Twilight smiled brightly as she walked down the stairs of the tower, happily giggiling to herself. Her hooves glances and danced along the steps as she made her way to the room, her bouts of giggles seemed to match her steps as she neared her destination.
There were two reasons why she was so happy today, the first was that she had ust seen Cadence’s first ultrasound, “IT’s an alicorn colt! IT’s so cute, I can’t wait for it to be born.” she smiled brightly to herself. Though being an aunt was a new experience, it was one that she eagerly looked forward to. The next was the fact that Celestia had big news for her, and this caused her to have a big wide grin on her face. Since she had become the princess of friendship and become a princess of the ponies, righting wrongs and venturing to save lives, she hadn’t much time to talk to her former teacher as much as she wanted to.
She stopped at the front of the door as she thought about the growing distance between her teacher and herself. Had becoming a princess really separated them that much, that she didn’t need to see her anymore? This thought caused a small shudder to go through her body and for her to quickly shake her head. She needed her teaher and would always need her in her life, just as Celestia needed her, “Ah, Twilight, good to see you. I am glad you’re here.”
“I came as soon as you called, Princess Celestia,” Twilight said with a slight bow as she walked into her mentor’s room. She smiled at the almost timeless and homely feel that the room exhumed, from the large pillow that sat next to a fireplace and bed, to the reading stand with the various object that laid on the stand, “You said you had a surprise for me?”
“Yes, the most amazing news and I thought I would tell you first, Celestia smiled as she walked to her student. “Twilight Sparkle, I have-”
Twilight looked up at her mentor, tail wagging as her curiosity was taking over, “Yes?”
“-Picked a brand new personal student,” Celestia said, a smile on her face.
Twilight’s ears fell back and her heart sank,” Y-you what?”
“I have found a new personal student,” Celestia smiled as she walked to a book, “I discovered her in that village that you and your friends liberated a few months ago. She is like you, an unicorn with a high potential for magic. She was able to wield a chain lightning spell at only eight, imagine that. Well, the moment I heard, I knew I had to bring her here and train her personally, less her talent went to waste or worse, she ends up hurting her friends. This is why I hav-”
If there was anything else that Celestia was saying, Twilight didn’t hear it. Her mind was too focused on the idea that Celestia had picked another student to teach, “A-a-a new student,” she whispered. “Does this mean she really doesn’t see me as her student anymore? Doesn’t she care about me anymore? Does she not want to talk to me anymore? Does she hate me now, because i haven’t talked to her in a long time? Does she feel like I abandoned her?”
“Twilight, are you listening?” Celestia asked.
“Um, sorry,” Twilight blushed, rubbing her forelegs together. “I was just thinking, of princess duties, you know. What were you saying?”
“I was saying Twilight, that she will be here in a few days and-”
“I’m sorry princess, but I have to go!” Twilight exclaimed as she ran out of the room, tears rolling down her cheeks. In her head she kept repeating, “She’s replacing me, she’s replacing me! I can’t believe she’d do that, and right in front of me!”
Once outside of the castle courtyard, Twilight put her hoof to the wall and panted. Tears still rolled down her cheeks as she laid her forehead against the wall and whimpered, “I knew I wasn't her first student and I was ok with that. Really, but I was just hoping that she would wait a little before replacing me with...with...whoever that is! I just hoped ta she...” she trailed off, crying to herself.
“Hey, Twilight. Are you ok?” Asked Spike, a copy of Space Queen: Galaxia conquest in his little claws. He placed one of his hands onto her shoulder, “You’re crying.”
Twilight sniffed and wiped her eye, “Y-yeah, I’m fine. I just saw the ultrasound of the new foal and it made me a little emotional.”
“And?” Spike asked, his eyebrow arched.
Twilight turned away from her little dragon, “And, nothing, I-I just want to check up on Moondancer.” and with that she quickly ran away from her dragon companion.
Making her way to her old tower library as fast as she could, the tears finally stopped trailing down her face. As she neared her old home, she took a deep breath and stepped inside the large building. There is a smile on her face as she looks at the cleaned up tower, the dust that had accumulated since her departure to Ponyville had since been cleaned up. The books had even been reshelved into new categories. There was a warm smile that came to the alicorn’s face as she walked through the open door, listening to the faint echos of the past.
“I understand that you are looking for a new home?” Celestia said as she guided her young unicorn protege across the courtyard.
Twilight nodded, “Yes, your majesty. Spike and I have been talking it over, and with all of my research projects, books, and everything else, the room back in the castle just isn’t going to be big enough.”
“I see, well...it's a good thing I have this prepared,” Celestia said, opening the door to the large tower slowly.
Twilight’s mouth opened wide as she walked in, looking in awe at the large collection of books and science equipment, “Oh, my...Is this all for me?” Twilight asked, to which Celestia nodded. Letting out a squeal of delight, the unicorn ran across the tower, “Look at this! Is this ‘Elements and prophecies?’ Oh, I have to read that later! Oh my gosh, is that a telescope? Oh this place has everything!” she cheered before running back down the stairs to her mentor’s side. Nuzzling her leg Twilight gave her a hug and whispered, “Thank you so much.”
Twilight stood there, taking in the warmth of her old home, and the tender memory of her arrival. She took in a deep sigh as she was suddenly surprised by a pair of forelegs wrapping around her neck from behind and pulling her into a hug. Sighing as she felt the comforting warmth of a friend behind her. Turning around, she smiled at seeing the white unicorn, “Hey Moondancer, why did you hug me?”
Moondancer ran a hoof through her red and blue mane, a smile crossing the white unicorn’s lips, “You looked like you needed one. Like something was hurting you.”
“No, it was nothing. I was just thinking of...memories,” Twilight said, walking around the tower. “Wow, you really fixed this place up nicely.
Moondancer smiled, walking up the stairs and picking up a book, “Yes, indeed. It took a little effort, but i got it all leaned up. I even fixed the reorganization of the place.”
“Wow,” Twilight gasped in amazement as she looked at her old home. She then looked to her old friend and sighed, “Moondancer, we you ever upset about my new friends?”
“Hmmm?” asked Moondancer as she pulled away a new book, “What was that?”
Twilight ran a hoof along the floor, “Were you ever upset or felt like I replaced you with my Ponyville friends?”
Moondancer sighed as she put away the book, “The truth is, I was kind of a little jealous and a little mad at you. I mean, your friends are so great: the fastest pegasus on record, an unbelievably strong earth pony, an animal caretaker that redeemed a chaos being, a mare who has done things with diamonds I can only dream of, and a mare who is a pinker version of Minuette. How could I possibly compare to all of that.”
“I don’t want you to compare yourself to them,” Twilight said, putting a hoof onto her friend’s shoulder. She smiled softly, “I want you to be great on your own. I don’t want you to be like them and I never will. I want Moondancer.”
“Well, I know that now,” Moondancer replied, smiling back at her friend. “After your little visit to see me, I began to see that you never leave a pony behind. You can make room in your heart for more than one friend in there, and you would never forget your old friends. You love them equally.”
Smiling softly, Twilight nodded her agreement, “You’re right about that.” she the let out a sigh and hugged her. With a smile, she looked up at the bookshelves and the table, “Hey, want to talk about some of the new books you got?”
Moondancer, glad for the change in subject, smiled and nodded.
Applejack’s hooves slammed against a tree hard, causing the last set of apples to fall down into the glowing bucket. Twilight moved the glowing set of buckets from the ground and smiled, which Applejack returned with a smile and tip of the hat, “Thanks kindly for the help sugarcube.”
“You are welcome,” smiled Twilight as she walked with Applejack to the barn. Despite her current royal duties and her royal title, the purple alicorn always made sure that she had time to help a friend. She smiled as she took in the air and the quiet-
“APPLEJACK! Where’s my special cutie brush?” Applebloom called out from down the path, a look of panic in her eyes.
The farmer shook her head, swaying her blonde mane, “In the upper cupboard, Applebloom.”
“Thanks!” the small filly said, running back to her house.
Twilight arched her eyebrow and looked to Applejack, “Cutie brush?”
“It’s her special brush that she uses for her cutie mark,” Applejack chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. “That crazy kid, a few weeks gone by and she is still taking care of that little mark of hers like she is afraid if she takes her eyes off it, it's gonna run off and hide.”
Twilight let out a giggle at Applejack’s joke, and looked at Applejack’s proud face. With a sigh, she asked, “Applejack, have you ever, been jealous of Applebloom before she was born?”
“Well, for about maybe five minutes, yeah,” Applejack said, placing her hooves against the fencepost. “Ah thought, ‘would she take away my momma away from me? Would Paw forget about me? Would she take their love away? All sorts of thoughts like that.”
“You did?” Twilight asked.
Applejack nodded, “Yeah, then I started to think about it. I started to think of all of the fun we could have together, and all of the things that we could do as sisters. Pig caling, chores, and all sorts of fun stuff. We could also have little talks together that me and Big Mac could never have. You know, those little things that you just can’t talk about with your brother that you can with your sister.”
“I know,” Twilight giggled. “That’s why I was grateful for Cadence.”
“See? It’s a little natural to be a little jealous,” Applejack said, smiling at her friend. Arching an eyebrow she asked, “What brought this on?”
Twilight sighed, “Princess Celestia has taken in a new student.”
“That’s great! You must be excite-you aint excited are you?” Applejack asked.
“I just...” Twilight looked away from the farm mare, “feel like she’s replacing me, you know? Like i have changed too much, and we’ve grown too far apart. Now she wants a new student to replace the old one, and just leave me out in the cold. Like...I’m not important to her anymore.” She sighed and looked up at Applejack, “You don’t think I’ve changed that much since I became a princess, do you?”
“Well, lets see,” Applejack said, putting a hoof to her chin. “You are still neurotic, read way too much, paranoid, have a nasty habit of jumping to conclusions, get way too into your projects, over prepare yourself, and you have a tendency to use book sense over common sense.” As Twilight gave Applejack a look of anger and shock, Applejack laughed, “Ah, just messing with ya, sugarcube. You’re still the same, just a little more mature. You’ve grown up, and maybe Princess Celestia is seeing that. That its time for you to move away from her now.”
“But I don’t want to move away from her. I don’t want her to feel like she isn’t necessary to my life,” Twilight sighed and lower her head. “She was like a mother to me when she was teaching me, and I don’t want to start pushing her away.”
“You’re not pushing her away,” Applejack said, putting a foreleg over the shoulders. She pointed to Twilight’s wings, “You have done a lot of things since you...graduated. You’ve helped others out and have started to become your own mare. She knows this.”
Twilight gave out a shuddering breath, “I just don’t want her to replace me.”
“You won’t be replaced sugarcube, trust me,” Applejack smiled, before giving Twilight a hug.
Twilight sighed as she looked up at the sky, laying on her back. She stretched her arms over her head and looked at her hand for a few minutes. Everytime she had come back to this strange little world, it was still weird to see how different everything was, the hands and additional appendages being one of them. Hearing a yawn behind her, she turned to look at the one thing she knew that would never change between worlds, friendships both old and new. There was a smile on her face as she looked over her shoulder to the bacon haired girl that laid on her back on the stairs leading to the high school building, “So, why did you come out here to talk to me in person?” Sunset asked.
Twilight sighed, “I just wanted some time to myself away from home.” she said, bringing a knee to her chest and looking at the statue in front of her.
“Momejesty problems?” Sunset asked, raising her head up.
“You call her that?” Twilight asked a little shocked. Shaking her head she groaned, “She just told me that she picked a new personal student yesterday.”
“And you are feeling bad about it,” Sunset asked.
“Yeah,” Twilight said calmly. “It just feels like I don’t matter to her now, or that she doesn’t matter to me anymore. She does, and I feel like this new student will just make that feeling worse.”
“It doesn’t have to be, you know,” Sunset siad, resting on her elbows. “You could help the princess out.”
“Maybe,” Twilight sighed. “Be glad you never had to deal with this.”
Getting up, Sunset walked down the stairs to Twilight, “You know, I think that is probably one of the worst things about leaving when I did. I never got to meet you earlier.”
“Yeah, but if you stayed, you would’ve become the element of magic instead of me and I wouldn’t have become Celestia’s student,” Twilight said, getting up and looking at her friend.
“No, that’s not true,” Sunset remarked, putting her hands onto Twilight’s shoulders, “Twilight, you have more magical power than anypony I have ever seen. When Celestia picked you, she saw all of the power that you had and took you under her wing in order to harness the power you had. If I had stayed, well, I would’ve gotten a chance to know a great little sister earlier.”
“Is that how you see me?” Twilight asked, looking into sunset’s green eyes. A soft smile came to her lips as she finished asking, “As a little sister?”
“Hey, we help each other, we confide in each other, and we are protective of each other. If that doesn’t say sisters, I don’t know what does,” Sunset said with a smile.
Tears came to Twilight’s eyes as she said, “Oh Sunset!” and she then gave her sister a tight hug, which Sunset immediately returned. With a big smile, she said, “I am glad to have you for a sister too.” Looking up, she noticed five girls hidden behind a statue, smiling and talking, “I think our friends are starting to talk.
“Let them talk, I want to focus on giving you the biggest hug that I can,” Sunset said.
Twilight giggled, “That is impossible, because I am giving you the biggest hug ever.”
“Twilight Sparkle, could you follow me,” Celestia asked of Twilight, looking up a small flight of stairs. “There is something i need to show you.”
Twilight nodded and followed her mentor, looking behind her as she saw the students arriving for their first day, “I bet her new personal student is there too.”
As Celestia reached the top floor, she led the purple alicorn to a door with a starburst cutie mark, “Tell me, Twilight, do you remember this room?”
“My old room,” Twilight whispered. “Great, another thing for the newbie to take from me.”
“Take a look,” Celestia said, opening the door for Twilight.
Nodding, Twilight looked inside and gasped. The room was exactly as it was when she had first left it years ago, not a single bit of dust had accumulated and not a single thing was out of place. Reaching a hoof forward, she was shocked when she saw that there was a small barrier in front of the door, “A barrier? Celestia what is-”
Celestia did not answer her, instead walking to another door, this one adorned with a sun cutie mark, “And this?”
“That’s Sunset’s!” Twilight said, opening the door and opening her eyes wide at the sight. much like her room, sunset’s room was in perfect condition. Littered about were pictures of her as a foal, trophies, and her greatest victories. Twilight walked to another door, and looked inside, finding much of the same thing. Again and again, she went to door after door, even mentioning some of the inhabitants by name, “This is Cloud Strife, inventor of the Nimbus Trekking spell. And this is Squall Leonheart, the mage who saved a small town by turning a rampaging river into steam, and that’s-”
Celestia let out a soft giggle as Twilight went down door after door, exclaiming at each student that she recognize. When they got to the final door, Celestia spoke softly, “And that is Celia Harvey, the one who crafted the solar healing spell. Everyone of these doors, belonged to one of my former students.”
Twilight noted the wistful look in her teacher’s eyes, “Princess, why are you showing me all of this?”
“To show you something important,” at this, the larger alicorn laid on her knees and looked at Twilight’s eyes. “I heard from somepony close to you that you are afraid that this new student will replace you. I wanted to show you that, I never forget my students, each one of you has a special place in my heart. Much like nothing will replace Luna in my heart, nothing will replace one of my students in my heart. Each one of you, is like my daughter.”
Twilight sniffled, “I-I- know that now. I should’ve known that, but it's just that...it feels like we’re growing distant now. I haven’t written to you in ages, we only see each other at important events now, and we don’t talk like we used to. I’m, afraid.”
“Oh Twilight,” Celestia put a comforting wing over her student and pulled her lose. “Twilight, you are growing up. You and your friends have done more for Equestria than i have ever thought possible, a princess for the ponies and your friends are brave knights. Righting wrongs, uniting ponies, and beating evil when it comes. It’s what a mother dreams of seeing one day, their little filly growing up and becoming their own mare. You have grown beyond my expectations my little one. Just like they all have. I may be able to see the greatness in you all, but I can only open the door for you and show you the way, it was up to you to step through it and become the mare I believed you to be.”
“But it’s just that, it's just...” Twilight sighed and looked down. “I don’t want to lose you, or think you’ve forgotten about me.”
“A mother never forgets her children Twilight,” Celestia said, nuzzling her student. “You may grow up, and become your own mare, but I will never forget the years of happiness you have given me. Nor do I expect to be forgotten by you, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight looked up to her mentor and sniffed, a tear rolling down her cheek, “Never, Celestia.”
“We may grow separate from each other Twilight,” Celestia smiled, “But I will never leave you. Student, hero, princess, you’ve done so much...A mother couldn’t be prouder of her little girl.”
“Thank you...mom,” Twilight said, snuggling into her teacher’s chest and smiling.
After Twilight’s talk with her mentor, the young princess walked down the stairs and towards the front gates of the castle, “Excuse me, princess?” asked a little filly.
“Yes, what is it?” Twilight asked, looking down at the white unicorn.
The unicorn ran a hoof past her blue mane and looked away shyly, “My name is Lightning Strike, and I am princess Celestia’s newest student. I...I was wondering if you could-”
“Yes?” Twilight asked, sitting down to her level.
“Help me with some of her lessons. I don’t want the answers, just what I am going to be looking forward to. I read some of the spells she teaches and heard some rumors and I don’t know if I’m ready yet,” the filly said, looking down at her sun ray cutie mark.
Twilight let out a soft and happy sigh before getting up, “She isn’t hard at all, but if you come with me, I’ll give you some pointers.”
“Really?” asked Sunbeam.
“Yes, after all,” Twilight looked up at Princess Celestia and smiled at her, “We sisters have to stick together.”
A mother never forgets her children, but grows with her family.
Author's Note
Thanks Zolt for the editing.
This was an interesting one to apporaoch. I came up with this when I was thinking about Celestia's role in the show, Twilight's growth as a character, and where she was going in her life. I wanted to see how Twilight would react to a new student taking her place and how she would be affected by it.
This was the second story that I sent to my creative writing class and it was very well recieved there.
Ps. Blame Zoltan for the Final Fantasy gags.
