Twilight sighed as she slowly walked through the gardens. The sun had yet to appear over the castle walls as she moped and fretted her way down the path. She hadn't been able to sleep at all since she became an alicorn. Her mind simply wouldn't stop spinning and all of the recent days filled with preparations for her coronation certainly didn't help. How was she supposed to behave? How was she supposed to act and react? What was she even supposed to do? What if she got it all wrong?
The Soon-To-Be-Princess Twilight Sparkle shook her head violently in a vain effort to clear her mind. Even her title made her stomach upset, and despite how all that had happened to her felt as though it were straight from the dreams of little fillies everywhere, Twilight just wanted to go home to Ponyville. It was a strange thought that passed through her mind, once she would have said Canterlot was home, her tower was right across from the gardens just as it was when she had been sent to Ponyville not too long ago. Back then, she would have given anything to come back to Canterlot, but now that she was here, she felt herself all too eager to give up everything to go back.
“Why the long face Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight heaved another sigh as she turned to face the one, humored voice in particular that she didn't want to hear.
“Discord... I really would like to be alone for a moment.”
“Come now, that's no way for an eager new princess to be!”
Twilight turned and started to walk away, but Discord's head appeared out of nowhere as he hovered upside down above her.
“Really Twilight Sparkle, I'm your friend now, don't you remember? Why don't you tell me what's troubling you?”
Twilight snorted and remained silent for a while, but after thinking it over, she gave up. She wasn't sure if telling Discord anything would help or make matters worse, but it was better than having him make a game out of pulling it out of her.
“It's just...”
“Yes?”
“I feel so...”
“So?”
Twilight sighed and glared at Discord, who smiled and shrugged his shoulders as a loose apology, allowing her to continue.
“I feel so lost. I've never done this before, what if I mess it up?”
Discord sighed as he examined his paw for dirt.
“Oh... that again?”
“Discord! This is serious! I don't know what I'm supposed to do and as far as I can tell, nopony has ever been here so nopony can tell me what to do or how to do it!”
To Twilight's surprise, Discord seemed almost startled by her outburst as she stamped the ground, but it wasn't long before he slid in beside her with a mischievous grin on his face.
“Come now Twilight Sparkle, do you really think nopony has ever been where you are now? Your problem is one that I've seen time and time again.”
“How many unicorns get turned into princesses?”
“Alright, so maybe nopony has been exactly where you are now, but I've known loads of ponies who were close enough.”
Twilight's eyes widened.
“Wait, who? How?”
“You meet a lot of ponies traveling the world, making memories, bringing chaos wherever you go, but that's beside the point. The important thing to remember is that you're not alone and you're not the only pony to have gone through such things.”
With that Discord turned and waved over his shoulder as he started back for the castle.
“But if you prefer to mull this over all on your own, well then you are a princess after all.”
“Wait! Who do you know who could help me? What did they do? Where is this pony?”
“Well it's a bit of a long trip, but I suspect we could get you there and back before breakfast.”
“Discord! Who?!”
Seemingly snapped out of his thoughts, Discord turned back to Twilight.
“Oh, just a young mare facing the largest challenge she's ever seen. Really you would probably be quite an inspiration, though she freaks out at the smallest things, you might not want to mention who you are.”
Twilight nodded, which was all of the consent for the trip that Discord felt he needed. With a snap of his fingers Twilight felt herself falling into darkness. Bracing herself in her mind, Twilight looked around. This was no ordinary teleport spell, but before she could analyze it, it was over.
Looking around revealed no sign of Discord, but her mind was quickly preoccupied by other things, namely the color of her hooves. Twilight nearly jumped in surprise. She was now pink instead of purple, her mane a pale white instead of a deep violet, and of course her wings were missing. Normally she would have panicked at the situation, but as she looked herself over, she remembered Discord's words.
“Right, she's a pony facing the largest challenge she's ever seen, who easily panics, I shouldn't tell her who I am... wait... oh... Discord...”
Twilight chuckled to herself as she looked up at the sky. Discord had described the pony so well that even Twilight could tell that he was talking about her. She wasn't certain what looking at herself in third person would teach her, after all, she already knew what she was going through pretty well, but now that she was in the game she might as well play.
Though it was now morning, the sun was still low enough that she still see the stars above her.
“Libra... Circinus and... there's Lupus. Yep, I'm still in Equestria, and not too far from Canterlot judging by these mountains. Really Discord, if you wanted me to meet myself you could have at least dropped me off closer to the castle.”
Twilight sighed and strolled off towards the lights in the distance, but as she grew closer to the city she could see that it wasn't Canterlot, but some other town she didn't recognize on a similar plateau.
“Wait... I don't know this place... How am I supposed to meet myself here?”
Before she could continue, Twilight was interrupted by a frustrated sigh coming from the other side of a nearby tree. Beneath the leaves and branches, staring intently at a textbook illuminated by the light of her horn, sat a pale white pony, who looked to be about the same age and height as Twilight. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, and her mane was frazzled as she continuously ran her hooves through it.
“I don't get it! If the gravitational constant is that high the two bodies would collide with each other on the first pass!”
Twilight froze for a brief moment. Was this the mare she was supposed to meet? She looked nothing like herself and she remembered studying gravitational physics in Canterlot. This had to be somepony else. Was Discord telling the truth about there being another pony?
Carefully approaching the mare, Twilight nervously knocked on the tree behind her.
“Gravitational Physics?”
The mare didn't even look up as she nodded.
“Yes and it's very hard. I'm sorry, I would love to chat, but I've got a major test tomorrow! So I really really need to study now so if you'll excuse me.”
Twilight smiled. This was definitely the mare she was supposed to meet.
“I think I can help you. You see my name is Tw...”
Twilight quickly coughed into her hoof as she remembered that she wasn't supposed to say who she was. Looking to her cutie mark, Twilight quickly pulled up a pseudonym.
“I'm sorry, ahem, My name is Bright Star. I studied gravitational physics not too long ago, I can give you some pointers if you'd like.”
The pony looked up in surprise.
“You... you've studied this?”
Twilight nodded as she put her hoof to her chest.
“Not to brag, but I aced it. It's actually not too hard once you get some of the basic operations down.”
The mare stared at Twilight in amazement as she continued.
“You see, I remember this exact same problem when I studied it, but it turns out that the common mistake is in your transform matrix...”
Twilight looked down at the scratch parchment and swapped two of the matrix's rows in the margin of the page.
“I used to get those backwards all the time. My teacher always taught me that, “Just like 'i' before 'e', never put row two before three.” It's a silly rhyme and it doesn't really make any sense, but I guess that's why I've never forgotten it.”
The pony looked at Twilight and then slowly at the paper. Running the math again with amazing speed in the margins, the she stopped at the right answer.
“Wow... that's amazing Ms. Star. Thank you so much.”
“You're welcome Ms...”
The mare looked at her, perplexed for a moment before suddenly realizing what Twilight was hinting at.
“Oh! I'm so sorry I never introduced myself I just got stuck in the math and I have this big test tomorrow and and and...”
She stopped for a moment, placed a hoof on her chest, and following a rather familiar breathing exercise, slowed down.
“I'm sorry. My name is Celestia.”
Twilight froze as the gears in her mind began racing at a furious pace.
“Ah! So you were named after the Princess.”
“Who?”
“The Princess... Princess Celestia...”
Celestia looked confused as she thought for a moment.
“I'm sorry, I don't really travel outside of Equestria much, where is Princess Celestia from?”
Again Twilight froze and looked straight at the confused Celestia. She had a horn. She had wings. This was Princess Celestia. This was impossible. What had Discord done? What was she supposed to learn from this? What was the point of this game?
Celestia seemed to blush a little bit as she tried to back up and hide her wings behind the tree.
“Please don't look at me like that...”
“Wh-What?”
“I know... Nopony has ever... has ever seen a pony with both wings and a horn, but it's not my fault.”
Twilight quickly shook her head.
“Oh! No I'm sorry, it's just that you look so much like a pony I know from home I was confused... I didn't mean to stare. In fact I have...”
Twilight stopped as she looked for her wings and ground her teeth as she remembered Discord hid them.
“I happen to think they're beautiful.”
Celestia looked at her for a moment. She seemed to be weighing out Twilight's words to see if she was actually telling the truth or just trying to keep her from hiding. They stood in silence for a moment, until Celestia finally decided to come out from behind the tree.
“So... who do I remind you of? Is it that Princess Celestia?”
“Actually, I know it sounds made up, but yes. You look a lot like her, but your mane is a different color and she's a bit taller, but you're just as beautiful.”
Celestia blushed again as she came further out into the open.
“Where is she from?”
Internally, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Celestia was her only link home at this point and the last thing she wanted to do was alienate her. But although one crisis was handled, she still didn't know where she was. Something was clearly wrong, but if she made the wrong move in asking questions she would look insane. She would have to be very careful if she wanted to get any more information about her situation.
“Oh she's... she's from a pretty far off place. I'm actually passing through on my way there, but I'm kind of lost. What town is this?”
“This is the town of Canterlot. It's not much, but it's home and it's small enough that most ponies here are used to my wings.”
The gears in Twilight's head whirled so fast that even Celestia might have been able to hear them. Pretending to admire the small town that Celestia seemed proud of, Twilight looked around. All of the mountain landmarks were in the right place and the view back to Ponyville was correct, except that there was no Ponyville.
At long last the gears came to a stop. Twilight had narrowed the situation down to two possible conclusions, either Discord had teleported her to another dimension or he had teleported her back in time. Looking back to Celestia, Twilight asked her a carefully prepared question.
“They uh... They use a different calender system in land where I'm from. Anyways, having come from there to here, I'm not certain what year it is on your calender. If you don't mind, what year is it?”
“Wait... I thought you just said you were going back there from here?”
Celestia could almost hear Twilight's teeth grind for a moment. Apparently she should have thought harder about the phrasing of her question.
“Well... I came from there, traveled around this area a bit, as a traveling scholar of course, but now I'm heading home and well... I get confused on year systems pretty easily, but that's unimportant, what year is it?”
Celestia gave Twilight a funny look, but ultimately shrugged her shoulders.
“It's the seventh year to the new Equestrian Era.”
Immediately Twilight thought back to her studies, the Equestrian Era began when the three pony tribes unified into the Kingdom of Equestria, right after the first Hearth's Warming Eve. But the era only lasted seven years because even after the lessons from the windigos had been learned, the leaders of the three tribes still bickered and fought for total control of the triumvirate. Their arguing got so bad that they were eventually replaced by Princess Celestia and her sister, starting the Era of the Pony Princesses.
Though she had expected the idea to hit her harder, Twilight soon came to the only possible conclusion. Discord, in order to show her that at least one other pony had been where she was, had sent her back in time to see Princess Celestia before her coronation. A fitting lesson, if not overly complicated, but how was she supposed to get back home?
Getting home now seemed like a bigger problem to Twilight, but before she could contemplate it too much further, Celestia pulled her back into reality.
“Uh... I don't want to trouble you, but you mentioned that you know this subject pretty well. Could you help me study for today? I have a really big test tomorrow and there are a lot of ponies counting on me.”
Twilight looked at her future mentor with a bit of uncertainty. It felt rather odd for her to be teaching her teacher, but if there was anypony who would be able to send her back to her own time, it would be Celestia.
“Sure I can-”
Both ponies were stopped by a sudden and loud grumbling. Blushing now herself, Twilight rubbed her stomach. She hadn't eaten since yesterday and the sun was already rising. As the the two ponies stared at the source of the noise, Celestia giggled.
“Thank you Ms. Star. If you follow me we can get you something to eat first. I haven't had breakfast either.”
Twilight nodded as Celestia led the way.
“Thank you, and please, Call me Twi-”
Twilight coughed into her hoof, causing Celestia to stop.
“Are you alright? You sound like you might be coming down with something.”
“Oh no, I'm fine, I've just got a bit of a cough this morning. Anyway, please call me Bright Star.”
Celestia's house wasn't too far from the tree where she had been studying and inside, a waking Luna was already scrounging the kitchen.
“Welcome back Tia-”
Luna stopped in her tracks when she noticed Twilight. Like her sister earlier, she seemed to be looking for some way to hide her wings before Celestia nodded and motioned to her younger sister.
“Bright Star, this is my sister, Luna. Luna, this is Bright Star. She agreed to help me study for the test tomorrow. Don't worry, she's not here to look at our wings.”
Twilight nodded, almost bowing, to Luna.
“It's a pleasure to meet you Prince-”
Again Twilight found herself coughing into her hoof.
“Sorry, Ms. Luna.”
Luna nodded nervously as she presented a glass of water to Twilight.
“Just Luna is fine.”
Twilight nodded and graciously took the water in the hopes that she wouldn't need to fake anymore coughs after she finished it. While she was drinking, Celestia explained the situation in a bit more detail.
“It's a big and complicated test. I have to prove to my mentor that I am just as capable at growing things as a pony from the Earth tribe, I can control weather just as well as a pony from the Pegasus tribe, and that my magic is just as powerful as a pony from the Unicorn tribe. It's a huge test and there are a lot of ponies counting on me to pass... It's... It's quite a burden and responsibility, I don't know if I can-”
A plate with a sandwich on it clanged on the wooden table as Luna pushed it in front of her sister.
“Of course you can do it Tia! You're the most powerful pony I know!”
Celestia smiled as her sister embraced her before running back to make their guest something for breakfast.
“But it's still a big task, which is why I have to study as much as I can before tomorrow. And I need your help Bright Star. I have to be ready for this.”
Twilight nodded.
“I understand Prin-”
Stopping for another drink of water, Twilight continued.
“I understand Celestia. I'll make sure you're more than ready for that test tomorrow!”
“I'll be right behind you too Sis!”
Celestia smiled as she looked to Luna and Twilight. Slowly confidence seemed to fill her heart, at least until Twilight's stomach growled again. As Luna placed a plate before her,Twilight sheepishly looked from her stomach to her food.
“Well, after breakfast I guess...”
As all three ponies laughed, Twilight noticed a certain pure and simple joy in the room. Here there were no princesses, no teachers, no students. Here there were only friends, laughter, kindness, generosity, and loyalty all directed to each other. Yet Twilight felt a certain pain in her heart as she identified the elements in the room. She was being distinctly dishonest and she even began to wish she had used her real name, at least that would have been closer to the truth. But what choice did she have? She couldn't very well say that she was Celestia's future student who had been sent into the past in order to learn a lesson.
The study session would have driven most ponies mad, but Celestia and Twilight were both experienced in cram sessions. Covering topics from gravitational physics to botany, and from pressure zones to light refraction, the duo covered an absurd amount of material in the course of a single day. Luna gleaned what she could, but as she often stated throughout the day, they had to already be crazy to not loose their minds after the twenty-seventh book. But that was not to say that all three of them didn't have fun in between intense problem solving and tea breaks.
But the day and following night passed all too quickly and soon it was time to meet with the ponies who would be giving Celestia her test. On the way outside of town, Twilight tried to recall if this test was mentioned in any of her history books, but she couldn't seem to remember it. As they neared the grounds where the future castle would be constructed, Twilight could see that stands had been erected and filled with ponies from all three tribes. In the center of the stands sat the three heads of the Triumvirate, Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead. Not far to their right was a special box for Star Swirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever and to the left was a small shoddy looking box for Celestia, Luna, and, by association, Twilight.
Once everypony arrived, the triumvirate was eager to get the test started. But despite their hurry, each of the three was even more eager to outdo the others in giving a long and overly pompous speech about why they where here and what Celestia was out to prove. As their speeches rambled on and failed to discreetly insult each other, Twilight could see why the Equestrian Era ended so quickly. She would have found their continuous efforts to outshine each other hilarious had it not been for the fact that all three did their best to imply that what Celestia was attempting was both futile and arrogant.
Celestia looked to the ground and scratched the floor of their box every so often as the speeches went on, but each time she heaved a nervous sigh and looked up, her sister and her friend were there with confident smiles on their faces. At last the time came and Celestia rose from her seat and prepared to head back down to the field below.
“Wish me luck.”
Luna bounced out of her seat and gave her sister a hug.
“You don't need luck Tia, you've got this.”
Twilight nodded behind her.
“She's right Prin-”
As Twilight coughed into her hoof again, Celestia smiled.
“Thank you Luna, Bright Star. I'll see you after I've passed.”
Once on the field, Celestia was given a bag of seeds and Chancellor Puddinghead stepped up out of her seat and to the front of the box.
“The test will begin now! The young pony must grow from these old and bad seeds a plant that is both healthy and strong!”
The ponies of the Earth tribe stomped their hooves in approval until Commander Hurricane forcefully pushed the Chancellor out of the way.
“She must also deal with severe weather that has been brought in from the north and held in place by a simulated pressure system!”
As Commander Hurricane spoke her words, a team of pegasus ponies pushed in a thick cluster of dark clouds that immediately began pouring rain and hail. They crammed as many clouds as they could over the field and as the “simulated pressure system” they held the clouds in place over Celestia. As the ice pelted her sister and lightning struck nearby, Luna rose out of her seat and growled at the smug triumvirate ponies in their box.
“That's not fair! Both of those tasks are hard even for experienced ponies! How can you expect her to deal with all of that at once!?”
Commander Hurricane smiled as she shrugged.
“The Triumvirate deals with matters far greater than these all at once each day! If she wants to prove that she can master all the elements of all the tribes, she needs to be prepared to face what they face. The trials of leading a nation wait for nopony.”
Luna ground her teeth at the Commander's matter-of-fact answer to the completely unfair test, but before she could say anything, Princess Platinum smirked and gently, but forcefully, pressed her way to the front of the box.
“Of course the unicorns on the side of the field will also be disrupting the magic balances of the area. You'll have to correct that as well darling. Well now, off you go!”
Both Twilight and Luna leaned forward nervously as Celestia tried to keep from panicking in the face of her daunting task. At first she tried to use her magic to sow the seeds across the field, but the magic imbalance made lifting even a hoof-full of seeds a challenge and just as she got the first scoop out of the bag, a piece of hail slammed into the back of her head, causing Celestia to drop everything as she fell face first into the mud.
Quickly rising, she tried to disperse the clouds with a powerful wind burst from her wings, but all of the clouds that were knocked away were immediately replaced by the “simulated pressure system”. Before she could try again, lightning struck nearby, causing her to jump and a wind burst from the storm threw her back to the ground. Tears began to fill Celestia's eyes as the ponies from each tribe began to laugh at each of her failed attempts to fix the situation.
Twilight and Luna looked to each other and then back to the field.
“This is bad.”
“Tia! You can do it!”
“Please Celestia! Get up!”
“Come on Sis!”
But despite their cheers, they felt like they were being drowned out by all of the laughs and jeers from the other ponies. Celestia's tears mixed with the rain as she looked up at the box with her shoulders shaking. Slowly she mouthed the words, “I'm sorry” to her sister and her friend, but neither Luna nor Twilight were ready to say it was over.
“You can do it Tia! We believe in you!”
“You can do it! We know you can-”
Twilight was interrupted by a strange glint in her eye. Looking up, she could see the sun shining through a small hole in the clouds and suddenly the answer dawned on her. Celestia's cutie mark, her greatest talent, featured the sun.
“Celestia! We know you can do this! Remember! Like 'i' before 'e', never put row two before three!”
Celestia looked up at her friends in confusion. As she mouthed Twilight's words again to herself it suddenly dawned on her what she had to do, but it would take all the magic she could muster to break through the distorted aura around the field.
Gritting her teeth, Celestia stood firm in the face of the pelting ice and concentrated all of her power into her horn. Everypony fell silent as they witnessed this sudden burst of confidence and power from the pony they had thought was about to break and run from the challenge.
As her horn glowed a bright gold, Celestia fired a beam straight up into the sky. The beam was tiny and frail looking until it managed to force its way past the unicorns' magic aura where it burst into a colossal ray that reached up to the sun above. Now that she had a direct link to it, Celestia pulled on the sun to bring it closer and called upon its rays to shine brightly on the field. Everypony's mouth fell agape as the brilliant sunbeams burned away the storm clouds and revealed a field that had been both soaked and aerated by the hail. Using her hooves, Celestia gathered the seeds and sowed them across the field and with her magic link, set the sun back to its place in the sky. With the soil so prepared, it was simple for Celestia to concentrate her Earth pony abilities into the soil and before long, bright green stems could be seen rising out of the ground.
The stands were totally silent as everypony watched how Celestia, in a matter of moments, reversed the situation and stood muddy, exhausted, and bruised, but victorious in the middle of all of them. Each of the Triumvirate desperately searched for words, but before they could think of anything, Star Swirl the Bearded rose from his seat.
“I do believe that the student has passed her test. Congratulations Celestia. I would say that you should receive full marks, is that not right your Excellencies?”
The Triumvirate could only mouth words, trying to find someway out of their predicament, but Celestia didn't even notice. Before anypony could say anything else, Luna ran into her sister at full speed, with Twilight right behind her.
“You did it Tia! You did it! I knew you could do it Sis!”
Celestia was speechless as the two embraced with tears in their eyes, but she wasted no time looking up for Twilight. Twilight was going to stay back and give the sisters their well deserved victory together but they both motioned her over for a group hug. Before long they were all in tears as Clover the Clever trotted up to the three of them.
“Well done Celestia, very well done. You'll have to forgive Star Swirl for being a bit late, he is having to console the Triumvirate at the moment, it seems that they are a bit disappointed at having to give up their power.”
As Celestia nodded, Luna and Twilight gave Clover a confused look.
“What do you mean?”
Celestia lowered her head as Twilight and Luna looked back and forth between her and Clover.
“I'm sorry I didn't mention this sooner. The reason why this test was so important, why so many ponies were counting on me, was because this test was to prove that I had the powers of all three pony tribes... and to prove that I would be able to represent all three tribes, as their ruler. Star Swirl made a bet with the Triumvirate that if I could prove myself in this test, they would pass the government to me and in their arrogance, they accepted.”
Luna's and even Twilight's mouth fell open at Celestia's words. She had studied Princess Celestia's coronation before, but the book hadn't mentioned anything about this test. Grimacing under their silence, Celestia continued.
“I didn't mean to deceive anypony, I just... I was so scared by everything, I didn't want to spread that fear to both of you. I'm so sorry, can you please forgive me?”
Luna immediately hugged her again.
“Of course we do Tia! How could you think we wouldn't? But you should have told us! If we had known what all was at stake we would have tried harder to find ways to support you even more!”
Twilight nodded in agreement.
“She right, The worse your problems are the more you need your friends behind you Pr-”
Twilight stopped, not because she had almost called Celestia a princess again, but because she had just spoken, with her own mouth, the very words of advice she had needed to hear for her own problems. As Celestia and Luna pulled her in for another group hug, Twilight's eyes began to water.
“It... It really is timeless advice.”
As the three held each other tightly, Clover the Clever coughed into her hoof in an attempt to bring the attention back to the present matters of state.
“Dear Celestia, I understand that you may want some time to think this over, but won't you please answer the cry of the ponies for a unified and effective government? Will you rise as ruler of all of Equestria?”
Celestia shook her head as she released Twilight and Luna.
“I don't need any time to think about this. I will accept the role as head of state on one condition.”
Clover smiled broadly.
“And that is?”
“I could never have made it this far with out the support of my sister Luna and my good friend Bright Star, so it is only fair that they be crowned as joint rulers with me.”
Everypony's mouth dropped as Clover scrambled for words.
“You... You want to replace the Triumvirate with another one?”
“I understand your concerns, but I would have failed this test without them, so I won't leave them behind.”
Clover searched for words as she looked back and forth the between Celestia and Star Swirl, who was still consoling a weeping Princess Platinum in the Triumvirate Box. Realizing that the decision to accept Celestia's condition was on her, she finally relented and nodded.
“Very well then, Princess Celestia, I hereby accept your terms.”
With her face abeam with pride, Clover turned to go spread the news and as she trotted off to inform Star Swirl first, Twilight walked back up to Celestia.
“I'm sorry Princ-”
Twilight coughed into her hoof again, only to realize that now it was appropriate to refer to Celestia as “Princess”.
“I'm sorry Princess-”
“Bright Star, to you I will always just be Celestia.”
Twilight blushed as she looked away for a moment. She had never hated a name now as much as she hated her pseudonym. Celestia had been able to come clean in front of them, but Twilight still struggled with how to say who she really was, without looking like she was either insane or the world's worst liar.
Noticing the tear in Twilight's eye, Celestia and Luna moved in closer.
“Bright Star? Is something wrong?”
“Is you cough getting worse? Are you ill?”
Twilight shook her head and quickly wiped the tear from her eye.
“I'll tell you later.”
Twilight did her best to console herself. It wasn't a lie. She would tell Princess Celestia who she was and what she had done, either in this time or her own.
“But now, I have to tell you, I can't accept a crown.”
“Why not? You deserve it as much as either of us.”
Twilight shook her head.
“I have to go back home eventually. As much as I want to stay, I have responsibilities to ponies waiting for me.”
Celestia frowned at first, but then smiled with a sigh.
“With an attitude like that, you would probably be the best princess out of all of us. But I understand. Can you at least stay for the coronation?”
Twilight smiled and hugged her future mentor again.
“Of course.”
Time flew by quickly as ponies flocked to Canterlot to see their new princesses and prepare them for their new roles as leaders. And while Celestia and Luna joked about how Canterlot was starting to look like the new capital, Twilight seemed to get the most enjoyment out of the notion. It was ironically humorous to Twilight to see how nervous the princesses were about getting everything right as she helped Celestia and Luna prepare for their coronations. But they were together, laughing and supporting each other and as soon as it had begun, it was over and the two pony princesses were being paraded throughout the growing city. Twilight of course waved and smiled as they left the central square on the start of their parade, but a sudden voice behind her caused her to jump.
“You see Twilight Sparkle? Other ponies have been where you are and made it out just fine.”
“Discord!”
Twilight looked around for the source of the voice but couldn't see him anywhere.
“Discord, where are you?”
“Oh you know, just bridging a gap between time and space so you can come home. I doubt Celestia would appreciate it if I just left the sparkling new princess in the past. So if you've learned your lesson, I believe it's time to go home.”
“Wait! I can't go yet, I have to say goodbye.”
“Oh don't worry Twilight Sparkle, or should I say Bright Star? They'll be alright, besides it's much easier to disappear than to say where you're going.”
“But Discord!”
Twilight's protests were cut off as she felt herself falling into darkness again. She closed her eyes and tried to resist the spell with all of her might, but the spell was too foreign, too powerful, and too quick for her and when she opened her eyes, her colors were back to normal and she was in back in the gardens that she knew well.
“Discord!”
Discord clapped as he chuckled and landed in front of her.
“Well done Twilight Sparkle! Not only have you relearned the value of friendship, but you also played an invaluable role in one of the most pivotal moments in Equestrian history!”
“Discord! How could you send me into the past like that?! What if I had messed everything up?!”
“Now now Twilight Sparkle, I knew you would be fine because it had all already happened.”
Twilight's protests were again cut off as Discord's words sank in, however he gave her no time to reflect on things as he quickly appeared behind her and began pushing her towards her tower.
“Though I may have been wrong about getting you back in time for breakfast, you can still make it in time for your own coronation... if you hurry that is.”
Twilight's eyes went wide as she looked from the tower, to Discord, and then to the sun above them.
“What?! What time is it?”
“Well you don't have too much time left, but hey, after all you did to help Princess Celestia get coronated, so this should be easy!”
Discord gave his usual laugh, but Twilight didn't even notice as she ran for the tower at full speed.
Everything carried a strange feeling of déjà vu for Twilight as she stood at the center stage of the events. Even her friends standing off to the right on the stage, reminded her of when she stood to the right of Celestia and Luna. And while she was overjoyed at the ceremony and everything being done in her honor, it also felt agonizing to be so close to Princess Celestia, but unable to talk about what she had just experienced. But she had a promise to keep, she would tell Celestia at the first chance she got.
After being crowned, the princesses made their way to the balcony so that all of Equestria could see their new princess. Seeing her opportunity, Twilight lightly tapped her now present mentor on the shoulder.
“Princess Celestia? Can I talk to you for a moment?”
“I'm afraid we don't have much time Twilight, can it wait?”
“It's... it's waited a really long time as it is...”
Princess Celestia gave a comforting smile as she looked at her faithful student's forlorn expression.
“I wish we had the time to discuss it now, but Princess Luna and I will be glad to hear you out after the last ceremony. Until then, perhaps this can help you.”
Princess Celestia handed Twilight a small box, whose contents at first confused her. Did Princess Celestia already know what she was going to say? Could that even be possible?
Regardless of the answer, Princess Twilight Sparkle wiped away a small tear as she took one of the cough drops out of the box and placed it in her mouth.
Author's Note
This was my entry in one recent write-offs, "Time and Time Again".
I got a lot of mixed scores on this one, but no real feedback in the form of constructive criticism, so please feel free to tell me what you liked or didn't like about the story.
That said, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy "Timeless Advice From a Momentary Test".
