It was another late night at Ponyville library. Candles set about the room cast a warm glow on two figures huddled together. One was a white alicorn, Princess Celestia. Huddled by her side was a second, smaller violet alicorn, the recently crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle. Between them was a scroll that was yellowed with age. The symbols scrawled upon this parchment were not modern Equestrian, but a dialect belonging to a now dead civilization that were ancestral to modern Saddle Arabians. Celestia knew the language well, having traveled for a time among the ancestors of the Saddle Arabians. Twilight spoke and read Saddle Arabian and, though it was not Arabian, it was close enough for her to understand most of it. Twilight was writing on the scroll, translating the Arabian into modern Equestrian. Celestia was chanting the Arabian as her former student wrote down the words. Every now and then she'd stop and ask her to repeat herself. Twilight stopped her just as she got into the middle of the text.
"So, Gjibril fought...scorpion...spiders...to retrieve a...?" Twilight asked as she struggled to understand her former teacher's chant. What Celestia had just recounted was either the hero's battle with a giant scorpion or a giant spider that was guarding either a tomb or a golden treasure.
"He retrieved the golden image of Asherah from a cave of giant scorpion-spiders to end a drought." She peeked at Twilight's work. "There are a few errors here. You should have asked me to stop if you didn't understand what I was saying."
Twilight's ears folded back and she blushed at the light scolding. "I didn't want to admit I couldn't understand it. This language is very different from modern Arabian."
"I see. There is no shame in admitting you don't know something."
That lesson had been drilled into Twilight's head countless times, but never seemed to take.
"So, these giant scorpion-spiders...are they still around?" Twilight asked, concern evident in her voice as she had been planning on going on a diplomatic mission to Saddle Arabia. In order to familiarize herself with the culture her and Celestia had been translating the Epic of Arabian Heroes together. This was the first night and they were halfway through the first chapter of what was considered sacred scripture to the Saddle Arabian nation.
"Oh no. The scorpion-spiders were highly aggressive and wiped themselves out long ago. Unfortunately, that led to sand demons taking over their former territory. You want be going anywhere near their territory though."
"Good, good. Wonderful." Twilight nervously chuckled. "So, should we start over?" That was what they normally did when a mistake was made in a work they were translating together (both being book lovers and multilingual, this was something they did a lot).
"If we were getting this published? Absolutely. But, let's just keep going and this time ask if you don't understand something. We're doing this for you, right?"
Twilight nodded. Celestia raised her voice and began to once more chant the epic. The words of the chant were joined with the scratching of Twilight's quill on the paper. Her wings had begun to feel stiff so she stretched them. The tips accidentally brushed against Celestia's side. Celestia gasped and the chant stopped.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Twilight said retracting the wing.
"I-it's alright, Twilight."
Twilight noticed that Celestia had shook a little at the tip of her wing. She couldn't be ticklish could she? There was no way that the Goddess-Princess of ponykind could suffer from such a weakness. Still, Twilight couldn't get the thought out of her mind. She tried to focus on Celestia's chant. At this point in the epic, Gajibril was confronting a band of thieves who were also after the idol. It was at this point in the epic that he would meet his future wife. Their line would produce the great warrior-prophet Moohamed, uniter of the Arabians. Twilight was normally fascinated by history and should have been enraptured by all this. Yet, she couldn't get the thought of a ticklish Celestia out of her mind. Celestia had tickled her many times when she was a filly as a favorite prank. Sometimes, she'd tickle her when she wasn't paying attention during her lessons. Twilight continued to write down the words of the chant. The candles cast shadows on their faces.
At no point had Twilight ever gotten to tickle Celestia back. That thought bounced into her head. She spread her wings again and lightly flicked Celestia's side with a feather. This time, a real giggle escaped the Sun Princess's lips. Twilight's eyes widened. There was no doubt about it! Celestia was ticklish! Grinning, she continued running her feathers up and down Celestia's side eliciting a howl of laughter.
"Tw-twilight! This is most inappropriate!" Celestia laughed.
"Coochie-coochie-coo!" Twilight responded with a grin, giving a long flick to Celestia's belly with her feather. Laughing, Celestia ended up on her back. Twilight pounced on her.
"Twilight you'd better n-"
Whatever she was going to say was cut off as Twilight dug her hooves into her marefriend's stomach.
"You are sooo banished!" Celestia's grin belied her words as she continued to roll and giggle. "No! A public spanking! An hour in the stocks! No! Not there!"
Twilight moved her hooves all over Celestia's soft underbelly. The princess rolled and giggled beneath her. Then, she got a devilish idea. Flaring her great wings she moved them over Twilight's sides. Twilight squealed and fell off Celestia. Seeing a chance for revenge Celestia pounced on Twilight and began tickling her belly. This time it was Twilight's turn to laugh and giggle as Celestia flicked her feathers on Twilight's exposed stomach. This left her own belly exposed, something Twilight quickly took advantage of by swiping a wing over it. Celestia fell back and landed in an undignified position. Twilight jumped on her and ran kisses down the ticklish parts of her stomach, causing cute squeaks to come from the solar sovereign's mouth. In retaliation Celestia ran her wings on what she knew was Twilight's most ticklish parts. Twilight responded by blowing a raspberry on Celestia's stomach. Tears poured from her eyes as she laughed helplessly from her marefriend's oral assault.
"Uncle! Uncle!" Celestia begged. Twilight, deciding enough was enough stopped and rested on Celestia's tummy.
"I enjoyed that way more than I should have. You're not mad at me are you?" Twilight pushed out her lips in a pout, which always conferred instant forgiveness. Celestia wrapped her wings around her.
"To tell you the truth, I kind of liked being tickled." Celestia whispered in her ear. "It was fun. Let's do it more often."
"Hmm, okay." She wrapped her hooves around Celestia's neck. Celestia grinned and flicked a feather at Twilight's side. As expected, Twilight laughed and fell off of her.
"Revenge tickles!" Celestia shouted.
"You'll have to catch me first!" Twilight said, spreading her wings to fly around. Celestia knew she couldn't fly in the library she was simply too big. Twilight landed on a bookshelf and stuck out her tongue. What she didn't take into account was Celestia's magic. Celestia's horn glowed and Twilight yelped as she was pulled from the shelf by the Princess's magical aura. Flaring her wings, Celestia leaped over only to discover Twilight had teleported.
She paused and looked around the room. "Cutie Twi? Where are you?"
Suddenly, she felt somepony jump on her back and dig their hooves along her sensitive wing joints. She howled with laughter and unconsciously bucked.
"Ouch!"
"Twi? TWILIGHT!"
The younger alicorn had crashed into a bookshelf. Several books had fallen around her and a copy of Oh Cee Dee's Guide To Organizing had been speared by her horn. Celestia rushed to her and gently cradled her in her hooves. She lifted the book from her horn with her magic. A cursory scan with her magic revealed that Twilight had no broken bones though she'd have a nasty bruise on her side.
"I am sooo sorry, Twilight." Celestia said, giving her a kiss.
"Oh, it's alright. I think I'm going to have a horn-ache, though." Twilight complained.
Celestia used her magic to put all the books back on the shelf. "I wouldn't advise using magic tomorrow."
"Aw, darn it. I hate using my hooves. Don't know how pegasii and earth ponies do it."
"Let's get you into bed."
"You're always trying to get me into bed." Twilight said, with a grin.
Celestia ignored the jibe and picked her up in her aura. Twilight sighed in contentment and snuggled in. Only a lucky few-mostly unicorn foals or a unicorn's lover-knew that a magical aura was like a warm, comforting blanket. Being enveloped in Celestia's familiar magic was the best feeling in the world for Twilight, peaceful and safe. Celestia carried her up the stairs into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. She got in next to her and spread a wing. Twilight snuggled next to her.
"So, I should have warned you. Never tickle my neck, it makes me buck. I haven't the foggiest clue why. Luna and Cadence figured that out themselves."
Twilight picked up a hairbrush and ran it through Celestia's hair. Celestia sighed in pleasure.
"You know, Rarity would kill to do that." Celestia said.
"Too bad, cause you're all mine." Twilight said as she brushed the rainbow-like mane.
Celestia smiled. Twilight set aside the brush and laid her head on the pillow. Celestia kissed her forehead, just beneath the base of her horn. Twilight yawned and kissed the base of Celestia's own horn.
"Goodnight Celestia."
"Goodnight, Cutie Twi."
Author's Note
I decided to give the Saddle Arabians a made up language and culture instead of copying any real world cultures.
