With a blink, Twilight raised an eyebrow, still confused. “What for?” she asked.

        Celestia, again, looked at a loss for words, her face seemingly stupefied.

“For becoming such a dedicated and smart leader.” she said after several spacious moments passed. These past months you have learned and mastered every aspect of ruling over Equestria. I hope you are excited for tonight; your first Gala as princess of all Equestria.” she finished with slight bow.

“Uh... Thank you.” Twilight said.

Celestia was not done. Not waiting to lose her fellow alicorn’s attention, she stood back up. The beginnings of a smile formed at the edges of her mouth.

“I just want you to know that, no matter what should happen, I know you will make the right decisions and become the great leader Equestria needs you to be.” she said plainly.

“Well, I had a great mentor.” Twilight replied.

Celestia nodded, looking extremely distant once more.

“Twilight...” she began, her voice preparing as if leading up to something important.

However, much to Twilight’s frustration, nothing Celestia said revealed anything.

“I’m proud of you.” Celestia finished.

Well thats... Anticlimactic. Twilight thought, thoroughly puzzled.

She could tell something was off. There was something swimming around in her former teacher’s brain that was not being said. Whether it was because Celestia did not want to vocalize it or could not find the words for it, Twilight did not know. Either way, the white princess did not say any more or expand upon her vague words.

However, Celestia did a small chill-shake of her body and immediately changed the subject.

“Are you ready for tonight?” she inquired.

Twilight was still trying to figure out what Celestia was going on about a moment ago. She decided, despite her hatred for procrastination, to worry about it later.

“I think so.” she replied. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. “Actually, I’m more than ready! It’s been so long since I’ve seen any of my friends. Tonight will be the perfect time to catch up on things. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for my friends at this year’s Gala.”

“And you’ve done a stupendous job.” Celestia commented. “I look forward to having you at my side; as a princess, rather than a student. Tonight, the whole world will see how far you have come, and know that you are truly ready for your destiny.”

The way she spoke made Twilight slightly uneasy. Celestia’s long-winded words on her ‘stupendous job’ and ‘destiny’ seemed as though she were not listening to a word Twilight was saying. She also completely ignored her excitement at seeing her friends again that night.

Celestia seemed to catch onto this, and added, “And I hope your time with your friends tonight is a memorable time indeed. You deserve tonight to truly be the best night ever.”

“Believe me, it will.” said Twilight, putting her reservations aside.

She let out a quick laugh.

“Though, we won’t be causing a riot like we did a couple years ago. I think I’m looking forward to a peaceful, but fun evening.”

“Indeed.” Celestia droned.

For a few moments, neither alicorn said anything.

“I guess I’ll go get myself ready, then.” Twilight said, breaking the silence. “See you tonight.”

“As will I.” Celestia agreed.

Twilight moved for the chamber doors, and pushed them open with her hoof. She was just about step into the hall when Celestia, who still had not moved, spoke up again.

“Remember,” Celestia started. “You are a great leader, Twilight. The future holds many things for you.”

She held yet another pause before concluding her thought.

“But, know this: Fate rarely calls upon us at the moment of our choosing.”

Twilight remained in the doorway for a moment longer before nodding in acknowledgement, and entering the large hallway. As she walked she tried to focus on her excitement at seeing her friends for the first time in months, but her head swam in confusion at everything said to her in the past few minutes. Celestia was trying to tell her something; something important.

But what could it be?

*        *        *