And I quote!by KarrakazChaptersHome is where the books are.Persistence and identity.Never waste kindness.Maps.You cannot be mad at laughter.Take, Love. by Wilhelm IIParanoia in reverse.Growing up.A lesson in leadership.Shielded by friends.Patience and wisdom.Home is where the books are.Author: Karrakaz Quotation : "A room without books is like a body without a soul." ~Cicero It was so wonderful to be flying again, speeding through the sky brushing against the clouds. Today felt different though, even though her wings were good as new and the skies above bluer than she was. But she was distracted, she was thinking about her new hobby, the word still tasted weird in her mouth -reading- not to long ago she'd laughed at Twilight for being such a bookworm, yet now she was becoming one herself. She found her mind drifting away from flying, and back to her living room, where she now had a bookcase filled with books of her favorite fictional character: daring doo. Of course, she was still a speedster at heart, and her choices in literature reflected that, but she really felt like she was a different pony now. And she fewer qualms every day, fewer qualms about going home to sit down with a good book and read. And she realized what was different, she finally thought of her house as home. In the past, the big open sky had been her home, flying until she was exhausted and then napping on whatever cloud she was closest to. But at this moment she really felt like she had a single place she wanted to return to, and she had finally figured out why. The books, her books, given to her by her best friends in all of equestria, had become friends in their own right. Well, since I'm too distracted to fly today, might as well head back and read something The only problem was... she'd already read all the daring doo books there were, and she didn't really know if there were any other books she'd like.. But she did know somepony who just might. That bookworm. She thought and then chuckled. "To the library it is" she said to herself looping around and heading for the tree that possibly held new friends. A special kind of friends that made her home worth living in. Persistence and identity.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are." ~ Tobias Wolff "Covered in tree sap AGAIN, oh Rarity is going to be so mad at me." The white filly unicorn wailed. "Don't worry Sweetie Belle, ah took precautions this time around!" The yellow earth pony led her two friends towards their 'secret' hideout after their latest adventure, or crusade as they called it. The latest crusade had revolved around sweets and the production thereof, they'd spent their whole day trying -and failing- to make chocolate cakes, pies and cupcakes. Somewhere along the line though, things had gone wrong (as they are apt to around those colts foals and fillies looking for their cutie marks.) The tree-sap was still somewhat of a mystery, even to the fillies themselves had no idea where the sticky substance had come from, but they were used to it by now. And Applebloom was apparently prepared for it. Upon arriving in their clubhouse (Scootaloo's suggestion to rename it to a chapel so they could become real crusaders had been rejected) the yellow filly undid the bow tie that was holding back her hair and jumped into the wooden tub she had apparently placed there earlier in the day. "Wow Applebloom, that thing is huge! Did you carry that thing all by yourself?" Scootaloo asked eyes as wide as her mouth, which hung open slack-jawed. The tub Applebloom had jumped into was about eight sizes too big, under no circumstances should the filly have been able to haul such a massive thing all the way out here by herself. "nuh-uh, it was jus' here when Ah checked on the clubhouse after school was done." the red-maned filly replied. "now are ya'll comin' in or what, slowpoke fillies." she giggled and dove back into the tub. The orange pegasus was about to join her earthpony friend in the swimming-pool sized tub when she was poked in the side. Looking over to her left she saw a grinning (almost cackling) Sweetie Belle rubbing her hooves together, she looked positively evil, all she was missing was Rarity's cat to stroke. "Maybe we can get out cutie marks for having an amazing water fight" the unicorn filly whispered, suddenly she didn't look evil at all, Scootaloo laughed and whispered back "We already tried that once, but i'm up for trying it again if you are." "Let's do it, Applebloom won't know what hit her!" the unicorn almost squealed. Before they could put their plan into action though, they were both soaked by hoof-fulls of water thrown out of the tub by a giddy looking Applebloom. "Got ya! Ah win again." She smirked. Her two friends quickly climbed up and threw themselves into the tub. In the distance, through the brush and several of the trees, a red earth pony stallion and an orange mare were watching the fillies play in their newly acquired water fighting arena. "Amazing how wild those fillies can play, and how much fun they can have with that old tub, even after all that crusadin' don't ya think so mac?" "Eee-yup," he chewed at the corn stalk in his mouth. "they're a persistent bunch Ah'll give em that." The mare smiled as she turned around and started walking back to the farm. "They'll find out who they are sooner or later, although sometimes Ah wish it was sooner." Applejack laughed "But they'll get there, just like we did." the red stallion looked at the playing fillies for a moment longer before following his sister. "Eeee-yup." Never waste kindness.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." ~Aesop The young mare had to stifle a laugh. The latest charge under her care was scampering around her, busy being chased by an indignant looking owl. The whole ordeal was made even more amusing by the constant "Who?!" Although it might have been "hoo" and she simply misheard it, it did nothing for the mare's composure. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and fell over laughing, tears streaming down her face in an uncontrollable expression of mirth. The little white rabbit hopped around the laughing mare trying to keep her between himself and his attacker, making weird faces at the owl whenever he wasn't running for his life. The owl, finally tiring of the game set down on his perch near the cottage and went to sleep, the day being as tiring for the nocturnal creature as the night was for most others. The pagasus mare got up, no longer crying from laughter but that same mirth still present on her face. She walked over to the white ball of fluff, the rabbit, being as thoroughly exhausted by the game of tag as the owl was, had promptly lain down and was already fast asleep. Nuzzling the creature softly before scooping it up with one of her wings, Fluttershy made her way to the cottage that was not just her home, but the home of an abundant array of other creatures aswell. Even though she'd treated a lot of sickly animals over the years, she'd never gotten the chance to really watch any of them grow up, most of the growing happening in their burrows underground. But no kindness is ever wasted, Angel bunny, her little helper and confidante had found a mate. And Amber, the doe's name that might just aswell have been a description, had had four kits. The youngest of which the mare was now carefully handing over to his mother. Oh young animals are so wonderful. She thought to herself as the kit snuggled up to his mother. The mare wandered around her cottage for a while, thinking about all the creatures she had helped and the ones she would help in the future, and the trust they had shown her in return. She came to a resolution, she would make an extra special feast for all of her animal friends, to thank all of them for being such wonderful creatures. But nothing could have prepared her for the shock that awaited her when she reached the kitchen. Dozens of animal were walking, slithering, hopping and flying around, all of them carrying kitchen utensils or cooking ingredients of some kind. And in the center of it all was angel bunny directing the veritable horde. When he noticed that some of the creatures had stopped and were looking behind him, he turned around and saw his caretaker. The yellow pegasus was just standing there, mouth open wide, and tears filling her eyes. The bunny hopped off the table he'd been standing on, and towards his best friend. Hugging her left front leg he looked up at the pony that had taken care of him for as long as he could remember. After hugging her for a brief moment he gestured to some of the larger creatures and promptly pushed her out of the kitchen. They weren't done yet, and this time the animals would take care of the caretaker. He nodded knowingly to himself, no act of kindness from the mare would be wasted while he was around. Maps.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down." ~Mitch Hedberg The mare finally stopped humming as she kicked the door closed behind her, her magenta colored eyes scanning her living room. Without pause she walked towards a trophy cabinet which proudly displayed all of the treasures she had accumulated over the years. She carefully placed her newest acquisition next to the others, it was a sapphire figurine depicting two dogs facing away from each other. She beamed with pride as she looked at her new prize and then laughed a confident laugh. She turned around and walked to the bookcase at the other end of the room, picking up a book that she'd bought just before she had heard about Ahuizotl and that he had found a precious treasure. She sat down on her couch and looked at the book's title, "Rainbow dash, and the elements of harmony" she read out loud, and almost squee'd in excitement, she'd been a fan of the adventures of the best flier in Equestria for some time now. Several hours later she looked up from the book and noticed that the sun was about to set. Oh damn! She got up, trotted out the door and slammed it shut behind her before realizing something. She face-hoofed and quickly reopened the door picking up her saddlebags and slinging them over her back while she made her way towards the local post office at a breakneck speed. She'd totally forgotten to pick up the new map she'd ordered for her next adventure. After getting lost in the jungle on her last tour her parents had insisted that she'd get maps of any place she had been to in the past, as well as any place she planned on visiting. They had also encouraged her to put pins in every place she had ever been to, and she thought it quite possible they they'd get her a map of the world as well. At least those sixty days were worth it, she thought as she absentmindedly flexed her wings. The right one still hurt a fair bit but at least it didn't have to be bandaged anymore. She arrived just in time, the grey mail-colt waved at her, holding the rolled up map in his mouth. She took it from him and deposited it in her saddlebags. "Thanks mister Ditz." she said. The colt chuckled, "That's dad or father to you young lady." Ditz Doo, closed the door of the post office behind him and turned around to hug his youngest daughter. "Will you be eating with us tomorrow Daring? Your sister is coming to visit." he asked. "Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world!" she exclaimed smiling at him. She was still smiling when she returned home. Several hours later she wasn't smiling anymore, it was impossible to hang up these maps properly if she only put pins in the places she'd already been. She groaned as the map came loose once again and flopped down on her bed throwing her explorers hat onto the nightstand next to it. she was going to have to figure out a better way to hold up all those maps. Maybe I should travel to the top two places on every map. Was her last thought before she drifted off to sleep. You cannot be mad at laughter.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "You cannot be mad at somebody who makes you laugh – it's as simple as that." ~ Jay Leno Luna walked into the room. "Greetings sister, hello Twilight Sparkle." she nodded at both mares in turn as she walked over to the empty lounge bed that stood to the left of the ones the monarch of the sun and her student were occupying. Then just as she was about to lay down the lounge suddenly vanished, causing her to hit the floor with an audible * thump * instead. Luna looked around, bewildered. "What just happened?" she asked the other mares. Celestia looked as confused as she felt, but Twilight... Twilight could barely contain her laughter "I think it's Rarity!" she snickered, "She..." the unicorns face contorted "she...!" she was beginning to have trouble containing her mirth. "She.. sometimes..." Finally the dam burst and twilight rolled off of her chaise lounge and onto the spa floor in laughter, there was a lot more air coming out of the mare than there was going in, and for a moment luna wondered what color the purple unicorn would turn if she didn't get enough oxygen, the moment she had this thought she suddenly felt like laughing herself. "She sometimes summons a chaise lounge out of nowhere when she's upset!" the unicorn managed to squeeze out in between wheezes and cackles. "I guess... I guess this is where it comes from!" Unlike Luna's mundane thoughts, Celestia was wondering about affairs of a more arcane nature. She wondered if her student was using some hereto unknown magic to spread her mirth, as she found herself hard pressed to refrain from laughing, and even Luna who had been looking at the unicorn indignantly just moments before was now rolling on the floor, tears of laughter pouring out of her eyes. The sun goddess decided that maybe laughing wouldn't be such a bad thing and let go of her thousand years of practiced restraint, quickly dissolving in a puddle of glee herself. Nearby on the floor, Luna was now having serious trouble juggling breathing and laughing. She briefly wondered what color she would turn if she didn't get enough air, but the thought was fleeting, the joy of laughing like she hadn't done in over a thousand years washing away any attempt at thought, rational or otherwise. Meanwhile in another part of town a white unicorn mare had thrown herself onto a freshly summoned chaise lounge and wailed. "This is the. Worst. Possible. THING." she cried out, dramatically lifting a hoof to her face. A few feet away from her, an orange earth pony was doing the same, that is to say, she was busy acquainting her face with her left hoof. "For the last time Rarity, Ah don't want anything to do with all that frou-frou makeover nonsense!" The farmer told her friend hotly. The surprisingly real looking tears of the bawling unicorn lasted for a few more moments before she got up, dismissed the chaise lounge, sending it back to where it belonged and sighed. "Oh very well then." she said, her eyes suddenly very much dry. She clasped her hooves in front of her. "Ideaaaaaaa!" Applejack backed away from her dressmaker/drama queen friend. "Ah know Ah'm going to regret this but, what's your idea?" she inquired carefully, her left hoof already snaking its way upwards. "We'll go get you something to eat at sugarcube corner while I ask Pinkie Pie if she can model for me!" the designer exclaimed. The farmer's left hoof and her face had their first falling out, her face lighting up with an honest smile. "Ah have to say that's a great idea, Ah'm starvin'" The designer and the farmer made their way towards sugarcube corner, but before they came within spitting distance of the bakery they were bowled over by a pink missile. "Oh my gosh Rarity! Applejack! I'm so glad you're there!" the missile exclaimed managing to fit all her speech within a one second time frame. "You have to help me save Twilight! Somepony is torturing her!" Both mares looked at Pinkie Pie, the unicorn was thoroughly confused, and the orange pony looked at the pink one with a complete deadpan face, her left hoof and her face were exchanging apologies. "Pinkie dear? Twilight is with the princesses on a relaxing spa day, do you really think anypony is powerful enough to beat those three?" Rarity asked, attempting to reason with the party pony. Applejack just shook her head "Listen to yerself, ya don't even know she's bein' tortured Pinkie!" Pinkie Pie ignored both of them "Just listen!" she hissed. All three of them fell completely silent listening intently. And while it seemed incredibly unlikely, even from this distance they could hear chocked laughter coming from the direction of the spa. "That hardly sounds like torture Pinkie dear." Rarity told the pink mare who was still pinning her to the ground "Ah'll say, sounds to me like she's havin' the time of her life" Applejack said for once agreeing with her designer friend. "No! Don't you see? It's the worst kind of torture! They're tickling her with feathers!" Pinkie exclaimed naked fear apparent in her eyes as she shivered from head to tail. Applejack's left hoof and face were becoming fast friends by this point, as her right hoof wondered why it hadn't been invited. She couldn't get mad though, Pinkie's antics always made her smile. Take, Love. by Wilhelm IIAuthor: Wilhelm II Quotation: "Give them nothing take from them everything." ~Leonidas. Dizty was not a happy mare. Sure the name calling and recent muffin shortages were bad, but that wasn't the reason this time. For being the only mailmare in Ponyville, Dizty prided herself on been able to deliver everypony's mail, even if she wrecked half the town doing it. But there was one resident who she had never been able to deliver a letter for, the local librarian and element of magic. Dizty knew that she was sending and receiving mail, the whole smarty-pants issue proved it, but she had not clue as to how, that was until yesterday. It had been a warm day and Dizty was having a picnic in the park with Dinky, where she saw Twilight and friends laughing and holding a scroll, she was just about to fly over and deliver it when she saw a sight that made her incandescent with rage, for before her very eyes, the letter was sent away by a flick of green fire coming from Twilights dragon, Spike. Ditzy had sat there gob-smacked, this lizard was stealing her job! And so she plotted and waited for the right time to strike. Which brought us back to the present day, Dizty was hovering outside Twilight's window, waiting for her to try and send some mail, and to her delight, saw that she had just finished a letter and was calling for Spike, thinking quickly in order to save her job, Dizty flew straight into the glass window, her momentum shattering the glass into tiny specs of light and sending her across the room, to Twilights feet, where she let out a weak cry. "Mail service." -- "Our job is to ensure that the balance never tips too far to the wrong side. And there is one more thing you can do which will make certian that it never does: you can love." ~ Tinia These were words that Ditzy Remembered and understood quite well. She had just returned from Twilight's, the unicorn had been reluctant to trust her with the mail, and instead she had been sent her on her way with a hamper of muffins, but they weren't enough to help banish the feelings of uselessness that coarsed through her veins, the only thing that she was good at, had just been taken from her by a upstart lizard. A single tear rolled down her soft kind features, slashing into the mud bellow, creating a series of ripples across its surface, ruining its peace and stabilty. Just like me. Thought Ditzy, before entering her humble home, and what she saw in the middle, melted her heart, for there lying on the rugs was her little muffin, Dinky. Ditzy smiled as she carried her little baby into her bed, but as she was about to leave she spotted a drawing of her and Dinky having a picnic in the park and on the back was a note in Dinky's hoof writing: "Dear, mama, I wuv u, your the best mama I could have." Ditzy looked back at her sleeping angel, her eyes watering, "I love you too muffin." For Ditzy knew that no matter what she broke or what people said, she would always be perfect to her little muffin. Paranoia in reverse.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy." ~J.D. Salinger After giving Doodle and Mathilda their privacy. (two and two and two plus one added up to leaving them alone after all.) The Party pony made her way back to the town square and, once there she began to entertain everypony in need of a smile. At least until it was party o'clock on her internal timepiece, which meant that she had to get to sugarcube corner fast! A shadow was left where the pink mare had been playing hop scotch with a group of fillies. Not having noticed that it's owner had long since gone the shadow kept on playing. Until it noticed the fillies had stopped and were all staring at it, at which point it figured out something was missing. It face-hoofed before promptly chasing after the mare. Pinkie was already hard at work setting up her party cannon for the big party she had planned in the library when her shadow caught up with her. The shadow poked it's owner, Pinkie ignored it. The shadow poked Pinkie harder, Pinkie turned around and gasped. "Ghhhhuuuuuuuuuu, there you are! I thought I'd lost you!" The pink mare hugged her shadow tightly for a moment, and then let go. Turning back to her party cannon she said "Could you hand me Party munitions type P-35? The shadow nodded as fast as the pink mare herself sometimes did and produced a cylinder shaped object which it handed to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie took the cylinder (which read: 35 Kilofun use only in party emergency) and bent a few rules of space time to make sure it fit snugly inside her party cannon. She turned back to her shadow, "I'm going to go get the party cannon into position, you go get the stapler and the custard alright?" Once again the shadow nodded, the custard and the stapler had become somewhat of a routine since the Party mare had seen a sonic rain-boom for the first time. Pinkie wheeled her cannon into position, but before she could set it off she was tackled by a green and purple dragon. "Hey Pinkie....!" the baby dragon chuckled nervously after he had dusted himself off. "Hia spike! What'cha doin'?" The mare replied shaking the dust off herself, as well as a few streamers which hadn't been there before. "well ehhh, you see." Spike looked at the ground making nervous circles with his foot. Not one to wait patiently, the pink mare began hopping in place, humming a tune to herself. "Twilight told me to tell you that...." the dragon looked around again searching for something. He sighed, and resigned himself to failure. "Twilight and the girls wanted to throw you a surprise party and I was supposed to come get you." he explained "But Dash was worried that you'd go all Cranky Pie again so she told me to tell you.... that" he finished lamely looking at the party mare fearfully. Pinkie had stopped bouncing and was now hanging suspended in the air. This lasted for close to a minute before she finally descended and gave the dragon a stern look. "Alright mister, Spill the beans!" she said, pulling a desk lamp out of nowhere and shining in his face like she'd done some time ago. Spike squinted "But Pinkie, I just told you everything." he pointed out. The mare, who was already bouncing again looked at him, her neck twisted so far that her head seemed to be upside down on her shoulders "Oh that's right! Well I guess we should go to the library then! Wouldn't want to be late to my own surprise party!" She said after spinning around like a centrifuge for a couple of seconds. The baby dragon blinked once, then twice. "But Pinkie aren't you upset? I just ruined the surprise." he asked trepidation clear in his voice. "Of course not silly!" she said before leaning over to him. "Don't tell anypony, but I'm very good a faking being surprised." she whispered before straightening "And besides, you guys care enough about me to want to make sure you don't hurt me accidentally, I could never be upset about that!" And with that Pinkie hopped and bounced her way to the library, spike running after her, trying to keep up. Opening the door for Pinkie, Spike opted to remain outside for a moment, scared of what might happen if Twilight suspected that he'd 'spilled the beans' "Surprise!" "S'prise!" "Surprise Pinkie!" "um, surprise." "Surprise darling!" Spike had to admit that Pinkie's acting skills were terrific, nopony suspected that she'd known, he briefly wondered if she'd forgotten about it herself. "Oh thank you so much girls!" Pinkie positively beamed. "I don't get surprise parties often enough, I mean I organize one every week or so, but other ponies don't nearly throw them often enough for my tastes!" "I'm just glad you didn't get upset like last time." Dash said, lazily hovering overhead. The other girls nodded in agreement. "Oh Dashie you don't have to worry about that anymore! You know how I used to be scared that some ponies were planning to make me sad by not being my friends anymore? Well now I'm on the other side of that bit!" The Pink pony exclaimed, her smile so enormous that it would have separated the top half of any other pony's face from the bottom half. "Ever since you guys threw me that surprise birthday party, I totally suspect ponies of plotting to make me happy!" by now she was hanging from the ceiling. "In fact I know that there are at least five ponies and a dragon who are trying to make me happy right now! Which makes me even happier!" she started bouncing on the ceiling until Twilight spoke up. "Pinkie!" The unicorn exclaimed holding her head in her hooves "You shouldn't be able to bounce on the ceiling, that's not how physics work!" Hearing this the incarnation of laughter was promptly subjected to a sense of vertigo and landed squarely on her belly. "Oh Twilight, you can be such a party pooper sometimes." She said blowing a stray lock of candy pink hair out of her face. Her friends all laughed and gathered around for a group hug. And them smiling, to her, was the best thing they could do if they wanted to make her happy. "I love you guys!" Outside, near the now abandoned party cannon, a shadow was scratching it's head and looking around in confusion, wondering where it's owner had gone this time. Growing up.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up." ~Eve Babitz The purple filly struggled to keep a yellow and gold painted orb floating with her magic, she glanced at the whiter than white mare – her mentor, who was also reclining in the grass of one of the inner gardens of Canterlot castle. The orb wobbled when the filly's attention shifted from her magic to her mentor, always so graceful, always so powerful, always so kind and knowledgeable and mature. She wondered how long it would take her to grow up and be as graceful as her teacher, the mare had already told her that she was powerful, but graceful and kind and mature... well she thought that she already was kind, you could never know for sure though. The filly hardly noticed when the orb lost it's magical purple aura and landed on the grass with a thud, she scampered over to her teacher and role-model who, at present was nose deep in several scrolls at the same time, and settled down beside her, peering at the scrolls as well and trying to make sense of them. The regent of the sun was in conflict with herself, on the one hoof she wanted to give the little Twilight Sparkle her full attention during their lessons, and on the other hoof she had to make sure that Equestria didn't come apart at the seams. She glanced at the spot where the filly had been busy with an advanced version of a magical endurance training, she hadn't told Twilight that the orb she was levitating had a magical enchantment cast on it that would increase it's weight by a thousandfold whenever magic was used to lift it. When she didn't spot her student right away she felt a flicker of discomfort, had the filly asked her a question and she hadn't responded? Had her student gotten bored? Perhaps she was crying somewhere because her teacher didn't respond to anything she said. She mentally chided herself for thinking like that, she'd made a mistake trying to juggle teaching and ruling and she'd just have to do better in the future. She looked around the garden for a moment trying to imagine where the purple filly could have gone, trees were swaying slightly in the wind, the pond – well more of a small lake really – was rippling, teeming with fish and the fountain was spraying water as it always did, a wonderfully relaxing place she thought to herself. Then she heard something. "Princess?" She looked down and found her purple student right there next to her, peering at one of the scrolls she was levitating with her magic. "What is it my faithful student?" she asked trying to hide a chuckle at the filly's look of extreme concentration by smiling her warmest smile, one she had perfected for over a thousand years. "What does, regulations for the dispersion of weather patterns have to do with magic?" Once more she smiled her smile to hide her bemusement, young Twilight had a knack for surprising her with her questions "Well Twilight, even though they cannot use it like you can, peggasi have a magic of their own, which allows them to interact with clouds." She thought about how to best explain it to her student, the filly was smart beyond a shadow of a doubt, but no matter how smart she was still very young. "Most of their magic resides in their wings, just like you and your horn, but like you they have a little magic throughout their entire bodies, and that makes walking on clouds very eas-" she continued before Twilight interrupted her. "I know what pegassi can do with their magic princess!" she exclaimed, "I've been reading all about it in the Equestrian Trinity: past and present." before slapping a hoof to her mouth, eyes wide in fear in the realization that she'd just interrupted not just her teacher, but the ruler of Equestria. "..uhm... sorry princess, I didn't mean to interrupt you." Celestia couldn't hold back a chuckle this time, "It's fine Twilight." she nuzzled the filly tenderly which the unicorn eagerly accepted. "Forgive me for my assumption, what exactly did you mean?" It took a while for her question to register in Twilight's mind which had already jumped back to her earlier musings, which is why it took her a while to respond. "Well, if the pegassi are in charge of the weather, then why is that unicorn charging you for it?" Celestia looked at her student quizzically for a moment – making the unicorn shiver thinking she'd said something wrong again – before turning back to her scrolls. After a few seconds of searching through the appropriate material she realized that her student was right, the royal treasury was being duped by a unicorn named "Greenfield the Sly." she ground her teeth for a moment before turning back to Twilight, "You have a good eye, my faithful student." The filly beamed at the praise, before looking at her more soberly. "You mean this was a test?" she asked, to which Celestia shook her head. "This was no test Twilight, these are actually scrolls of some importance." Twilight was thoroughly confused, the princess was supposed to know everything! "You didn't know?" She asked her mentor "About the error I mean?" Her mentor shook her head again, "Alas Twilight, even I do not know everything." This brought the filly back to her original line of thought, if even Celestia didn't know everything... how was she supposed to know when she had grown up? She decided to voice her question. "Princess, if you can't measure mature-" her face scrunched up as she tried to find the right end to the word"-ness by how much somepony knows, how will I ever know if I've grown up?" The pure innocence in the question made Celestia laugh out loud. "My dear Twilight Sparkle," She nuzzled the unicorn again before continuing: "Most ponies measure maturity by age, although age in fact has very little to do with being truely mature." the filly looked at her in rapt attention and she smiled at the eager look on her students face. "nor does knowledge, or power, of grace, in fact I am still not certain if we know exactly when somepony is mature." She rolled up the scrolls and levitated the whole stack of them over to one of the guards near the entrance, after nodding at him and relaying her instructions she turned back to her student. "By the time I had grown up, -which took a fairly long time for me- I had naturally supposed that I'd be grown up, however I still find myself amazed at new problems and solutions to problems life can throw at us." Twilight, who's attention had been focused on her mentor at the start now looked increasingly confused. "Does that mean I'll never grow up?" she asked, looking lost. Celestia got up and motioned her head for the filly to follow her, "No my faithful student, you will know when you have grown up, but the most important thing is-" She brought her face close to Twilight and winked "I don't think I've ever grown up." Twilight smiled the secretive smile of a child, and Celestia laughed, growing a little more that day. A lesson in leadership.Quotation: "A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done." ~Dwight D.Eisenhower. Author: Karrakaz Luna took another step forward, the cold and dark water hitting her shoe adorned hooves and sending a shiver up her spine, "Sister!" The white mare either did not hear her or could not respond. "Sister you know I'm afraid of deep water!" she shouted, shivering as she looked at the water, cold and deep even though the sun was still hanging low in the sky. and today started out so well she thought with a frown. -- She had woken up earlier than usual that day, in fact she'd hardly had any sleep at all, busy as she had been with preparations for the coming day. Today was the day, she was going to spend more time with her sister one way or another, to that end she decided to take her breakfast in the court halls which, in hind sight, probably wasn't the brightest idea she'd ever had. It had been pleasant enough at first, watching her sister deal with ponies from all walks of life was like watching an artist at work, she liked to think of herself as an artist, she had talent with the brush, but Celestia... Celestia's talent was with ponies. She had watched as her sister asked things of ponies that, if she were the one doing the asking, would be met with flat-out refusal, but the goddess of the sun got nothing but smiles and nods of agreement. But then her older sister had seen her, and any sense of normalcy in the court of the sun had gone down the proverbial drain... She would never understand how ponies put up with her sisters... "antics" since Celestia had seen her, three ponies had left the court halls covered in some sort of cheese, several others had (unsuccessfully) tried to reason with a statue that did not even remotely look like Celestia- probably an illusion spell she mused- and one pegasus had even been catapulted out of an open window by his own creation. (She would also never understand why the royal guards would need a cake launcher.) All in all it really had made for some brilliant entertainment during breakfast. That brilliant entertainment however did not agree with her food, most of it having been either choked on or spat out during another bout of laughter. Her eyes weren't faring any better than her food, strained as they were by a most daunting task: trying to hold back the tears of laughter that threatened to slip past her eyelids every time another pony left the throne room with a bewildered look on his or her face, trying to figure out what the hay just happened. The servants were taking away her mostly empty breakfast plates, while she herself was in the process of sketching the pegasus being catapulted though the open window, when Celestia appeared beside her. "Did you enjoy the show little sister?" the white alicorn asked her with a gentle smile which, as the ponies that knew her best could tell, was a masking smile that carefully hid a mischievous grin. Luna looked up from her sketch and tried to mirror her sister's smile, succeeding to a degree, although she lacked the thousand years of experience that Celestia had with it. "It was very enjoyable, though I must ask." Luna gently levitated the sketch onto her breakfast table before turning to face her sister. "How do get ponies to agree with you so readily? I am certain that if I was the one asking such things of them they would refuse, some of them would even think about rebellion!" Celestia laughed at Luna's intensity, it was a laugh full of mirth, one the darker alicorn hadn't heard in over a thousand years, it made her wish their millennium long separation hadn't happened, she so loved to hear her sister laugh. Unwilling to let Celestia know about the sudden melancholy that gripped her, she smiled her widest smile. It would fade with time, the presence of her sister and the knowledge that they'd forgiven one another helped lessen the negative feelings. "Dear sister." As Luna had expected, her sister's words, together with her gentle smile, made the unhappy thoughts disappear like the snow before her sun. The elder goddess leaned in and continued in a hushed whisper: "It is one of the most important lessons of leadership: everything about being a leader- from ordering a new school to be erected, down to asking for lunch a little earlier than usual -becomes easier when ponies are smiling, and with that she returned to the throne to see to the rest of the court. Which ended with one pony walking on the ceiling for half an hour, trying to find the exit... After breakfast, Luna had managed to convince her sister to take some time off from her duties, and join her for a leisurely afternoon flight, even though both alicorns loved flying- Before her banishment Luna and Celestia had once spent a holiday just flying, they didn't touch the ground for several weeks -they never got to do it as often as they'd liked. They quickly left the castle behind and made a round over the Canterlot city proper, slowing down over the park to take in a little of the scenery, before flying back towards the castle grounds. While flying over the training grounds, Celestia spotted some of the pegasus recruits that were training for Luna's personal honor guard, and turned to her younger sister. "Sister?" Luna, who had been intensely focused on keeping her flying level as well as trying to keep up with her elder sister almost fell out of the sky when her focus shifted from flying -which she hadn't done in a long time- to Celestia's question. With a few panicked flaps, and a face as red as an apple once she'd stopped falling, Luna stammered her response: "Sister.... please don't do that again." Celestia's usually serene smile, was inches away from turning into a grin so wide that, Luna suspected, were it not for her sister's self control the top half of her head would by now be separated from the bottom half. "My apologies Lulu." Luna felt her face up further at Celestia's mention of her childhood nickname. She was convinced that, by now her face was hot enough to be measured in the infrared spectrum, Celestia had almost fallen out of the sky, laughing as she was about Luna embarrassment "I merely wanted to suggest something." she added after taking a few moments to let her laughter subside. It took Luna quite a bit longer to regain her composure, and forming a response took her longer still. "Ahem, alright 'Tia, what is your suggestion?" Two can play that game sister. 'Tia' however seemed unfazed by her former nickname. "Well..." She performed a lazy loop before pointing a hoof at the flight exercises going on far below them. "How about we add our personal touch in the training of your personal honor guard?" "Maybe even provide them with a bit of a challenge?" she added with a mischievous smile that, while not as face splitting as the grin from before was, was definitely pronounced, and very different from the smile that she usually wore. Luna was silent for a few moments while she mulled over her sister's question. "Sister, though both of us may have several hundreds of years experience with flying, I sincerely doubt that either of us would be a match for any of the royal guard, especially those that are former speed devils-" "they're called the Wonderbolts these days sister." Luna cleared her throat, "-Wonderbolts, of course, I was going to say Wonderbolts." She tried to mimic her sister, being performing a loop, which quickly turned to a drop when she overshot and forgot to keep flapping, Celestia on the other hand didn't fall out of the sky this time, even though she was laughing harder than before. "At any rate, i doubt we would provide much of a challenge for any of them." Luna continued after she'd flown back up to where Celestia was hovering. "afraid of a little competition Lulu?" Celestia teased, the logical part of Luna was aware that her sister was trying to goad her into going along with the idea, but -because of the goading- her temperamental part was firmly in the diver's seat at this point. "We are!" She sputtered before clearing her throat again. "I am NOT afraid of a little competition." "Great!" Celestia expression closely resembled a cat that had gotten it's share of cream. "Then let us drop in and see if we can persuade them to have a little race with us!" -- At the start of the race, Luna had been a nervous wreck, she found it hard to keep up with the former Wonderbolts. Midway through the race though, Celestia dropped back and flew next to her for a while. "What's the matter sister? Are you afraid that going faster would be unfair?" Luna snorted "I'm going as fast as I can!" Celestia said nothing, but flew closer and nuzzled Luna mid-flight, the dark alicorn almost fell out of the sky. After that, Luna had been determined to go as fast as she could, and while she didn't get anywhere near the top, she certainly proved that she was a capable flier. Celestia on the other hoof had practically flown circles around all of them. "How do you do it?" Luna asked her sister as they flew away from the training grounds. Before Celestia could say anything however Luna interrupted her. "I swear 'Tia, you're face is going to be stuck like that if you keep it up much longer." Celestia's face turned from 'the grin' to amused befuddlement, before becoming a genuine smile. "Oh, Lulu." She laughed, and after a good minute or so she winked at her little sister, The darker alicorn would have missed it, if she'd not been paying such close attention to her sister. In fact she'd been glaring. "In regards to your question," Celestia began. "do you remember our fly-by-fly week?" Luna nodded. "Well, about.... oh what was it.... I think three hundred years ago, I took a holiday." Celestia laughed lightly and then sighed, "I'd flown so far it took me almost year to get back, you wouldn't believe the amount of trouble ponies get into when we're not around." Luna smiled, her previous anger forgotten, while Celestia had always been the figurehead, she knew exactly how much trouble ponies could get into, which was why she had a hoof in every law in Equestria. "It took me four and half years to undo all the mistakes they'd made, but it was worth it, my flying has become much better as you can probably tell." Luna chose to forgo any further questions about her sister's flying. They landed on the balcony to their bedroom, since Luna's return they shared Celestia's bedroom. Her sister had offered Luna her own bedroom should she desire it, but Luna couldn't stand the thought of sleeping alone, since they had shared a room and bed since they'd been little. While not exhausted, Luna felt winded from the race, and she decided let her sister return to her duties. She herself however, was going up the spiral stairs of one of the towers, to the former room of Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's apprentice. Since Twilight had decided to live in Ponyville, and Celestia had given the room to Luna to use as she saw fit, the former library had been turned into an atrium, which Luna used to paint. She had always loved drawing and painting of any kind, the constellations in the night's sky being the most obvious example, and since her return she had painted every single day. As a result of this, the atrium was full of paintings and drawing in various stages of completion, from a crude drawing of the ruins of the two sisters, to a detailed picture perfect painting of Canterlot at night. Although she mostly painted landscapes and still images, there were a few paintings of herself, Celestia, some of the palace staff, and even one about six different colored ponies engaged in a group hug. She had just settled down and picked up a brush with her magic when the creaking of the door announced the arrival of a visitor. The dark alicorn sighed put down the paint brush before turning around... and freezing on the spot. -- In the door opening stood a white alicorn, clad in an old painter's apprentice outfit, with a big smile on her face. It took Luna all of three seconds to double over in laughter, "S-Sis-ha, ha, Sister?" she managed "Wha-he, he, What brings you here pfffrr, looking like that?" Celestia's smile remained serene as ever, "I came here to learn how to paint little sister." That brought Luna back to Equestria, "What?" was all the shocked princess of the night could utter. While Luna had always been into painting and writing, Celestia had only concerned herself with song and dance, some of which could still be found in birds these days (and the occasional dancing bear). This had meant that they pretty much kept to themselves as far as hobbies were concerned, which made Celestia's announcement staggering to the younger alicorn. "I wish to learn how to paint, and since you are very talented in that area, I thought to ask you." Luna smiled through her shock, "We never once thought that we-I would hear you ask such a thing." As the shock wore off, it was replaced by excitement, finally it would be her that was teaching and giving advice, rather than her elder sister who had filled that role for most of their lives. "Sit down over here and I'll get you a canvas." -- Several hours later her excitement had waned, teaching was harder than it looked. While Celestia's use of the Color palette was beautiful, she couldn't draw if her life depended on it. In three hours time Celestia had made several.... 'drawings' which Luna thought could be replicated by foals. She had gone back to the literal basics of drawing: "Try drawing a Circle 'Tia" If only Twilight could have seen her mentor now, lightly biting on her tongue which hung out of her mouth, feathers on one wing stained by a plethora of colors and her tail softly rustling the paper balls and canvas that lay strewn around her, as she concentrated on drawing a circle. Even basic shapes seemed to be beyond her, although she had made some progress. Finally Celestia stretched her legs and stood "I think that's enough for now." Luna looked up from her one of her sister's earlier attempts "Had enough already sister?" The white alicorn looked thoughtful for a moment, "Yes, I still have some things I need to take care of." "I thought you said you had taken the day off?" Luna didn't think that Celestia would lie to her, but it never hurt to ask. "And I did, but I still need to make some preparations, of a personal nature." her sister replied before walking to the door of the atrium. "Sister!" Luna called after her, "Do you think you could give me Dancing lessons some day? When you're not too busy ofcourse?" Celestia stopped walking and flashed a grin over her shoulder, "I was wondering when you'd ask, come along." This baffled the younger sister, "But you just said that you had things to do!" "So I did, and this is the first of the two." and with that Celestia disappeared from the atrium, leaving Luna to scramble to her hooves and follow her. She took a look at the mess she (and mostly Celestia) had made of her atrium/art gallery and decided to leave the mess for later. The princess of the sun moved towards the great ballroom which apart from being used to host the grand galloping gala was hardly ever in use, being too big for the small parties that were the staple of Canterlot's socialite. By the time Luna entered the room Celestia had already moved to the center of the room, and was waiting for.... She wasn't quite sure what her sister was waiting for. "Coming Lulu?" It was Luna's turn to grin. "Coming 'Tia!" -- By the end of her dancing lessons, Luna felt that, not only did she have a lot to learn about dancing, she had a lot to learn about teaching as well. Every time she had a problem with a certain pose or rhythm movement Celestia would say something that made her laugh. Laughing in turn made it seem like everything was going smoother and easier, not to mention the fact that it was great fun. It wasn't the only thing ofcourse, Celestia's calm and relaxed way of explaining every step was more helpful than her kind but insistent nudging had been. By the time they were done her sister's sun hung low in the sky, signifying evening. Luna was amazed at how time had flown by today, she still felt like she'd just gotten out of bed! "Thank you for the lessons sister." she nuzzled her sister before walking towards the balcony. Celestia did not respond however, but instead walked with her and as soon as they reached the balcony, she jumped off and used her wings to glide to the garden below, walking off as soon as she'd landed. Luna feared that she'd done something wrong, and followed. "Sister?" The white alicorn kept up her pace and had soon reached the gates which led out of the castle and into Canterlot proper. Luna was starting to get worried, Celestia was acting so weird! "Sister!" She tried to root her sister to the floor using her magic, which... did nothing at all. The magic rolled off of the mare like she wasn't even there. By now they had reached the beach, and Celestia was still walking forward, with Luna trying to physically restraining here, which had little to no effect. Luna let go when her sister stepped into the water, still very much unresponsive. -- Luna paced back and forth along the shoreline, hesitant to go into the menacing looking water, taking wing when she saw her sister's head disappear beneath the waves. " 'Tia!" she fluttered over to where she had last seen the white alicorn but could not find hide nor mane underneath the gloomy waves. Before she had any chance to react, she felt something take hold of her left rear hoof janking her down into the water. She surfaced several seconds later, sputtering and spitting out the water she had ingested, her eyes rolling every which way in fear. She was about to call out for her sister again when she spotted a familiar multi-chrome mane out of the corner of her eyes. She turned to see Celestia beaming at her. "Gotcha!" was all the older alicorn said before she winked and disappeared beneath the waves again with a laugh. Luna was furious, she wanted to tell her sister how cross she was, how utterly incensed, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a laugh. "I'll get you yet!" she yelled diving after her sister between waves that were no longer frightening, things were indeed easier when you were smiling. Shielded by friends.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends." ~ Czech Proverb Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends. Words to live by Twilight thought to herself as she closed the book. She remembered the days she'd locked herself in the library at Canterlot castle, losing herself in her books and studies. She'd been content, mostly anyway, but sometimes she'd felt lonely in her library tower, even with spike there to fill some of that void. But it had been better than before she'd been accepted into the school for gifted unicorns, she'd always been an outcast, smarter and definitely more mature than most foals and fillies her age. An outcast -Twilight shivered- that was exactly the right word for it, kept out of the group by her peers, ponies of the same age as her, she didn't think she'd ever understand how children could be so cruel. Shunned by a lot of adults as well, who were afraid that she would be smarter than them, or make them look bad in front of others. The lavender unicorn was glad the princess had sent her to Ponyville when she did, her life would've looked a lot bleaker without her best friends there, to share in the pains and the joys, and above all to stand by her when she needed them the most, going so far as defying the princess herself to save her, a bookish unicorn with little to no experience in friendship, from the perceived threat of being sent back to magic kinder-garden. The lavender mare shook her head and smiled as she picked up a quill with her magic. time for a letter to the princess. Dear princess Celestia, even though I haven't learned anything noteworthy in the past couple of days, I wanted to write this letter to you. Because I wanted to say thanks, thank you for sending me to Ponyville all those months ago, and thank you for giving me friends in my life. And last, but certainly not least, Thank you for being my friend. Your faithful student and friend Twilight sparkle. Patience and wisdom.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "Patience is the companion of wisdom." ~ Saint Augustine Celestia heard the hoof-falls outside her room and knew that her little sister Luna was frustrated once again. "Tia!" the midnight blue alicorn shouted as she bounded into the room, scowling, and headed straight for the bed where her sister was reading scrolls. "Tia, I can't do it, I'll never be able to catch up with everything that's happened the last millennium and even if I did I'll never be able to remember all of it! I just can't!" the younger alicorn flopped down on the bed next to her sister and pouted. Celestia silently rolled up the last of the scrolls she'd been reading and gently floated them to the scroll case with her magic before turning to her little sister and embracing her, using both her forelegs as well as her wings in an alicorns version of a hug. Luna leaned into her sister and hugged her back fiercely, she had felt incredibly frustrated, but her big sister always seemed to know what to say or do to make her feel better. Sometimes she felt like she was going to cry out of sheer frustration, why did everything have to be so difficult? Reading up on centuries of history, culture and sciences was an enormous task in and of itself. But Celestia had asked her to 'sit in' on some of the court sessions as well, which while relaxing because she didn't have to do anything other than look regal, were very tedious. She often wondered how her big sister could do it all without breaking down or burning herself out. "How do you do it Tia?" she asked, face still buried in her sister's embrace. Celestia slowly released her sister from the hug and smiled at her. "I practice patience Luna." "Patience?" the younger alicorn looked astounded and confused. "How does practicing patience help?" "Patience, Luna, is the companion of wisdom." the elder sister said, "and because I have had a thousand years to practice I have become rather good at both." She gently nuzzled her younger sibling and got up from the bed and made her way to the door of her room. Looking back she said : "What I mean to say is: take it slow, the past won't go anywhere and we have more than an eternity." Luna finally smiled as well. "I'll try big sister." She looked unsure for a moment. "But if i mess up you'll help me right?" Celestia smiled her gentle smile. "Always little sister, always" "But honestly?" she added with a chuckle "making mistakes is the best way to learn." She stopped when she reached the doors. "come on now, we need to look regal for our little ponies once again." The midnight blue alicorn got up and bounded after her sister, smiling as much now, as she had been scowling before.
Home is where the books are.Author: Karrakaz Quotation : "A room without books is like a body without a soul." ~Cicero It was so wonderful to be flying again, speeding through the sky brushing against the clouds. Today felt different though, even though her wings were good as new and the skies above bluer than she was. But she was distracted, she was thinking about her new hobby, the word still tasted weird in her mouth -reading- not to long ago she'd laughed at Twilight for being such a bookworm, yet now she was becoming one herself. She found her mind drifting away from flying, and back to her living room, where she now had a bookcase filled with books of her favorite fictional character: daring doo. Of course, she was still a speedster at heart, and her choices in literature reflected that, but she really felt like she was a different pony now. And she fewer qualms every day, fewer qualms about going home to sit down with a good book and read. And she realized what was different, she finally thought of her house as home. In the past, the big open sky had been her home, flying until she was exhausted and then napping on whatever cloud she was closest to. But at this moment she really felt like she had a single place she wanted to return to, and she had finally figured out why. The books, her books, given to her by her best friends in all of equestria, had become friends in their own right. Well, since I'm too distracted to fly today, might as well head back and read something The only problem was... she'd already read all the daring doo books there were, and she didn't really know if there were any other books she'd like.. But she did know somepony who just might. That bookworm. She thought and then chuckled. "To the library it is" she said to herself looping around and heading for the tree that possibly held new friends. A special kind of friends that made her home worth living in.
Persistence and identity.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are." ~ Tobias Wolff "Covered in tree sap AGAIN, oh Rarity is going to be so mad at me." The white filly unicorn wailed. "Don't worry Sweetie Belle, ah took precautions this time around!" The yellow earth pony led her two friends towards their 'secret' hideout after their latest adventure, or crusade as they called it. The latest crusade had revolved around sweets and the production thereof, they'd spent their whole day trying -and failing- to make chocolate cakes, pies and cupcakes. Somewhere along the line though, things had gone wrong (as they are apt to around those colts foals and fillies looking for their cutie marks.) The tree-sap was still somewhat of a mystery, even to the fillies themselves had no idea where the sticky substance had come from, but they were used to it by now. And Applebloom was apparently prepared for it. Upon arriving in their clubhouse (Scootaloo's suggestion to rename it to a chapel so they could become real crusaders had been rejected) the yellow filly undid the bow tie that was holding back her hair and jumped into the wooden tub she had apparently placed there earlier in the day. "Wow Applebloom, that thing is huge! Did you carry that thing all by yourself?" Scootaloo asked eyes as wide as her mouth, which hung open slack-jawed. The tub Applebloom had jumped into was about eight sizes too big, under no circumstances should the filly have been able to haul such a massive thing all the way out here by herself. "nuh-uh, it was jus' here when Ah checked on the clubhouse after school was done." the red-maned filly replied. "now are ya'll comin' in or what, slowpoke fillies." she giggled and dove back into the tub. The orange pegasus was about to join her earthpony friend in the swimming-pool sized tub when she was poked in the side. Looking over to her left she saw a grinning (almost cackling) Sweetie Belle rubbing her hooves together, she looked positively evil, all she was missing was Rarity's cat to stroke. "Maybe we can get out cutie marks for having an amazing water fight" the unicorn filly whispered, suddenly she didn't look evil at all, Scootaloo laughed and whispered back "We already tried that once, but i'm up for trying it again if you are." "Let's do it, Applebloom won't know what hit her!" the unicorn almost squealed. Before they could put their plan into action though, they were both soaked by hoof-fulls of water thrown out of the tub by a giddy looking Applebloom. "Got ya! Ah win again." She smirked. Her two friends quickly climbed up and threw themselves into the tub. In the distance, through the brush and several of the trees, a red earth pony stallion and an orange mare were watching the fillies play in their newly acquired water fighting arena. "Amazing how wild those fillies can play, and how much fun they can have with that old tub, even after all that crusadin' don't ya think so mac?" "Eee-yup," he chewed at the corn stalk in his mouth. "they're a persistent bunch Ah'll give em that." The mare smiled as she turned around and started walking back to the farm. "They'll find out who they are sooner or later, although sometimes Ah wish it was sooner." Applejack laughed "But they'll get there, just like we did." the red stallion looked at the playing fillies for a moment longer before following his sister. "Eeee-yup."
Never waste kindness.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." ~Aesop The young mare had to stifle a laugh. The latest charge under her care was scampering around her, busy being chased by an indignant looking owl. The whole ordeal was made even more amusing by the constant "Who?!" Although it might have been "hoo" and she simply misheard it, it did nothing for the mare's composure. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and fell over laughing, tears streaming down her face in an uncontrollable expression of mirth. The little white rabbit hopped around the laughing mare trying to keep her between himself and his attacker, making weird faces at the owl whenever he wasn't running for his life. The owl, finally tiring of the game set down on his perch near the cottage and went to sleep, the day being as tiring for the nocturnal creature as the night was for most others. The pagasus mare got up, no longer crying from laughter but that same mirth still present on her face. She walked over to the white ball of fluff, the rabbit, being as thoroughly exhausted by the game of tag as the owl was, had promptly lain down and was already fast asleep. Nuzzling the creature softly before scooping it up with one of her wings, Fluttershy made her way to the cottage that was not just her home, but the home of an abundant array of other creatures aswell. Even though she'd treated a lot of sickly animals over the years, she'd never gotten the chance to really watch any of them grow up, most of the growing happening in their burrows underground. But no kindness is ever wasted, Angel bunny, her little helper and confidante had found a mate. And Amber, the doe's name that might just aswell have been a description, had had four kits. The youngest of which the mare was now carefully handing over to his mother. Oh young animals are so wonderful. She thought to herself as the kit snuggled up to his mother. The mare wandered around her cottage for a while, thinking about all the creatures she had helped and the ones she would help in the future, and the trust they had shown her in return. She came to a resolution, she would make an extra special feast for all of her animal friends, to thank all of them for being such wonderful creatures. But nothing could have prepared her for the shock that awaited her when she reached the kitchen. Dozens of animal were walking, slithering, hopping and flying around, all of them carrying kitchen utensils or cooking ingredients of some kind. And in the center of it all was angel bunny directing the veritable horde. When he noticed that some of the creatures had stopped and were looking behind him, he turned around and saw his caretaker. The yellow pegasus was just standing there, mouth open wide, and tears filling her eyes. The bunny hopped off the table he'd been standing on, and towards his best friend. Hugging her left front leg he looked up at the pony that had taken care of him for as long as he could remember. After hugging her for a brief moment he gestured to some of the larger creatures and promptly pushed her out of the kitchen. They weren't done yet, and this time the animals would take care of the caretaker. He nodded knowingly to himself, no act of kindness from the mare would be wasted while he was around.
Maps.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down." ~Mitch Hedberg The mare finally stopped humming as she kicked the door closed behind her, her magenta colored eyes scanning her living room. Without pause she walked towards a trophy cabinet which proudly displayed all of the treasures she had accumulated over the years. She carefully placed her newest acquisition next to the others, it was a sapphire figurine depicting two dogs facing away from each other. She beamed with pride as she looked at her new prize and then laughed a confident laugh. She turned around and walked to the bookcase at the other end of the room, picking up a book that she'd bought just before she had heard about Ahuizotl and that he had found a precious treasure. She sat down on her couch and looked at the book's title, "Rainbow dash, and the elements of harmony" she read out loud, and almost squee'd in excitement, she'd been a fan of the adventures of the best flier in Equestria for some time now. Several hours later she looked up from the book and noticed that the sun was about to set. Oh damn! She got up, trotted out the door and slammed it shut behind her before realizing something. She face-hoofed and quickly reopened the door picking up her saddlebags and slinging them over her back while she made her way towards the local post office at a breakneck speed. She'd totally forgotten to pick up the new map she'd ordered for her next adventure. After getting lost in the jungle on her last tour her parents had insisted that she'd get maps of any place she had been to in the past, as well as any place she planned on visiting. They had also encouraged her to put pins in every place she had ever been to, and she thought it quite possible they they'd get her a map of the world as well. At least those sixty days were worth it, she thought as she absentmindedly flexed her wings. The right one still hurt a fair bit but at least it didn't have to be bandaged anymore. She arrived just in time, the grey mail-colt waved at her, holding the rolled up map in his mouth. She took it from him and deposited it in her saddlebags. "Thanks mister Ditz." she said. The colt chuckled, "That's dad or father to you young lady." Ditz Doo, closed the door of the post office behind him and turned around to hug his youngest daughter. "Will you be eating with us tomorrow Daring? Your sister is coming to visit." he asked. "Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world!" she exclaimed smiling at him. She was still smiling when she returned home. Several hours later she wasn't smiling anymore, it was impossible to hang up these maps properly if she only put pins in the places she'd already been. She groaned as the map came loose once again and flopped down on her bed throwing her explorers hat onto the nightstand next to it. she was going to have to figure out a better way to hold up all those maps. Maybe I should travel to the top two places on every map. Was her last thought before she drifted off to sleep.
You cannot be mad at laughter.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "You cannot be mad at somebody who makes you laugh – it's as simple as that." ~ Jay Leno Luna walked into the room. "Greetings sister, hello Twilight Sparkle." she nodded at both mares in turn as she walked over to the empty lounge bed that stood to the left of the ones the monarch of the sun and her student were occupying. Then just as she was about to lay down the lounge suddenly vanished, causing her to hit the floor with an audible * thump * instead. Luna looked around, bewildered. "What just happened?" she asked the other mares. Celestia looked as confused as she felt, but Twilight... Twilight could barely contain her laughter "I think it's Rarity!" she snickered, "She..." the unicorns face contorted "she...!" she was beginning to have trouble containing her mirth. "She.. sometimes..." Finally the dam burst and twilight rolled off of her chaise lounge and onto the spa floor in laughter, there was a lot more air coming out of the mare than there was going in, and for a moment luna wondered what color the purple unicorn would turn if she didn't get enough oxygen, the moment she had this thought she suddenly felt like laughing herself. "She sometimes summons a chaise lounge out of nowhere when she's upset!" the unicorn managed to squeeze out in between wheezes and cackles. "I guess... I guess this is where it comes from!" Unlike Luna's mundane thoughts, Celestia was wondering about affairs of a more arcane nature. She wondered if her student was using some hereto unknown magic to spread her mirth, as she found herself hard pressed to refrain from laughing, and even Luna who had been looking at the unicorn indignantly just moments before was now rolling on the floor, tears of laughter pouring out of her eyes. The sun goddess decided that maybe laughing wouldn't be such a bad thing and let go of her thousand years of practiced restraint, quickly dissolving in a puddle of glee herself. Nearby on the floor, Luna was now having serious trouble juggling breathing and laughing. She briefly wondered what color she would turn if she didn't get enough air, but the thought was fleeting, the joy of laughing like she hadn't done in over a thousand years washing away any attempt at thought, rational or otherwise. Meanwhile in another part of town a white unicorn mare had thrown herself onto a freshly summoned chaise lounge and wailed. "This is the. Worst. Possible. THING." she cried out, dramatically lifting a hoof to her face. A few feet away from her, an orange earth pony was doing the same, that is to say, she was busy acquainting her face with her left hoof. "For the last time Rarity, Ah don't want anything to do with all that frou-frou makeover nonsense!" The farmer told her friend hotly. The surprisingly real looking tears of the bawling unicorn lasted for a few more moments before she got up, dismissed the chaise lounge, sending it back to where it belonged and sighed. "Oh very well then." she said, her eyes suddenly very much dry. She clasped her hooves in front of her. "Ideaaaaaaa!" Applejack backed away from her dressmaker/drama queen friend. "Ah know Ah'm going to regret this but, what's your idea?" she inquired carefully, her left hoof already snaking its way upwards. "We'll go get you something to eat at sugarcube corner while I ask Pinkie Pie if she can model for me!" the designer exclaimed. The farmer's left hoof and her face had their first falling out, her face lighting up with an honest smile. "Ah have to say that's a great idea, Ah'm starvin'" The designer and the farmer made their way towards sugarcube corner, but before they came within spitting distance of the bakery they were bowled over by a pink missile. "Oh my gosh Rarity! Applejack! I'm so glad you're there!" the missile exclaimed managing to fit all her speech within a one second time frame. "You have to help me save Twilight! Somepony is torturing her!" Both mares looked at Pinkie Pie, the unicorn was thoroughly confused, and the orange pony looked at the pink one with a complete deadpan face, her left hoof and her face were exchanging apologies. "Pinkie dear? Twilight is with the princesses on a relaxing spa day, do you really think anypony is powerful enough to beat those three?" Rarity asked, attempting to reason with the party pony. Applejack just shook her head "Listen to yerself, ya don't even know she's bein' tortured Pinkie!" Pinkie Pie ignored both of them "Just listen!" she hissed. All three of them fell completely silent listening intently. And while it seemed incredibly unlikely, even from this distance they could hear chocked laughter coming from the direction of the spa. "That hardly sounds like torture Pinkie dear." Rarity told the pink mare who was still pinning her to the ground "Ah'll say, sounds to me like she's havin' the time of her life" Applejack said for once agreeing with her designer friend. "No! Don't you see? It's the worst kind of torture! They're tickling her with feathers!" Pinkie exclaimed naked fear apparent in her eyes as she shivered from head to tail. Applejack's left hoof and face were becoming fast friends by this point, as her right hoof wondered why it hadn't been invited. She couldn't get mad though, Pinkie's antics always made her smile.
Take, Love. by Wilhelm IIAuthor: Wilhelm II Quotation: "Give them nothing take from them everything." ~Leonidas. Dizty was not a happy mare. Sure the name calling and recent muffin shortages were bad, but that wasn't the reason this time. For being the only mailmare in Ponyville, Dizty prided herself on been able to deliver everypony's mail, even if she wrecked half the town doing it. But there was one resident who she had never been able to deliver a letter for, the local librarian and element of magic. Dizty knew that she was sending and receiving mail, the whole smarty-pants issue proved it, but she had not clue as to how, that was until yesterday. It had been a warm day and Dizty was having a picnic in the park with Dinky, where she saw Twilight and friends laughing and holding a scroll, she was just about to fly over and deliver it when she saw a sight that made her incandescent with rage, for before her very eyes, the letter was sent away by a flick of green fire coming from Twilights dragon, Spike. Ditzy had sat there gob-smacked, this lizard was stealing her job! And so she plotted and waited for the right time to strike. Which brought us back to the present day, Dizty was hovering outside Twilight's window, waiting for her to try and send some mail, and to her delight, saw that she had just finished a letter and was calling for Spike, thinking quickly in order to save her job, Dizty flew straight into the glass window, her momentum shattering the glass into tiny specs of light and sending her across the room, to Twilights feet, where she let out a weak cry. "Mail service." -- "Our job is to ensure that the balance never tips too far to the wrong side. And there is one more thing you can do which will make certian that it never does: you can love." ~ Tinia These were words that Ditzy Remembered and understood quite well. She had just returned from Twilight's, the unicorn had been reluctant to trust her with the mail, and instead she had been sent her on her way with a hamper of muffins, but they weren't enough to help banish the feelings of uselessness that coarsed through her veins, the only thing that she was good at, had just been taken from her by a upstart lizard. A single tear rolled down her soft kind features, slashing into the mud bellow, creating a series of ripples across its surface, ruining its peace and stabilty. Just like me. Thought Ditzy, before entering her humble home, and what she saw in the middle, melted her heart, for there lying on the rugs was her little muffin, Dinky. Ditzy smiled as she carried her little baby into her bed, but as she was about to leave she spotted a drawing of her and Dinky having a picnic in the park and on the back was a note in Dinky's hoof writing: "Dear, mama, I wuv u, your the best mama I could have." Ditzy looked back at her sleeping angel, her eyes watering, "I love you too muffin." For Ditzy knew that no matter what she broke or what people said, she would always be perfect to her little muffin.
Paranoia in reverse.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy." ~J.D. Salinger After giving Doodle and Mathilda their privacy. (two and two and two plus one added up to leaving them alone after all.) The Party pony made her way back to the town square and, once there she began to entertain everypony in need of a smile. At least until it was party o'clock on her internal timepiece, which meant that she had to get to sugarcube corner fast! A shadow was left where the pink mare had been playing hop scotch with a group of fillies. Not having noticed that it's owner had long since gone the shadow kept on playing. Until it noticed the fillies had stopped and were all staring at it, at which point it figured out something was missing. It face-hoofed before promptly chasing after the mare. Pinkie was already hard at work setting up her party cannon for the big party she had planned in the library when her shadow caught up with her. The shadow poked it's owner, Pinkie ignored it. The shadow poked Pinkie harder, Pinkie turned around and gasped. "Ghhhhuuuuuuuuuu, there you are! I thought I'd lost you!" The pink mare hugged her shadow tightly for a moment, and then let go. Turning back to her party cannon she said "Could you hand me Party munitions type P-35? The shadow nodded as fast as the pink mare herself sometimes did and produced a cylinder shaped object which it handed to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie took the cylinder (which read: 35 Kilofun use only in party emergency) and bent a few rules of space time to make sure it fit snugly inside her party cannon. She turned back to her shadow, "I'm going to go get the party cannon into position, you go get the stapler and the custard alright?" Once again the shadow nodded, the custard and the stapler had become somewhat of a routine since the Party mare had seen a sonic rain-boom for the first time. Pinkie wheeled her cannon into position, but before she could set it off she was tackled by a green and purple dragon. "Hey Pinkie....!" the baby dragon chuckled nervously after he had dusted himself off. "Hia spike! What'cha doin'?" The mare replied shaking the dust off herself, as well as a few streamers which hadn't been there before. "well ehhh, you see." Spike looked at the ground making nervous circles with his foot. Not one to wait patiently, the pink mare began hopping in place, humming a tune to herself. "Twilight told me to tell you that...." the dragon looked around again searching for something. He sighed, and resigned himself to failure. "Twilight and the girls wanted to throw you a surprise party and I was supposed to come get you." he explained "But Dash was worried that you'd go all Cranky Pie again so she told me to tell you.... that" he finished lamely looking at the party mare fearfully. Pinkie had stopped bouncing and was now hanging suspended in the air. This lasted for close to a minute before she finally descended and gave the dragon a stern look. "Alright mister, Spill the beans!" she said, pulling a desk lamp out of nowhere and shining in his face like she'd done some time ago. Spike squinted "But Pinkie, I just told you everything." he pointed out. The mare, who was already bouncing again looked at him, her neck twisted so far that her head seemed to be upside down on her shoulders "Oh that's right! Well I guess we should go to the library then! Wouldn't want to be late to my own surprise party!" She said after spinning around like a centrifuge for a couple of seconds. The baby dragon blinked once, then twice. "But Pinkie aren't you upset? I just ruined the surprise." he asked trepidation clear in his voice. "Of course not silly!" she said before leaning over to him. "Don't tell anypony, but I'm very good a faking being surprised." she whispered before straightening "And besides, you guys care enough about me to want to make sure you don't hurt me accidentally, I could never be upset about that!" And with that Pinkie hopped and bounced her way to the library, spike running after her, trying to keep up. Opening the door for Pinkie, Spike opted to remain outside for a moment, scared of what might happen if Twilight suspected that he'd 'spilled the beans' "Surprise!" "S'prise!" "Surprise Pinkie!" "um, surprise." "Surprise darling!" Spike had to admit that Pinkie's acting skills were terrific, nopony suspected that she'd known, he briefly wondered if she'd forgotten about it herself. "Oh thank you so much girls!" Pinkie positively beamed. "I don't get surprise parties often enough, I mean I organize one every week or so, but other ponies don't nearly throw them often enough for my tastes!" "I'm just glad you didn't get upset like last time." Dash said, lazily hovering overhead. The other girls nodded in agreement. "Oh Dashie you don't have to worry about that anymore! You know how I used to be scared that some ponies were planning to make me sad by not being my friends anymore? Well now I'm on the other side of that bit!" The Pink pony exclaimed, her smile so enormous that it would have separated the top half of any other pony's face from the bottom half. "Ever since you guys threw me that surprise birthday party, I totally suspect ponies of plotting to make me happy!" by now she was hanging from the ceiling. "In fact I know that there are at least five ponies and a dragon who are trying to make me happy right now! Which makes me even happier!" she started bouncing on the ceiling until Twilight spoke up. "Pinkie!" The unicorn exclaimed holding her head in her hooves "You shouldn't be able to bounce on the ceiling, that's not how physics work!" Hearing this the incarnation of laughter was promptly subjected to a sense of vertigo and landed squarely on her belly. "Oh Twilight, you can be such a party pooper sometimes." She said blowing a stray lock of candy pink hair out of her face. Her friends all laughed and gathered around for a group hug. And them smiling, to her, was the best thing they could do if they wanted to make her happy. "I love you guys!" Outside, near the now abandoned party cannon, a shadow was scratching it's head and looking around in confusion, wondering where it's owner had gone this time.
Growing up.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up." ~Eve Babitz The purple filly struggled to keep a yellow and gold painted orb floating with her magic, she glanced at the whiter than white mare – her mentor, who was also reclining in the grass of one of the inner gardens of Canterlot castle. The orb wobbled when the filly's attention shifted from her magic to her mentor, always so graceful, always so powerful, always so kind and knowledgeable and mature. She wondered how long it would take her to grow up and be as graceful as her teacher, the mare had already told her that she was powerful, but graceful and kind and mature... well she thought that she already was kind, you could never know for sure though. The filly hardly noticed when the orb lost it's magical purple aura and landed on the grass with a thud, she scampered over to her teacher and role-model who, at present was nose deep in several scrolls at the same time, and settled down beside her, peering at the scrolls as well and trying to make sense of them. The regent of the sun was in conflict with herself, on the one hoof she wanted to give the little Twilight Sparkle her full attention during their lessons, and on the other hoof she had to make sure that Equestria didn't come apart at the seams. She glanced at the spot where the filly had been busy with an advanced version of a magical endurance training, she hadn't told Twilight that the orb she was levitating had a magical enchantment cast on it that would increase it's weight by a thousandfold whenever magic was used to lift it. When she didn't spot her student right away she felt a flicker of discomfort, had the filly asked her a question and she hadn't responded? Had her student gotten bored? Perhaps she was crying somewhere because her teacher didn't respond to anything she said. She mentally chided herself for thinking like that, she'd made a mistake trying to juggle teaching and ruling and she'd just have to do better in the future. She looked around the garden for a moment trying to imagine where the purple filly could have gone, trees were swaying slightly in the wind, the pond – well more of a small lake really – was rippling, teeming with fish and the fountain was spraying water as it always did, a wonderfully relaxing place she thought to herself. Then she heard something. "Princess?" She looked down and found her purple student right there next to her, peering at one of the scrolls she was levitating with her magic. "What is it my faithful student?" she asked trying to hide a chuckle at the filly's look of extreme concentration by smiling her warmest smile, one she had perfected for over a thousand years. "What does, regulations for the dispersion of weather patterns have to do with magic?" Once more she smiled her smile to hide her bemusement, young Twilight had a knack for surprising her with her questions "Well Twilight, even though they cannot use it like you can, peggasi have a magic of their own, which allows them to interact with clouds." She thought about how to best explain it to her student, the filly was smart beyond a shadow of a doubt, but no matter how smart she was still very young. "Most of their magic resides in their wings, just like you and your horn, but like you they have a little magic throughout their entire bodies, and that makes walking on clouds very eas-" she continued before Twilight interrupted her. "I know what pegassi can do with their magic princess!" she exclaimed, "I've been reading all about it in the Equestrian Trinity: past and present." before slapping a hoof to her mouth, eyes wide in fear in the realization that she'd just interrupted not just her teacher, but the ruler of Equestria. "..uhm... sorry princess, I didn't mean to interrupt you." Celestia couldn't hold back a chuckle this time, "It's fine Twilight." she nuzzled the filly tenderly which the unicorn eagerly accepted. "Forgive me for my assumption, what exactly did you mean?" It took a while for her question to register in Twilight's mind which had already jumped back to her earlier musings, which is why it took her a while to respond. "Well, if the pegassi are in charge of the weather, then why is that unicorn charging you for it?" Celestia looked at her student quizzically for a moment – making the unicorn shiver thinking she'd said something wrong again – before turning back to her scrolls. After a few seconds of searching through the appropriate material she realized that her student was right, the royal treasury was being duped by a unicorn named "Greenfield the Sly." she ground her teeth for a moment before turning back to Twilight, "You have a good eye, my faithful student." The filly beamed at the praise, before looking at her more soberly. "You mean this was a test?" she asked, to which Celestia shook her head. "This was no test Twilight, these are actually scrolls of some importance." Twilight was thoroughly confused, the princess was supposed to know everything! "You didn't know?" She asked her mentor "About the error I mean?" Her mentor shook her head again, "Alas Twilight, even I do not know everything." This brought the filly back to her original line of thought, if even Celestia didn't know everything... how was she supposed to know when she had grown up? She decided to voice her question. "Princess, if you can't measure mature-" her face scrunched up as she tried to find the right end to the word"-ness by how much somepony knows, how will I ever know if I've grown up?" The pure innocence in the question made Celestia laugh out loud. "My dear Twilight Sparkle," She nuzzled the unicorn again before continuing: "Most ponies measure maturity by age, although age in fact has very little to do with being truely mature." the filly looked at her in rapt attention and she smiled at the eager look on her students face. "nor does knowledge, or power, of grace, in fact I am still not certain if we know exactly when somepony is mature." She rolled up the scrolls and levitated the whole stack of them over to one of the guards near the entrance, after nodding at him and relaying her instructions she turned back to her student. "By the time I had grown up, -which took a fairly long time for me- I had naturally supposed that I'd be grown up, however I still find myself amazed at new problems and solutions to problems life can throw at us." Twilight, who's attention had been focused on her mentor at the start now looked increasingly confused. "Does that mean I'll never grow up?" she asked, looking lost. Celestia got up and motioned her head for the filly to follow her, "No my faithful student, you will know when you have grown up, but the most important thing is-" She brought her face close to Twilight and winked "I don't think I've ever grown up." Twilight smiled the secretive smile of a child, and Celestia laughed, growing a little more that day.
A lesson in leadership.Quotation: "A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done." ~Dwight D.Eisenhower. Author: Karrakaz Luna took another step forward, the cold and dark water hitting her shoe adorned hooves and sending a shiver up her spine, "Sister!" The white mare either did not hear her or could not respond. "Sister you know I'm afraid of deep water!" she shouted, shivering as she looked at the water, cold and deep even though the sun was still hanging low in the sky. and today started out so well she thought with a frown. -- She had woken up earlier than usual that day, in fact she'd hardly had any sleep at all, busy as she had been with preparations for the coming day. Today was the day, she was going to spend more time with her sister one way or another, to that end she decided to take her breakfast in the court halls which, in hind sight, probably wasn't the brightest idea she'd ever had. It had been pleasant enough at first, watching her sister deal with ponies from all walks of life was like watching an artist at work, she liked to think of herself as an artist, she had talent with the brush, but Celestia... Celestia's talent was with ponies. She had watched as her sister asked things of ponies that, if she were the one doing the asking, would be met with flat-out refusal, but the goddess of the sun got nothing but smiles and nods of agreement. But then her older sister had seen her, and any sense of normalcy in the court of the sun had gone down the proverbial drain... She would never understand how ponies put up with her sisters... "antics" since Celestia had seen her, three ponies had left the court halls covered in some sort of cheese, several others had (unsuccessfully) tried to reason with a statue that did not even remotely look like Celestia- probably an illusion spell she mused- and one pegasus had even been catapulted out of an open window by his own creation. (She would also never understand why the royal guards would need a cake launcher.) All in all it really had made for some brilliant entertainment during breakfast. That brilliant entertainment however did not agree with her food, most of it having been either choked on or spat out during another bout of laughter. Her eyes weren't faring any better than her food, strained as they were by a most daunting task: trying to hold back the tears of laughter that threatened to slip past her eyelids every time another pony left the throne room with a bewildered look on his or her face, trying to figure out what the hay just happened. The servants were taking away her mostly empty breakfast plates, while she herself was in the process of sketching the pegasus being catapulted though the open window, when Celestia appeared beside her. "Did you enjoy the show little sister?" the white alicorn asked her with a gentle smile which, as the ponies that knew her best could tell, was a masking smile that carefully hid a mischievous grin. Luna looked up from her sketch and tried to mirror her sister's smile, succeeding to a degree, although she lacked the thousand years of experience that Celestia had with it. "It was very enjoyable, though I must ask." Luna gently levitated the sketch onto her breakfast table before turning to face her sister. "How do get ponies to agree with you so readily? I am certain that if I was the one asking such things of them they would refuse, some of them would even think about rebellion!" Celestia laughed at Luna's intensity, it was a laugh full of mirth, one the darker alicorn hadn't heard in over a thousand years, it made her wish their millennium long separation hadn't happened, she so loved to hear her sister laugh. Unwilling to let Celestia know about the sudden melancholy that gripped her, she smiled her widest smile. It would fade with time, the presence of her sister and the knowledge that they'd forgiven one another helped lessen the negative feelings. "Dear sister." As Luna had expected, her sister's words, together with her gentle smile, made the unhappy thoughts disappear like the snow before her sun. The elder goddess leaned in and continued in a hushed whisper: "It is one of the most important lessons of leadership: everything about being a leader- from ordering a new school to be erected, down to asking for lunch a little earlier than usual -becomes easier when ponies are smiling, and with that she returned to the throne to see to the rest of the court. Which ended with one pony walking on the ceiling for half an hour, trying to find the exit... After breakfast, Luna had managed to convince her sister to take some time off from her duties, and join her for a leisurely afternoon flight, even though both alicorns loved flying- Before her banishment Luna and Celestia had once spent a holiday just flying, they didn't touch the ground for several weeks -they never got to do it as often as they'd liked. They quickly left the castle behind and made a round over the Canterlot city proper, slowing down over the park to take in a little of the scenery, before flying back towards the castle grounds. While flying over the training grounds, Celestia spotted some of the pegasus recruits that were training for Luna's personal honor guard, and turned to her younger sister. "Sister?" Luna, who had been intensely focused on keeping her flying level as well as trying to keep up with her elder sister almost fell out of the sky when her focus shifted from flying -which she hadn't done in a long time- to Celestia's question. With a few panicked flaps, and a face as red as an apple once she'd stopped falling, Luna stammered her response: "Sister.... please don't do that again." Celestia's usually serene smile, was inches away from turning into a grin so wide that, Luna suspected, were it not for her sister's self control the top half of her head would by now be separated from the bottom half. "My apologies Lulu." Luna felt her face up further at Celestia's mention of her childhood nickname. She was convinced that, by now her face was hot enough to be measured in the infrared spectrum, Celestia had almost fallen out of the sky, laughing as she was about Luna embarrassment "I merely wanted to suggest something." she added after taking a few moments to let her laughter subside. It took Luna quite a bit longer to regain her composure, and forming a response took her longer still. "Ahem, alright 'Tia, what is your suggestion?" Two can play that game sister. 'Tia' however seemed unfazed by her former nickname. "Well..." She performed a lazy loop before pointing a hoof at the flight exercises going on far below them. "How about we add our personal touch in the training of your personal honor guard?" "Maybe even provide them with a bit of a challenge?" she added with a mischievous smile that, while not as face splitting as the grin from before was, was definitely pronounced, and very different from the smile that she usually wore. Luna was silent for a few moments while she mulled over her sister's question. "Sister, though both of us may have several hundreds of years experience with flying, I sincerely doubt that either of us would be a match for any of the royal guard, especially those that are former speed devils-" "they're called the Wonderbolts these days sister." Luna cleared her throat, "-Wonderbolts, of course, I was going to say Wonderbolts." She tried to mimic her sister, being performing a loop, which quickly turned to a drop when she overshot and forgot to keep flapping, Celestia on the other hand didn't fall out of the sky this time, even though she was laughing harder than before. "At any rate, i doubt we would provide much of a challenge for any of them." Luna continued after she'd flown back up to where Celestia was hovering. "afraid of a little competition Lulu?" Celestia teased, the logical part of Luna was aware that her sister was trying to goad her into going along with the idea, but -because of the goading- her temperamental part was firmly in the diver's seat at this point. "We are!" She sputtered before clearing her throat again. "I am NOT afraid of a little competition." "Great!" Celestia expression closely resembled a cat that had gotten it's share of cream. "Then let us drop in and see if we can persuade them to have a little race with us!" -- At the start of the race, Luna had been a nervous wreck, she found it hard to keep up with the former Wonderbolts. Midway through the race though, Celestia dropped back and flew next to her for a while. "What's the matter sister? Are you afraid that going faster would be unfair?" Luna snorted "I'm going as fast as I can!" Celestia said nothing, but flew closer and nuzzled Luna mid-flight, the dark alicorn almost fell out of the sky. After that, Luna had been determined to go as fast as she could, and while she didn't get anywhere near the top, she certainly proved that she was a capable flier. Celestia on the other hoof had practically flown circles around all of them. "How do you do it?" Luna asked her sister as they flew away from the training grounds. Before Celestia could say anything however Luna interrupted her. "I swear 'Tia, you're face is going to be stuck like that if you keep it up much longer." Celestia's face turned from 'the grin' to amused befuddlement, before becoming a genuine smile. "Oh, Lulu." She laughed, and after a good minute or so she winked at her little sister, The darker alicorn would have missed it, if she'd not been paying such close attention to her sister. In fact she'd been glaring. "In regards to your question," Celestia began. "do you remember our fly-by-fly week?" Luna nodded. "Well, about.... oh what was it.... I think three hundred years ago, I took a holiday." Celestia laughed lightly and then sighed, "I'd flown so far it took me almost year to get back, you wouldn't believe the amount of trouble ponies get into when we're not around." Luna smiled, her previous anger forgotten, while Celestia had always been the figurehead, she knew exactly how much trouble ponies could get into, which was why she had a hoof in every law in Equestria. "It took me four and half years to undo all the mistakes they'd made, but it was worth it, my flying has become much better as you can probably tell." Luna chose to forgo any further questions about her sister's flying. They landed on the balcony to their bedroom, since Luna's return they shared Celestia's bedroom. Her sister had offered Luna her own bedroom should she desire it, but Luna couldn't stand the thought of sleeping alone, since they had shared a room and bed since they'd been little. While not exhausted, Luna felt winded from the race, and she decided let her sister return to her duties. She herself however, was going up the spiral stairs of one of the towers, to the former room of Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's apprentice. Since Twilight had decided to live in Ponyville, and Celestia had given the room to Luna to use as she saw fit, the former library had been turned into an atrium, which Luna used to paint. She had always loved drawing and painting of any kind, the constellations in the night's sky being the most obvious example, and since her return she had painted every single day. As a result of this, the atrium was full of paintings and drawing in various stages of completion, from a crude drawing of the ruins of the two sisters, to a detailed picture perfect painting of Canterlot at night. Although she mostly painted landscapes and still images, there were a few paintings of herself, Celestia, some of the palace staff, and even one about six different colored ponies engaged in a group hug. She had just settled down and picked up a brush with her magic when the creaking of the door announced the arrival of a visitor. The dark alicorn sighed put down the paint brush before turning around... and freezing on the spot. -- In the door opening stood a white alicorn, clad in an old painter's apprentice outfit, with a big smile on her face. It took Luna all of three seconds to double over in laughter, "S-Sis-ha, ha, Sister?" she managed "Wha-he, he, What brings you here pfffrr, looking like that?" Celestia's smile remained serene as ever, "I came here to learn how to paint little sister." That brought Luna back to Equestria, "What?" was all the shocked princess of the night could utter. While Luna had always been into painting and writing, Celestia had only concerned herself with song and dance, some of which could still be found in birds these days (and the occasional dancing bear). This had meant that they pretty much kept to themselves as far as hobbies were concerned, which made Celestia's announcement staggering to the younger alicorn. "I wish to learn how to paint, and since you are very talented in that area, I thought to ask you." Luna smiled through her shock, "We never once thought that we-I would hear you ask such a thing." As the shock wore off, it was replaced by excitement, finally it would be her that was teaching and giving advice, rather than her elder sister who had filled that role for most of their lives. "Sit down over here and I'll get you a canvas." -- Several hours later her excitement had waned, teaching was harder than it looked. While Celestia's use of the Color palette was beautiful, she couldn't draw if her life depended on it. In three hours time Celestia had made several.... 'drawings' which Luna thought could be replicated by foals. She had gone back to the literal basics of drawing: "Try drawing a Circle 'Tia" If only Twilight could have seen her mentor now, lightly biting on her tongue which hung out of her mouth, feathers on one wing stained by a plethora of colors and her tail softly rustling the paper balls and canvas that lay strewn around her, as she concentrated on drawing a circle. Even basic shapes seemed to be beyond her, although she had made some progress. Finally Celestia stretched her legs and stood "I think that's enough for now." Luna looked up from her one of her sister's earlier attempts "Had enough already sister?" The white alicorn looked thoughtful for a moment, "Yes, I still have some things I need to take care of." "I thought you said you had taken the day off?" Luna didn't think that Celestia would lie to her, but it never hurt to ask. "And I did, but I still need to make some preparations, of a personal nature." her sister replied before walking to the door of the atrium. "Sister!" Luna called after her, "Do you think you could give me Dancing lessons some day? When you're not too busy ofcourse?" Celestia stopped walking and flashed a grin over her shoulder, "I was wondering when you'd ask, come along." This baffled the younger sister, "But you just said that you had things to do!" "So I did, and this is the first of the two." and with that Celestia disappeared from the atrium, leaving Luna to scramble to her hooves and follow her. She took a look at the mess she (and mostly Celestia) had made of her atrium/art gallery and decided to leave the mess for later. The princess of the sun moved towards the great ballroom which apart from being used to host the grand galloping gala was hardly ever in use, being too big for the small parties that were the staple of Canterlot's socialite. By the time Luna entered the room Celestia had already moved to the center of the room, and was waiting for.... She wasn't quite sure what her sister was waiting for. "Coming Lulu?" It was Luna's turn to grin. "Coming 'Tia!" -- By the end of her dancing lessons, Luna felt that, not only did she have a lot to learn about dancing, she had a lot to learn about teaching as well. Every time she had a problem with a certain pose or rhythm movement Celestia would say something that made her laugh. Laughing in turn made it seem like everything was going smoother and easier, not to mention the fact that it was great fun. It wasn't the only thing ofcourse, Celestia's calm and relaxed way of explaining every step was more helpful than her kind but insistent nudging had been. By the time they were done her sister's sun hung low in the sky, signifying evening. Luna was amazed at how time had flown by today, she still felt like she'd just gotten out of bed! "Thank you for the lessons sister." she nuzzled her sister before walking towards the balcony. Celestia did not respond however, but instead walked with her and as soon as they reached the balcony, she jumped off and used her wings to glide to the garden below, walking off as soon as she'd landed. Luna feared that she'd done something wrong, and followed. "Sister?" The white alicorn kept up her pace and had soon reached the gates which led out of the castle and into Canterlot proper. Luna was starting to get worried, Celestia was acting so weird! "Sister!" She tried to root her sister to the floor using her magic, which... did nothing at all. The magic rolled off of the mare like she wasn't even there. By now they had reached the beach, and Celestia was still walking forward, with Luna trying to physically restraining here, which had little to no effect. Luna let go when her sister stepped into the water, still very much unresponsive. -- Luna paced back and forth along the shoreline, hesitant to go into the menacing looking water, taking wing when she saw her sister's head disappear beneath the waves. " 'Tia!" she fluttered over to where she had last seen the white alicorn but could not find hide nor mane underneath the gloomy waves. Before she had any chance to react, she felt something take hold of her left rear hoof janking her down into the water. She surfaced several seconds later, sputtering and spitting out the water she had ingested, her eyes rolling every which way in fear. She was about to call out for her sister again when she spotted a familiar multi-chrome mane out of the corner of her eyes. She turned to see Celestia beaming at her. "Gotcha!" was all the older alicorn said before she winked and disappeared beneath the waves again with a laugh. Luna was furious, she wanted to tell her sister how cross she was, how utterly incensed, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a laugh. "I'll get you yet!" she yelled diving after her sister between waves that were no longer frightening, things were indeed easier when you were smiling.
Shielded by friends.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends." ~ Czech Proverb Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends. Words to live by Twilight thought to herself as she closed the book. She remembered the days she'd locked herself in the library at Canterlot castle, losing herself in her books and studies. She'd been content, mostly anyway, but sometimes she'd felt lonely in her library tower, even with spike there to fill some of that void. But it had been better than before she'd been accepted into the school for gifted unicorns, she'd always been an outcast, smarter and definitely more mature than most foals and fillies her age. An outcast -Twilight shivered- that was exactly the right word for it, kept out of the group by her peers, ponies of the same age as her, she didn't think she'd ever understand how children could be so cruel. Shunned by a lot of adults as well, who were afraid that she would be smarter than them, or make them look bad in front of others. The lavender unicorn was glad the princess had sent her to Ponyville when she did, her life would've looked a lot bleaker without her best friends there, to share in the pains and the joys, and above all to stand by her when she needed them the most, going so far as defying the princess herself to save her, a bookish unicorn with little to no experience in friendship, from the perceived threat of being sent back to magic kinder-garden. The lavender mare shook her head and smiled as she picked up a quill with her magic. time for a letter to the princess. Dear princess Celestia, even though I haven't learned anything noteworthy in the past couple of days, I wanted to write this letter to you. Because I wanted to say thanks, thank you for sending me to Ponyville all those months ago, and thank you for giving me friends in my life. And last, but certainly not least, Thank you for being my friend. Your faithful student and friend Twilight sparkle.
Patience and wisdom.Author: Karrakaz Quotation: "Patience is the companion of wisdom." ~ Saint Augustine Celestia heard the hoof-falls outside her room and knew that her little sister Luna was frustrated once again. "Tia!" the midnight blue alicorn shouted as she bounded into the room, scowling, and headed straight for the bed where her sister was reading scrolls. "Tia, I can't do it, I'll never be able to catch up with everything that's happened the last millennium and even if I did I'll never be able to remember all of it! I just can't!" the younger alicorn flopped down on the bed next to her sister and pouted. Celestia silently rolled up the last of the scrolls she'd been reading and gently floated them to the scroll case with her magic before turning to her little sister and embracing her, using both her forelegs as well as her wings in an alicorns version of a hug. Luna leaned into her sister and hugged her back fiercely, she had felt incredibly frustrated, but her big sister always seemed to know what to say or do to make her feel better. Sometimes she felt like she was going to cry out of sheer frustration, why did everything have to be so difficult? Reading up on centuries of history, culture and sciences was an enormous task in and of itself. But Celestia had asked her to 'sit in' on some of the court sessions as well, which while relaxing because she didn't have to do anything other than look regal, were very tedious. She often wondered how her big sister could do it all without breaking down or burning herself out. "How do you do it Tia?" she asked, face still buried in her sister's embrace. Celestia slowly released her sister from the hug and smiled at her. "I practice patience Luna." "Patience?" the younger alicorn looked astounded and confused. "How does practicing patience help?" "Patience, Luna, is the companion of wisdom." the elder sister said, "and because I have had a thousand years to practice I have become rather good at both." She gently nuzzled her younger sibling and got up from the bed and made her way to the door of her room. Looking back she said : "What I mean to say is: take it slow, the past won't go anywhere and we have more than an eternity." Luna finally smiled as well. "I'll try big sister." She looked unsure for a moment. "But if i mess up you'll help me right?" Celestia smiled her gentle smile. "Always little sister, always" "But honestly?" she added with a chuckle "making mistakes is the best way to learn." She stopped when she reached the doors. "come on now, we need to look regal for our little ponies once again." The midnight blue alicorn got up and bounded after her sister, smiling as much now, as she had been scowling before.
