Twilight flew around in several loops after performing her part in the Summer Sun Celebration. She landed back on stage and took position at Princess Celestia's side.
After she landed, Celestia gave a speech about saving Luna from corruption, the Elements of Harmony, along with the standard speech of celebrating the summer. As always, Twilight listened intently, while many of the ponies in the audience feigned interest or just stopped listening entirely.
"…and with that, I am happy to conclude this year's Summer Sun Celebration!"
The audience gave a round of applause, while Celestia and Luna stepped off the stage and went back to their chariot to return to Canterlot.
Celestia stopped and looked back. "Twilight, are you coming?"
Twilight was snapped out of her daze at the sound of her name. She remembered that she was a princess now as well, and quickly ran off to hop on the royal chariot.
She turned around to say her goodbyes to her friends. She needed to go back to Canterlot to finish the things that she was supposed to do there before having to rush off to save Equestria. She would be gone for a week and would unlikely to see them before then.
"Goodbye everypony, I'll see you all in a week!" she said as she waved. Her friends all said their farewells and she stepped onto the chariot to Canterlot.
The ride took up most of the remaining time in the day. By the time she was back in her royal bedroom at the castle, it was already midnight.
She paced around the royal bedroom, checking over the list of things she needed to do.
"Attend the royal court, meet with the nobles, sign the official documents, discuss my new position with Princess Celestia… hmm, I thought there would be more on the list."
She checked the back of the paper, and then looked around to see if she had gotten the wrong list. It seemed short. Clearly there was much more to be done here.
Her pacing stopped Spike from falling asleep. He merely dismissed the notion that the list was incomplete, or otherwise had errors.
"It's midnight, are you gonna sleep or not?"
"But there might be things missing from the list! What if I forget something really important because I used the wrong list? Or if I did something that I was supposed to do later, but did it early? What if Princess Celestia was so disappointed in me that she banished me to the moon because I couldn't follow a simple to-do list!"
Twilight's voice increased steadily in nervousness and pitch. When she looked to Spike for an answer, she saw him sleeping cozily. She was annoyed by how easily Spike had dismissed the problem and was about to lecture him on the importance of organization until she saw at the top of the list:
To-do list: Day one
She took a deep breath and put the list on the table. She now felt silly that she has neglected such a simple thing, and was glad Spike was sleeping and couldn't see her mistake. Now with peace of mind, she climbed into bed and fell into a deep slumber.
~~~
Twilight was quick to rise in the morning, but took a few seconds to adjust to the unfamiliar bedroom. When she was fully awake, she gently poked Spike who awoke with a groan. "Five more minutes…"
Twilight rolled her eyes and set a course for the kitchen, as well as adding an extra note to the to-do list: Zero point five: Bring breakfast to Spike.
The first thing to do was eat breakfast, which was not on the list. She made a mental note to make the lists more detailed as to include everyday things.
It took a few minutes of wandering an unfamiliar area of the castle, but she was found the kitchen and was greeted by several of the cooks, one of which was wearing a chef's hat.
"Princess Twilight, it is an honor to be your personal chef. Please, take a seat."
Twilight was surprised at this. She had not expected to be treated as such an important pony, but figured she might as well enjoy it.
"Um, alright then."
She took a seat and levitated a fork to take a bite of an exotic looking food roll. She chewed and the food tasted bland. She then tried some of the salad as well, but they tasted bitter, with a sour aftertaste.
The chef looked on nervously, expecting to be judged at any moment. His eyes shuffled between the food and the pony eating it.
Two of the foods she had eaten so far were not very tasteful. Twilight surveyed the rest of the food on the plate, looking for something she was more familiar with. She couldn't find any, and none of the other food looked particularly tasteful either, so she quickly excused herself from the table.
She then remembered to get breakfast for Spike, and went to one of the castle servants nearby.
"Bring some gems to Spike; he's in the royal bedroom."
The servant quickly nodded and rushed off to get Spike his meal.
She moved on to the first thing on her list: Attend the royal court.
~~~
Having more familiarity with this part of the castle, she found the royal court with ease.
The royal court was held in the throne room. A red carpet stretched from the entrance to the back, where Celestia's throne was placed. The windows were standard giant windows with murals depicting the Elements of Harmony. It was currently empty, but the court would begin soon enough.
She decided to pass the time by mentally going over her tasks for today. As she went over the tasks, she thought about how little things she had actually seen. Even as Princess Celestia's personal student, she had seen very little of Celestia's political life as a princess. Twilight thought back to her foalhood and realized that she had actually never seen the royal court being held, or any other public castle events for that matter.
After twenty minutes of waiting, the first petitioners arrived. Celestia soon arrived after and wordlessly took a seat on the throne. She looked in the direction of Twilight, who took it as a signal to take her place at Celestia's side.
Twilight watched the petitioners come and go. This had been going for an hour, and Celestia had rejected all of them. None of the things suggested by the petitioners were any good, and often took their money from taxes. They pattern seemed to repeat itself; farmers would come in asking for more rain and longer days, business owners would ask that taxes be lowered, poor ponies would ask for more welfare and social insurance and so on.
Twilight imagined herself sitting on the throne and talking to all these ponies. All of them proposed selfish and unreasonable ideas, while acting like they were about to bring about world peace. She couldn't imagine how much of a headache she would have dealing with all of them.
Perhaps it was something learned on the job, Twilight thought. Or maybe Celestia never learned to deal with it and had to suppress her desire to banish everypony to the moon.
Twilight spent several hours observing the court, as she would eventually be doing this as well. After watching from the sidelines, she very much disliked the idea of attending the royal court, with most of it stemming from the fact that all the petitioners were… stupid, as Rainbow Dash would put it. Twilight thought about it, and couldn't come up with any better words to describe them.
Three hours after the court began, it ended. It was actually more of a break, but Twilight wouldn't need to attend the second session.
She moved on to the second item on the list: Meet with the nobles.
~~~
It took a bit of time to find this room, but she found it nonetheless. Twilight walked into the meeting room. Inside was a long table, with lots of chairs lined up along the sides and one chair that was bigger and fancier than all the others at the end. The chairs on the side were filled with nobles who quieted their talk into whispers and murmurs when Twilight entered. She took her position on the end chair and mentally reassured herself.
Okay, I just have to listen to the nobles. It's just like in the court, but with nobles. Not like those petitioners. Then, I have to say some princess-like stuff about it. Piece of cake.
One of the nobles, a unicorn stallion with a monocle, started with his speech.
"Princess Twilight; the government of Equestria are being polluted by lesser ponies. In the past twenty years, eleven earth ponies and twelve pegasi have joined the government. This cannot stand. Unicorns are the race of dignity and power, and have been the traditional rulers of the country for the past two thousand years. They should be the ones in control of the government. The infiltration by these lesser races is unacceptable! By allowing lesser races to join the government, the public image of Equestria has been tarnished! Other nations will look upon us as inferior, and we will be mocked by all. Princess Celestia had already denied this movement. Thus, I urge you do to something to stop earth ponies and pegasi from holding positions within the government."
Twilight had no idea what to say. She was so overwhelmed by the statement that she couldn’t even count the number of things wrong with that speech. She sat there, dumbfounded.
She thought originally that nobles would be more sensible than the petitioners at the royal court. Now, that thought had been smashed into tiny pieces.
What was even worse was that nopony in the room said anything, or showed any sign of objecting to the speech. The pony who had made the speech sat with the same smug posture the petitioners had.
She quickly reviewed the speech in her head, and told the noble how terrible his ideas were and why.
"First of all, there is nothing stating that unicorns are the race of dignity and power. That's just something they made up to feel good! Second, unicorns only made up most of the government in Equestria because they got there through power and threw everypony else out. And they make up most of the population in Canterlot, which is the head of the government. Thirdly, an earth pony or pegasus can do just as well as a unicorn can in politics, but aren't because everypony discriminates against them so much that nopony wants to give them a chance! Fourth, allowing earth ponies and pegasi would not 'tarnish' the image of Equestria. Having an all unicorn government would tarnish the image, because it would show how racist we are!"
By the end of her speech, Twilight was yelling directly into the face of the noble who was retreating back into his chair. Everypony else in the room sat with their jaw hanging open, staring at her in shock. The noble spoke once more.
"You mean… you want non unicorns in the government?"
The noble took a step back and regained his posture. "It seems Princess Celestia has made a poor choice as to who to make into a princess."
Now, not only had the noble suggested massively racist policies, but he had insulted Princess Celestia as well. Twilight's face contorted into one of anger. Her right eye twitched slightly, and her horn began to glow black.
The door to the meeting room slammed open, and Princess Celestia walked in.
"Perhaps we should all take a break."
All of Twilight's rage dissipated immediately at the sound of Celestia's voice. Twilight bowed out of habit, then exited the room quickly and leaving Celestia to deal with the nobles.
Yes, the nobles. She thought. The nobles who, despite what they openly thought, somehow managed to stay in power over the last thousand years.
Outside of the meeting room, Twilight took a deep breath and cleared her mind. Better to not dwell on negative thoughts.
She took out the list and read the third item: Fill out the official paperwork.
~~~
Again, it took some time to find the right location. Having even less familiarity with this part of the castle, it took Twilight half an hour to find the bureaucracy office.
When she entered the door she was greeted by the receptionist.
"Greetings, Princess Twilight. These are the forms you need to fill out. You'll need to have Princess Celestia perform the final signatures."
She was handed a stack of papers an inch tall. Had it been put in hardcover, it would have passed as a novel.
Twilight groaned and sat at one of the desks and began on filling out the forms. She started with the basics, first and last name, place of residence, the normal stuff.
As expected, the forms required more and more specific and outrageous things. Things like dental records and magic capacity.
She was irritated by the paperwork. Three sheets would have been enough. She ran the process through her mind and thought it over. What do dental records have to do with being a princess? Or what about tail color?
But again, she would only have to do this once. It's not like I have to do this every day, she thought.
However, as she went on, her mind wandered back to her original thoughts. Especially after filling out eighty pages already, which was only one fifth of the entire stack. Six times now she had to pull out some her old documents for some obscure things like taxes paid during a certain year that she would never remember.
She made another mental note that once she started actually doing stuff as a princess, she would make this process much easier.
When Twilight filled out one section in duplicate, she went to the last page of the section to find that she actually didn't have to do it and was supposed to give it to her parents to fill out.
Once again, her face became one of increasing rage. This time she had nopony to blame and nopony to take it out on.
She had to calm herself down, and took a deep breath. This felt like it was becoming routine. If it was, it was a very bad thing indeed.
Once she suppressed her anger, she pressed onward through the pile of paperwork.
~~~
Twilight looked miserable. Even after brushing her hair and washing her face, her eyes still were bloodshot and there were bags under her eyes. Her mane was disheveled and several strands of hair stuck out.
She went to Princess Celestia to perform the final signatures on the documents, as well as discussing a few things. However, Twilight was interrupted by a mailpony who handed her a letter.
"Princess Twilight? There's a letter for you from Ponyville."
Twilight levitated the envelope over to herself and opened it, taking a look at the letter inside.
Dear Twilight,
It's only been one day but we're already missing you. It probably won't get any better since you'll be gone for another six days. How are things in Canterlot? Ponyville got kinda boring without you. It's probably really great as a princess, having wings and a crown and stuff. I We really wish we had wings and a shiny crown. Well, most of us do. Anyway, good luck with your princess training and stuff. Bring back something cool!
-Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity
Twilight thought back to Ponyville and her friends. Her mind drifted to her friends, how she missed them and how they missed her. A single tear rolled down her cheek.
After going back to her room and putting the letter there, Twilight went to Celestia's bedroom. She walked in without knocking. The two guards who stood at the door simply bowed.
Celestia was in the middle of a book when Twilight walked in. Celestia slipped in a bookmark and put in on a desk nearby.
"My faithful student; I'm so glad you've taken to being a princess so quickly. Please, take a seat." Celestia smiled gently as she talked, but that turned into an expression of worry once she saw how Twilight looked.
"Is everything alright? Perhaps you should take a day off or two." Celestia urged.
Twilight sighed and took a seat next to Celestia.
"I'm just… adjusting to my new life as a princess. Just a bit of stress. Nothing to worry about."
Celestia looked at Twilight with a look of worry.
"Twilight."
"Yes?"
"What's wrong?"
Twilight sat still for a second. She debated internally.
One side of her mind argued that Celestia probably already had enough to deal with, and Twilight didn't want to bother her with any more. Complaining might also indicate that she can't handle being a princess.
On that thought, she entered another one. What if she really wasn't cut out to be a princess? But then again, she was personally selected by Princess Celestia. And Twilight couldn't just walk out on the Sun Goddess herself.
Another side of her mind argued that Twilight was doing an awful job as princess. On the first day, she had already broken down from stress, and this was just the learning part.
She also found the work frustrating. Not just because she failed at it. Even if she were to be able to successfully complete all these royal duties, it would still be frustrating. They would also take her away from where all her friends were, for long periods of time at once.
But Princess Celestia was asking. Twilight couldn't just lie to her mentor, which would be wrong. And Celestia, having thousands of years of experience, would probably be able to tell.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight started.
"I can't do it! I can't! How am I supposed to sit on a throne and find some way to deal with the petitioners without making myself seem like a jerk!? And the nobles! What am I supposed to do with them? One of them said that only unicorns should be allowed in the government! And all the other agreed with him too! And I can't just kick them out or anything. And there's so much paperwork! Four hundred pages on the first day? I can't do that every day. And that's just the first day. I'll be stuck in Canterlot for years, and won't be able to see my friends! They'll just think of me as some snooty noble who forgot all her friends, and they'll hate me, and—"
Celestia put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"Your friends won't think of you so poorly so easily. Now, did you always feel this way?"
"Well, I was sort of worried when you first made me a princess that I won't be able to see my friends anymore since I would be doing princess-y things. And I was also kind of worried about actually doing things, since I had no idea what I was supposed to do."
Celestia pondered for a moment in deep thought before speaking.
"Why did you never tell me about this?"
"Well, I couldn't just walk out on you. I did all the things that you assigned to me before, and I didn't want to disappoint. So I just… accepted it and hoped it wouldn't be too hard."
"You can always share your worries with me, Twilight. It would seem I pushed this upon you, without any warning. I should also take part of the blame. In any case, you don't seem to enjoy being a princess very much. Would you like to go back to your normal life?"
Twilight sat motionless for several seconds before nodding.
"Very well then. Hold still…"
Celestia stood up and charged up a spell. When she cast it, the room was filled with a blinding white light.
When the light faded, Twilight was at the center, but with one critical detail.
She no longer had wings.
Celestia spoke once more. "I'll clean up the paperwork and make sure you haven't left any loose ends untied. The next train for Ponyville leaves at eight next morning. The servants will bring your belongings."
Twilight nodded wordlessly, and slowly walked out of the room.
When she arrived at her bedroom, Spike was eating from a large plate of gems. He saw Twilight enter, and immediately he stared at where her wings should have been.
"Twilight! Your wings! They're gone!"
"It's alright Spike. I quit being a princess."
"What!?"
"Turns out I wasn't cut out for it. I'll explain more once we get back to Ponyville."
Spike raised one eyebrow in annoyance. He stood quietly for a few seconds, thinking of ways to respond. He knew that it would be hard or impossible to get Twilight to spill the beans, but that didn't keep him from thinking.
His mind then drifted to several possibilities as to why Twilight was no longer a princess. All of his theories involved her causing some sort of terrible accident and getting de-princessed by Celestia. Eventually he decided he could probably wait until they got back to Ponyville and climbed into his bed.
Twilight climbed in bed as well, with mixed thoughts in her mind. She still wasn't clear over whether it was right to quit after only one day, but then thought about the rest of the things she would have been doing for rest of the week. She was kept awake by the internal debate until she was overtaken by her exhaustion and fell asleep.
~~~
The next day, Twilight arrived back in Ponyville at 9:20 AM, and set out to find her friends.
She didn't have to walk far, and could hear the distinct voices of her friends coming from the center of the town.
"…just use magic to fly, like Pumpkin Cake?"
"And waste a perfectly good pair of wings?"
"Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a unicorn fly with magic."
"Well I did!"
"How come she was flying perfectly fine at the wedding?"
Twilight followed the voices and found her friends in a circle at the market. When they saw her, they all went silent and stared.
"…What?"
It was Applejack who first broke the silence.
"Twilight! We all thought you'd be stayin' in Canterlot for a whole week… where'd your wings go?"
Twilight looked around nervously. Now she would have to explain why she was no longer a princess. She went over it in her mind and began.
" Well, it didn't go so well. I watched Princess Celestia attend the royal court. I didn't have to do anything, but just watching it gave me an idea of what I would be doing. A lot of them just said a bunch of stuff that would benefit them and nopony else. Then Princess Celestia had to let them off gently so she didn't look bad. For every single one of them.
"And then I had to deal with the nobles. I thought that they would be better since they were nobles, but it was even worse! One of them said only unicorns should be allowed into the government, 'cause only they were strong and having anypony else would make them look bad. And I think all the others agreed with him. I got so upset I also almost did something really bad with my magic.
"Then I had to deal with the paperwork. It took four hours. And it was only the first day, and only just me finalizing my status as princess. If that was bad, then I can't even imagine what would come after that.
"Then I got the letter from you girls, and I thought about how much I missed you all, and how much all of you would have missed me, and that you would all forget about me and think I was some snooty royal pony who forgets all about her friends and acts like a big jerk.
"I talked to Princess Celestia about it and told her all the things I just told you. She said some stuff about how she pushed this on me and it was sort of her fault as well for not warning me. She asked me if I wanted to quit being a princess and I said yes, and she cast a spell to turn me back into a unicorn.
Twilight looked down, as if expecting her friends to scold her on abandoning her position. Pinkie Pie was the first to speak up.
"We won't forget you, silly! Or think you were some snooty royal pony who forgets all about her friends and acts like a big jerk."
"I agree. How could you ever think such a thing?"
"Darn, I was really looking forward to giving some flying lessons…"
Twilight regained some of her posture and put on a weak smile.
"Yeah, I guess I was overthinking it a bit. As for the whole princess thing, it just didn’t work for me."
Rarity looked like she was about to say something to Twilight when she was cut off by Fluttershy.
"Well, I think you did the right thing. Nopony else should be able to tell you what you want to be, and you should decide for yourself."
Everypony looked at Fluttershy who was now realizing she was the center of attention. She lowered her head and blushed. Rarity took the attention from her quickly enough.
"Well, I was going to say otherwise, but Fluttershy makes a good point. You shouldn't abandon your own goals for something greater that you don't actually want, but everypony else thinks you should want."
The rest of Twilight's friends nodded in agreement. She then remembered something.
"That reminds me. I need to do something, be back in ten minutes."
She ran off towards the library while her friends just shrugged, each of them assuming Twilight missed some tiny detail on one of her lists.
~~~
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that I shouldn't let other ponies make my life decisions for me. I learned that after I tried my hoof at being a princess, but wasn't able to do it right. If I was going to be a princess, I should have chosen to be a princess, rather than be chosen. I also learned that I should decide my own destiny and not just 'go with the flow'. Doing that can cause somepony to end up being something they don't really want to be just because life sticks them with it. I especially learned that I should never give up something that I love, like my friends, for that something that life sticks me with, even if it's something really good.
Your Faithful Student
Twilight Sparkle
