"About that, Twilight..."
"You are NOT immortal..."
Morning light raised her flaming fingers up across the sky, and eager ponies ready to head to work opened their wooden doors. A shallow breath of air landed gently upon the land, cooling the souls of many. Birds chirped and roosters cackled. It was is a new day to—
"RISE AND SHINE, TWILIGHT!" Spike yelled across the castle, rushing towards the room where the Princess of Friendship slept in, and was is still sleeping in. Twilight rolled around in her bed, her blankets were on the purple and black checkered floor and, her pillow was all smudged up, the sheets on the bed were somehow ripped, as if Twilight had a real fine time at midnight. As Spike entered the bedroom, he was somehow picked up by Twilight's magic and thrown across the room, into the library shelf.
Struggling to get out of the books, Spike emitted a huge burst of green fire, burning most of the books out. He then started having hiccups, which caused him to burst more flames out. He tried to hold it in, but it came out in an uncontrollable torrent despite his efforts to stifle his flames either with water, scaring himself, choking his throat with his claws and tail, and hopefully he hasn't tried any other disturbing methods as well. Finally, he got a grip on the issue, and piled the burnt books into a wardrobe.
"Twilight! It's time to get up! You have duties to accomplish as a princess!" Spike ran up to her bed, pushing the alicorn back and forth.
The princess kept on snoring, and Spike then exerted a touch more force onto her, only to be thrown upwards into the ceiling by Twilight's magic, again.
As he landed back down, he dropped onto Twilight's body, who still hadn’t budged an inch.
Frustrated by her stubbornness, Spike began pounding his fists onto Twilight's body, who then simply raised a hoof and swung it over, knocking him off the bed. While he thought on how to get the sleepyhead up, he suddenly felt a sudden urge to hiccup. He hadn’t thought it would be bad to do so until he realized that he burned Twilight's bed and screwed up her mane.
Twilight finally woke up , turning her head to her left and to her right. Without a word, she went into the restroom to brush her teeth, and saw herself in the mirror.
She gasped in shock before letting out a long, horrified shriek.
Spike rushed into the restroom and acted as if he were some sort of action hero rescuing a damsel in distress, despite the fact that he was the culprit.
"Twilight! What happened?!"
"Oh Spike! M-m-my mane! I-i-it's all…" she stuttered on almost every word, "b-b-b-burnt! I look like I have an afro! It’s even worse than what Rainbow did to me when we f-f-first met back in those times!"
"Oh. Well, I'm sorry to, well uh, hear that!" Spike put his claws behind his back, drawing a circle on the floor with his right foot. Before Twilight could turn her suspicion to her assistant, he quickly changed the subject.
"What about the 'time' when you screwed your mane over because you were worried about the future?"
Twilight frowned immediately. "Okay Spike, we do NOT talk about that "time", okay? Nopony does."
After putting some cotton into her mane and coloring it to match its color, Twilight ate a quick breakfast and was ready to take on her day as a princess. She walked downstairs with Spike, nearly getting lost with the castle she supposedly believed was hers. She tried to find her way through the complex structure by opening numerous doors, only to see either ponies stacking papers, discussing on politics and economy, taking showers and bathing, or soldiers receiving orders to patrol somewhere.
"Ugh, this whole "princess duty" is going to wear down my hooves... and my head!" She bumped into the door that led to the main conference room of Canterlot and fell flat onto her behind.
"Wait, I'm in CANTERLOT?! Since when?"
Slowly opening the door, Princess Celestia stepped out to greet the fairly new princess, who was still on the floor, wondering where she was for a second, then wondering why she is in Canterlot.
"Rise and shine, Twilight!" Celestia grinned, as Twilight forced herself back up, pleased to see her former teacher in front of her. They greeted one another with a nuzzle of their noses. The two of them entered the conference room, letting while the door slammed back at Spike so hard that it sent him across the hall and into another bookshelf, in which it fell onto him, covering him with books, and giving him a nosebleed on top of it.
"Gimme a break..." the young drake groaned as he burned out a large portion of the books them as he tried to get out.
Strangely, there were no ponies in the conference room, despite the large number of seats seen around in the thirty by forty-eight meter table, in which Celestia sat on the head of the table. Twilight knew where she had to sit then, so she moved, towards the opposite end of the table. To make the polarity between them both princesses epic, she—
—was about to sit on the other end, Twilight was pulled away by Celestia’s magic, making her sit closer to the elder alicorn, just on a different side of the long table that is.
"Twilight, there is no need to take our conference so seriously. We are only here to have a nice chat." Celestia smiled, but Twilight was only confounded more.
"Oh. Well, if that is the case, mind telling me how did I ended up in, not mine, but your castle?"
"Ahh yes." Celestia bent her forleg back and forth. "We heard about your overwhelming fatigue from other ponies back in your own castle. It would take you awhile to get to Canterlot by common transportation, so I sent my sister to teleport you while you were in your, deep siesta." She chuckled, but Twilight sat there dumbstruck for a quick moment before reacting to the news.
"Wait what?! You sent ponies to stalk me—"
"So we've made your journey convenient. Once you wake up, you will eventually find yourself in here, this very room, which is supposedly the first task of your daily duties."
Twilight forgot about her worries of not having enough privacy, and focused on the present. She smiled and thanked her mentor, who then proposed a question,
"Would you mind telling me what has been bothering you so much lately? I am quite concerned for your general health."
Twilight sighed in response, took a deep breath, performed the Cadance exercise, rubbed her hooves, spun her head, walked in circles, and took another deep breath. She took no notice of Celestia’s stifled giggling at her former student's never changing personality. Twilight finally responded,
"I know that as a princess, it is my responsibility to protect, lead and decide what is best for everypony and other subjects of Equestria," Twilight finally responded. "With my new status and unique powers as a princess, such as political authority over ponies to decide what is best for them, living an extended life to secure ponykind's safety, being able to fly and touch the sky at will, expressing my love of freedom even when I know that I have important duties to face. Only, I fear that I will lose my friends one day, and that they will move on, while I'm left back here, not knowing what to do for the rest of my life."
Celestia nodded her head in complete agreement. She closed her eyes, remembering all those she once had to mourn for every moment she remained breathing, or her heart beating.
"At least, they still get to be together, while I’ll be stuck down here filing for all these paperwork and talking to ponies about things that I often avoid wanting to talk about." Twilight choked, and tears began streaming down from her rapidly blinking eyes.
"It's stressful! It's monotonous! It's unbearable! It's endless and infinite—"
"Now hold on a second, dear Twilight. What do you mean by 'endless and infinite'?"
"Well, I mean, considering that both you and Luna have lived for over a thousand years as alicorns, you’ve both had lots to do daily. And AND nightly..." She lowered her voice, whispering, "Excluding the time when Luna was... you know."
Celestia sighed. "Yes, I am certain by what you mean now, but to be honest..." Celestia bit her lips, her eyes swiveling bounced back and forth once. She never felt the need to raise any portions about this problem. Until now that is.
"Yes...?" Twilight leaned towards her mentor, her ears perked up, ready to listen. Celestia now seems to be even more under pressure.
"About that, Twilight..."
The last thing to be felt for a good three minutes was the light beaming in dimly in this dark room, or the breathing of the princesses, it went stark for those three minutes. There was tension forcing Celestia to hesitate, while for Twilight wasn't as bad, but enough to make her shiver with sweat. Both were quite anxious to hear the other's reaction.
It wasn't easy, nor was it easy to ask one another whether she was comfortable to be socializing in this condition—
"You are NOT immortal."
Twilight's eyeballs shrank until she snapped back awake, shaking her head. She was pretty sure she hadn't heard those four stunning words. She cleared her throat and asked,
"You... What again?"
"Like I said: You are NOT immortal."
'SHE REPEATED IT TWICE!‘ Twilight imagined herself putting her hooves against her cheeks, with a gasp of horror. She soon abolished this unacceptable act from her mind.
Despite all that, Twilight couldn't get off the fact that her mentor just said to her face that she; the Princess of Friendship, who (partially) ruled over Equestria (in a sense), had gained knowledge of inexhaustible magic spells, had the abilities of all species of ponies, gained popularity from nearly all living creatures in Equestria, and most of all: Immortality, which now has been confirmed that it was a lie. Twilight never wanted any of those special privileges that an alicorn solely had, but she is aware of some of those potential distinctions she gained naturally once she became one herself. Especially immortality.
Twilight slowly backed away. Immediately, she ran off to the other end of the table and teleported back. Celestia shook her head as she appeared in front of her. Twilight's chest has a bump that comes up once per half a second, sweat trickled down her body and making a puddle on the floor, as if she had just took an important assessment that was depended by the fate of...
Her grades of course! What else? "Equestria"?!
"B-but, i-it doesn't make any sense!" Twilight protested, "We are supposed to be—"
"Yes, I know, and so did Luna, Cadance, Amore, and of course, me. We all once believed that we were able to hold our own time until this world meets its demise," Celestia cut her off, closing her eyes and sighed.
Twilight began walking around the table in a fashioned manner, yet her demeanor was just itching to burst. She fell back onto one of the chairs, slowly sliding down on it. Gently putting a hoof onto her head, she began checking to see if she had a sudden fever or not.
Nope, her conditions were perfectly normal.
After another few minutes of confusion and tapping of the hooves, Twilight used three quarters of her energy to get herself off the chair and began moving towards Princess Celestia slowly,
"Even so, how is it possible for you and Princess Luna to live for over a thousand years and not change at all in form, appearance, quality, and so on?"
A huge concussive wave swept over the two alicorns after the question was asked. The fire was still there, but their souls are forever detached from it, never feeling a flick of the spark of heat. Twilight bit her lips, hard and desperate. While Celestia just stood there, her eyes once again shut to see another side of Equestria.
"Oh well, I guess it is just that you aren't immortal, but you tend to live 'very long'." Twilight assumed coldly. She grunted and her tail banged into a chair, knocking it over. The clunk as the chair fell onto the ground hard. Celestia's eyes remained closed, not wanting to give her most faithful student a doubtful answer.
Celestia then snapped back into consciousness, after that nice time of mind blanking out. "Umm, no about that too Twilight, they didn't live to a thousand years."
Twilight's dramatic walk halted to another jaw dropping reaction, as she quickly turned around and made that face that resembled the artwork of this story pretty much.
"... Who do you mean by 'they'?"
"Well obviously we as mortals wouldn't live to even a hundred and fifty, so don't even go for the big fish." Celestia shrugged, her eyes rolled around and around. Twilight was confused as ever, and just popped into her so called mentor's face.
"What. In Equestria. Are you on about?" Her eyes were wide open. "No, like seriously, I want to know why so that my anger wouldn't have to be a waste. You know." She pointed to the knocked down chair by her side.
Celestia chuckled, "Nonsense, Twilight! That chair you knocked down was only forty bits! The cheapest out of all the chairs we stored in this room." She resumed to start her explanation, but she couldn't clear her throat properly, and then made this loud cough that was rather, "un-princess-like".
"Anyways, just telling you, some uncivilized savage pony tribes were too literal with their stupid fables and decided to believe in every legend there is. What was even worse, was that many of those stories were passed down to us and up to this date, we still believed their manure; and that was like six to ten thousand years ago."
Twilight flinched with one of her hoof up. 'Was that really just my mentor's tone?' was all she can ask herself right now.
"Oh, and in addition," Celestia raised a hoof as if she was the student, "We were actually their descendants."
"I'm honestly, not surprised." Twilight dropped her head.
"Back to where I left off, one of those living tales was the topic of "immortality", they say that those who had the most authority and power over the rest in their own group, are forever to remain present on this planet."
Twilight felt the urge to ask, "Wait, so that was the reason why Sombra terrorized those Crystal ponies! To gain immortality?" Only to be whacked on the head by an index pointer with Celestia's magic.
"Hush child, I'm not done here." The glorified princess pulled back her index pointer to her side and used it to make gestures on her explanation. "Anyways, by chance you were right. King Sombra although was an Umbrum, his life was spent mostly as a pony, so he was dumb enough to believe in this foalish myth."
She proceeded to mock Sombra's voice in a masculine way, and it really did sound like him in Twilight's mind. 'Oh! If I were to terrorize everypony and enslave them, I can live forever!'"
Twilight broke Celestia's voice and thoughts again, "Didn't you just say that you believed in it too?" Only to be responded with the index pointer poking at her ribs, making her jump three times higher than usual.
"It wasn't really his fault, almost everypony did fall for this anyways," Celestia rolled her eyes as she held the index pointer up in the air, flipping and spinning it to warn Twilight not to interrupt her again. Unfortunately, she had to slap across her face to get her attention.
"So, to answer your question, my dear Twilight:" Her tone resumed back to the formal and the original alicorn: Princess of the Sol, and the one whom Twilight always respected and followed. "Equestria was ruled by around only a hundred and fifty times, by a hundred and fifty of me."
"Say wh-" Twilight bit her lips and sealed it tight once she saw the index pointer pointing at her and shushing her.
"I am so far, the latest copy of your so called 'Princess Celestia'." She sighed, because she really did not want to explain. "The previous one just died a few weeks prior-"
"WHAT?!" Twilight couldn't help herself from receiving a beating, yet the Celestia held back, for she was more concerned with slipping too much information out of her mouth than making sure that the younger mare was following her discipline of respect.
"Ugh, I said too much, have I? Anyways, she died because she ate too many mint flavored ice creams with chocolate cookie crumbs as the addicting bait to attract customers."
Twilight slowly cranked her head, her left eye was in midst of twitching.
"And it was for some twenty bits too, what a waste of money, you don't say?"
"That's just plain ridiculous! What kind of story are you making up?" Twilight responded angrily to the Celestia, who was in no urge to be annoyed by her surprising reactions.
In reply, the Celestia put her hoof onto Twilight's head, and rubbing her horn with intensity.
"Umm, are you alright?" The Princess of Friendship asked her, who was thinking of what she was supposed to say, and finally lit the bulb as she found one.
"Many Celestias had been ruling for averagely five to ten years I guess, some were long as twenty while others didn't even make it to their first day."
"First day? How does that even work?"
After her horny habit died down, the Celestia answered her, "Easy, they either resign, or die for unknown reasons like natural causes, sickness, or they die because of-"
"Assassinations, revolutions, wars... Is that right...?" Twilight depressingly continued for her, and hung her head low again. To her surprise, the Celestia shook her head in disagreement.
"Actually, no. Every Celestia ruled Equestria pretty well. It was about ninety-nine percent peace, and one percent glazed donuts with kitten-ized bacon as an appetite in history so far. It's just that some Celestias die because of old age. There were a few assassination attempts, but it always ended up failing because the plotter either just stopped doing so due to a change in mind, or that they assassinated the wrong pony."
The Princess of Friendship was still confused with all these new information that were never told out to the public, she scratched her head and stared at the imposter pony before her, who was standing mighty and tall and full of confidence.
"Remember Twilight, this is Equestria, not the human world where the so called 'Roman Empire‘ was a dystopia that even Discord would bother to actually, 'readjust' the society. We don't have rulers that were killed or overthrown after a few months of ruling, nor have we had a plague or an invasion from foreign enemies. In terms of 'rulers', I meant Celestias."
"Oh wow," Twilight became relieved and took a breath to enjoy the good news, "These ponies surely have done a great job raising this country-"
"Well I mean, at least a dozen of Celestias resigned for no good reason, so we; the government, executed them in secret."
"WHAT?! WHY-" and was shot an index thrust to her plot. Twilight shut herself up.
"Like I said, for no good reason, they were the ones who made the poor decisions of selfishly stepping off to avoid 'stress' or 'tediousness'. Why would they dare lie to politics and to the society simply because she wanted her own life? Why did they even choose to be a princess at first place if they were never ready to sacrifice all they have got?"
Twilight was too afraid to ask, but she did anyways out of curiosity and courage, "We-well then, w-w-where was the 'first' and the 'original' Princess Celestia?"
"Well, I heard there were rumors that she was replaced a few times when she was only a filly. Never mind that, the original Celestia was borne as a mortal, along with her sister Luna of course. They were both hailed as princesses as they grew older because they were alicorns and had far more power in terms of magic than anyone else in Equestria, and they served Commander Hurricane cookies and strawberry donuts too, so that made some sense at least. The two alicorns were believed to be immortal because of that old and stupid tale I told you about earlier."
She paused as she saw Twilight's mouth wide open already, jaw dropping down on the floor again, but the mortal Princess of the Sun didn't even get to the sugary part yet.
"The original Celestia looked exactly just like I am right now, but she was replaced by another one when Discord sneakily entered her vital core, and quaked the sun, causing it to burst into a million strobe meteors. He made the Celestia exactly the same character as the one he had killed, in which therefore he was still defeated by the Sisters. A pony who witnessed this reported it to the Royal Guards and the government, and thus they kept this all a secret, and continued to mislead everyone that Princess Celestia was an immortal, simply because they were stubborn."
She paused again to look at Twilight's expression, which was the same as before. Disgusted, she used her index pointer to close it, and resumed,
"Princess Celestia was once again killed when she faced off against King Sombra, and Princess Luna took the credit by finishing Sombra off. As for Nightmare Moon, we had no idea where the Celestia went, so we announced a new one to replace her." The Celestia then took out a granola bar out of nowhere and began eating it with formal (Canterlot) manner. Twilight's jaw slipped back down and shook the room once it hit the floor.
"So now you know, Twilight, nopony lives forever. Not even some of the most beloved magical being who wielded the power to move the sun."
Twilight was speechless, she concentrated her vision on every single detail of the room, to the Celestia, and finally to herself. She came up with this idea of banging herself in a wall to make sure that everything was just a dream.
The problem with that: It's not a dream.
Twilight nevertheless tried to make herself dizzy by spinning in circles, twirling on one hoof, or shooting herself with "self-abuse spells" that can cause a temporary swoon to make sure that she forgets this all.
"ALL!" She still says it while being perfectly awake, and spinning without much balance, much to the Celestia's confusion. Twilight's mind was telling her that everything she once followed and believed in, the heavenly relationship the two once had were shattered into pieces of a milk glass bottle, worthless and unnecessary. She still whines inside her soul, questioning no one but herself: why is this happening to her?
Not sure what to do, the Celestia decided to spoil more for Twilight's heartache, thinking that she doesn't really know Twilight much anyways, she was only ordered to play her role as the Princess of the Sun and continue where her predecessors had left off.
"Well then. I mean, between the Celestia who once met you and the time you arrived to Ponyville for the first time, there were about five of them ruling Equestria. Three died and two resigned for a 'good reason': they were handicapped!" She laughed at her own joke, but it only made Twilight overthink more.
She began to cry again, realizing the truth now, her eyes were opened. She was constantly trying to catch her breath, but it always flowed one hoof ahead of her. Twilight now got onto the floor, knocking and banging on the floor, rolling back and forth in the same spot. The Celestia rolled her eyes as she watched the young princess wailing around like a little baby, in her view, Twilight was only trying to gain attention because her Shining Armor doll fell out the crib, out of her reach. Twilight on the other hand, the love and her life were out of her reach. The most beloved ruler of Equestria, the fairest of them all, her very own mentor, who had guided her up to this point, was never there.
A long time ago... she was never there.
'Why?' was Twilight's only question now, 'Why did this have to be thus? No... NO! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS!'
"Okay little girl, I think that's enough crying for now," said the Celestia as she began reaching a hoof to pick Twilight up, although her main reason for doing it was because she wanted to rub her horn again, only to be slapped off by the latter as she got up in a battle position, snarling and shouting at her,
"DON'T COME NEAR ME! YOU FAKE FIEND!" And threw a chair into the Celestia with her magic, who easily shielded herself with her own.
Not a tad bit of surprise on her face, the Celestia sighed and gently moved the chair back to it's original spot. She scratched her head with her hoof, thinking on how to deal with this mess. She spoke to herself quietly,
"I wonder how my predecessors handled you, because I don't have the same attitude as theirs, I only hide it until I really burn up, such as some foals being noisy next door. Which is why I'm passive-aggressive, based on the opinions of some Royal Guards I remember."
"Shut up! You monster! You never understood how close I was to her!" Twilight spat back, charging up a spell in her horn, ready to go on full scale with the Celestia, who raised a hoof to attempt to calm her down, but Twilight only continued,
"Our relationship was unbreakable! It was between more than just teacher-student, but we were friends! No, we were a family! Siblings! Princess Celestia was my elder sister who always was there to help me! If it wasn't for her," She ran out of breath again, but she did not stop there as she kept on going with more verbal ways to interact with this stranger alicorn.
"I wouldn't be at the place I was today! I wouldn't have any of my beautiful friends! None of us would've been saved by the cataclysmic enemies that my friends and I have faced!"
The Celestia tsked, "Well, that's the thing: She is not the true Princess Celestia."
"Even so. I care NOT anymore if she is the damn real or the fake. The Celestias who were there for me, and guided me all the way, I love them alright?! It doesn't matter who or what they are as long as they are those who care for others, and are there to reach out for a hoof when I'm at my lowest on the ground. As long as anypony who is identical to my teacher down below, in my heart, there is always my Princess Celestia!"
The Celestia was quite amused when she heard such words, she sighed again and closed her eyes, wondering on what had the previous Celestias have taught this little alicorn. She then pictured herself back when she came out on top and became the Princess of the Sun, everypony were clapping their hooves when they saw her. Ponies respected her, loved her, expressed their true feelings in front of her. She had the power and authority to change Equestria for the greater good.
The experience was wonderful, she never knew what it was like to be on the top of the pyramid, for somepony with a good soul like hers. She once stood on top of Cadance's castle in the Crystal Empire, where nopony believed she would be. Ponies were shocked and almost impressed to see how she ended up there, with her white and angelic wings wide open, she was not acting like her normal self. Cadance only stood by the balcony and watched the Celestia touch the clouds as she was eating her coconut. The Celestia didn't care what the ponies thought about her; as long as she can make good use of herself to those she loved, it didn't matter whether if she's real or not. Love is the source of fuel that can overcome anything-
Much to the Celestia's surprise, both ponies forgot that Twilight still had her spell charged up, and accidentally fired it once she released her hold.
Twilight gasped, "I'm so sorry! Are you alright?!" And ran up to her to clean the Celestia's mane.
'Right, and this idiot called me a fiend, didn't she?' She felt a twinge in her muscles and was to the brink of exploding once she realized that her mane was half burnt and well gone.
"So, now that you've calmed down and all, lets continue our discussion shall we?" The Celestia said after commanding Twilight to sit further away from her, in case of an another incoming fireball that can make her completely bald.
Twilight couldn't help but giggle at her fake mentor's burnt out mane. Instead of flowing and gliding gracefully with glitters glowing even down in the gutter, her mane was cut in half, burnt and poured with black smoke, scratched, and it was shaped in so many funky objects that only Pinkie Pie can relate to. She's no prima donna, but her mane was literally a laughing stock.
"Buuuuutttt, take a sip of my freshly brewed tea first!" A mysterious magic force lifted some teacups and a strainer, designed with purple and pink stripes around the objects, and tiny pinkish red hearts that anypony can recognize right away.
"Cadance?!" Twilight's surprising tone hit Cadance's nerves for some reason, and down she went, plummeting onto the ground with her torso first, banging her head onto one of the table legs. Fortunately, the cups and the strainer landed safely onto the table.
"Oof! Ugh Twilight, don't scare me like that!" Shouted Cadance after she was lying on the floor, didn't feel like getting up either because the floor's texture and color were so addicting and fancy that she would die along with it.
But then of course, she’s a princess; a royal mortal that needs to show the best of her in style. So she got up and bowed down to the Celestia,
“Salutations, Princess Celestia.”
The Celestia smiled, as she got off her chair and bowed back,
“Greetings, Princess Cadance, or Mi Amore Cadenza in this case. I hope we have a fine time together in this very room.”
Cadance nodded her head in agreement, and the two gave each other a warm hug and a gentle nuzzle on the nose. Cadance went over to Twilight, who also got up from her chair. Both ponies took at a serious stance, eyes focused on nothing but on each other. Cadance slowly reached out a hoof, so did Twilight. The Celestia was at the side watching and observing all this. Worried yet excited at the same time trying to figure out whether the two princesses are bitter enemies or some of the closest allies, she sat back down in her chair and put her hooves together, ready to see the worst.
Instead, it was something different.
"Sunshine Sunshine! Ladybugs Awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"
'They are more than just allies.' The Celestia shook her head and almost giggled while Twilight and Cadance bumped each other and laughed. Then another awkward moment struck as the two realized that they were not the only ones in the conference room. The two blushed and each quickly found a good place to sit down, furthest apart from each other too.
"Seriously Cadance," Twilight said as she blushed a little as she saw her sister-in-law embarrassing herself and Twilight already. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be busy with your Empire?"
Cadance yawned, and just that took her a full five seconds before responding, "Yeah I know, I heard about your troubles as a princess, so I decided to come and see how my once favorite foal is doing. Don't worry about my kingdom, I have Shining Armor to take care of it all-"
Both Twilight and the Celestia were staring at her already.
"-FOR TODAY! Uh, just for today I meant!" Cadance finished it with a wide smile, but it was too fake for anyone to believe.
The Celestia rolled her eyes, sick of dealing with her "niece"'s crap sometimes. She returned her attention onto Twilight, who also turned her gaze back onto her.
"Young Twilight, I'm supposing that you are not completely clear on the behalf of this matter, is there still more that you want me to clarify?"
Twilight cleared her throat, and looked at Cadance, who smiled at her and waved a hoof, then turned back. She checked to see if her hooves were still grape lavender or not, and finally brought her voice up with a deep breath,
"How are you able to use Princess Celestia's physical appearance then? Her magic abilities? Her tone? Her status as an alicorn?"
The Celestia took out a hoof to stop Twilight's incoming "fireballs". "Now now, let us be not too hasty on the thirst for answers." With a smile she then winked to Cadance a how-did-you-like-my-creative-use-of-splendid-word-choices? Cadance of course, had no idea what in the world was this old mare on about, so she only winked back awkwardly.
"To answer all your questions at once, Twilight, let's just say: that there is no such thing, as 'alicorn' magic. Especially not those spells in which only princesses can manage to use."
Twilight gaped again, she turned to Cadance, who was awfully struck and wounded by incoming spells of awkwardness. She shrugged her shoulders with another pony smile, Twilight then resumed to listen to the Celestia in a calm manner.
"Many of the candidates or qualifiers that wanted to become the next Princess Celestia had extremely talented magical abilities, some which included age spells, imitation spells, mirror spells, time travel spells, even one had a dimension spell which sucked her in somewhere else on a random place because she forgot to close the portal when she went to sleep. So it is no surprise that each successor was able to make herself look completely like the actual princess." The white alicorn leaned back to take a quick two second break before resuming, but she almost fell over.
"Same can be said for her voice, imitation magic applies to that too. Lastly, making yourself grow a pair of wings and increasing your physical statuses on land isn't so hard for unicorns that know an abundant amount of magic and book knowledge."
"You're saying that changing your identity into another species of pony and empowering yourself away from what's called "you" by pure magic 'isn't so hard'?"
The Celestia snorted and glowed her horn. Right before Twilight's sight, her mentor's wings poofed away in white light. Twilight was speechless, struck dumb as if she was opening her mind for the first time. Princess Celestia: The naked unicorn who only was tall and graceful looking, and that's just about it. Cadance wouldn't want to imagine what kind of beauty would that be, she should just cut her wings off right now.
The Celestia glowed her horn again, and this time the disappeared wings returned back to the Princess of the Sun, with ease. Twilight rubbed her eyes to make sure that she wasn't daydreaming, but no matter how many times she checked on herself, she never convinced herself with her knowledge of the alicorn status again.
"See young Twilight? You have much to learn, maybe you should stop talking so bluntly and learn to pay attention to those who have the actual information." The Celestia frowned and looked at the young princess, who said nothing but had a lot to say on her mind.
'Ugh, for crisis sake—' Twilight plummeted down onto the floor once again, she failed to realize how powerful actual princesses were by the means of reading someone's mind. Cadance shook her head in disappointment, and picked up her sister-in-law with her magic back into her seat. The Celestia paused and summoned a copy of the actual sun in the center of the table, moving and spinning it with her hooves while continuing,
"Only thing is, that the candidates will either have to learn on how to move these celestial bodies, and to what point will they again, 'sacrifice' what they have in them to keep Equestria in order and harmony. It isn't easy, many candidates have failed to pass this test, and thus were always a step behind, most notably ambitious ponies that always demanded to be a princess."
Memories struck Twilight as she visualized the nefarious faces of Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer constantly fouling themselves for the sake of inexhaustible power, for which they all collapsed. Or even the once so called "Great and Powerful" Trixie had the sense of wanting to be the best there is out of everypony else. That magical amulet almost corrupted her heart and she would've remained as a villain even today, Trixie would've been hurt badly or killed if necessary actions were taken.
'That was probably the fate of those candidates who had long dreamed to receive authority over others, such selfish actions...' The Princess of Friendship thought. She had never expected such insane words to be reality, nor was she any longer upset about hearing such things anymore. Even so, she had another question,
"Then, if Princess Celestia was replaced a bunch of times, then what about Princess Luna?"
"Oh Twilight!" Cadance finally joined in the conversation, "The Lunas weren't alone on the moon either! They had those cute and smoochy little wizzi-bubs for company! I've always wanted to hug and snuggle on one of those!"
"Even more than this floor and the table and chair legs?" Asked Twilight with a smile and a brow raise.
"Well, yes of course! Nothing beats the adoration for chubbiness! I even-"
"Say, what in— or 'out' of the world in this case, the Equestria is a 'wizzi-bub'?" Twilight moved on away from her sister-in-law's short convo in a cold manner, and turned back to the Celestia, much to the Princess of Love's upset.
"She meant by those small, gray, star and bulb shaped creatures that live in the outer space, they are very friendly and innocent. You can see them emit enough energy to shine brighter than any star at occasional nights, even brighter than the sun if you were to compare them closely."
Twilight gasped, "Awww! Then they must be some of the best friends a filly can make—"
"The thing is, they feed on the life force of any Equestrian creatures, without their understanding is, because they are too innocent. In Equestria's history, we have sent a few animals like cats and dogs, and even a pony who had completely lost his mind and served zero purpose to our society, to the moon and on a few other planets where the wizzi-bubs reside in. None of them came back alive."
"—Ohhhh, umm on a second thought, nevermind!" Twilight's expression experienced a great and potential shift down to negativity, while Cadance is still enjoying her private time thinking about getting a few wizzi-bubs onto her bed and having a "fun-loving time playing with them". The Celestia continued,
"So through some research and analyses, our scientists have concluded that Princess Luna was killed and fed on by those wizzi-bubs while living her life miserably on the moon. What was really shocking though, was the fact that those wizzi-bubs had the ability to imitate as well. Similar to that of the Changelings or the imitation spell, but the wizzi-bubs only can transform after they have 'tasted' the subject or the object-"
"Wow, that's pretty impressive!" Twilight interrupted, forgetting the position that she was in whenever she interrupted. She was immediately knocked off the chair with the index pointer.
"I'm not done yet. Anyways, the wizzi-bubs that fed on Luna managed to merge together, and were supposedly to become Princess of the Moon, but because of the universal... cosmetic... spiritual... dimensional..." The Celestia paused a while to continue her words, but couldn't find that one single word that would've finished off this story for good, she fretted and resigned.
"Whatever! To put it all down, it was the unknown effect of outer space, okay? Anyways, that effect has turned Luna's form into a more horrified and sinister one, her heart into a complete evil Nightmare, which is why she was called, Nightmare Moon."
Twilight was speechless again, Cadance clapped slowly with her hooves, and the Celestia rolled her eyes and smiled at her appreciation, even though it was a sarcastic one. Twilight closed her eyes for a brief second, quickly reflecting on what she had learned today so far, and finally showed her gratitude.
"AND!" The Celestia continued, "Princess Amore simply was shattered to pieces by Sombra when she was alive, so there is no need for further details."
Awkwardness infiltrated the room for a full two minutes, nopony dared to make a single sound. After that was over, Twilight said,
"I-I know it would be hard to a-accept all this, but I hope your forgive me for giving you a hard time... P-princess Celestia was such an important piece of me! I-it was just so hard to make sure that this was settled-"
"And you're still calling her by her title too, Princess." The Celestia smiled at her as all three began getting off their chairs, ready to leave this dark and damped conference room.
"Yeah!" Twilight blushed and chuckled a little, "I was so used to calling her that when I was only a filly, that I've always put her above my rank. Which is why, I guess, I feel shielded and protected whenever she was around."
"Well then, what about this one standing in front of you?" Asked the Celestia in a sudden and sternly tone, almost scaring Twilight.
"Oh umm, about that... I guess. Let's just call it a day, shall we? Heh, heh heh!"
"Mmm-hmm, if you say so." The Celestia paused her hooves, and put one of it on Twilight's head. She said,
"I should be sorry too, Twilight. I did not expect for such matter to be a burden on your shoulders, I never had a close apprentice myself, so I had no right to be so cold-hearted towards you when I mentioned of your mentor's death. I've always wanted time and peace alone, all by myself. While I do care for my subjects dearly, I sometimes just can not stand the pain of sharing my own fantasy with others. It's just how I function, but now I see how that can inflict pain onto others, with you for an example. I initially did not want to talk about this, until you brought it up, and I only wanted to continue the conversation selfishly, also I thought it would ease your anxiety on this misguided legend of immortality, but I was not aware that it will take a stab at you personally-"
"Hold on, it was ALL FOR A CONVERSATION THAT WE GOT THROUGH ALL THIS?!" Twilight's sudden yell burst into the ceiling of the room. Cadance went over to her and gave her a nice, long hug. While the Celestia took this chance and rubbed her hoof against Twilight's horn again.
"Now now Twily," she spoke in place of Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, "what have we promised when you were still a filly? Always show respect towards your elderly kind, whether you're familiar with or not."
"Cadance, for feather's sake you came to say this manure at the wrong time!" Twilight gritted her teeth, but sighed in defeat and took a bow to apologize for her rude behavior. The Celestia bowed in return, and took out a hoof to shake Cadance's, expressing her own gratitude.
"If you weren't here, we would've never got over any of this topic! She would've hated me for her dear life by now!" She whispered to her as she giggled. Cadance whispered back,
"Well, I am the Princess of Love for a reason, right? The one and only!" She gave a wink, which was ignored by the Celestia as she turned her head towards Twilight and asked her,
"Sooo now my little Twilight, what is your plan now? After seeing it all."
"Well, about that— wait a minute, why is your hoof still on my head?"
The Celestia stopped in her tracks, the distance between her hoof and Twilight's horn can be only interpreted as her touching it. Realizing that herself, the Celestia touched Twilight's horn to regain that horny feeling again, and quickly removed her hoof off Twilight's head and resumed walking normally.
Twilight happily thought in her head and was beginning to dance a little too as they exited that creepy and dull room. When they opened the door, light rushed in to catch the three alicorns into hope. The only problem with that is when they gasped as they noticed Spike with a burnt shelf stacked neatly with burnt books. The little dragon smiled in innocence, trying to find a way to evade his crimes again, said,
"Umm, well the hiccups have been back... Again! Heh heh!"
All three princesses looked at one another, and laughed at the same time. Puzzled, Spike asked why, and was returned with this answer by the Celestia,
"We were about to get rid of that bookshelf anyways along with the books, but it seems that the number one assistant did the job again!"
Spike couldn't help but blush, and he became confident enough again not only forgetting his fear of getting into trouble, but his uncontrollable hiccups.
And another incoming fireball came out of his mouth...
"Well, so continuing off from your question, I think I would choose to remain as the princess of friendship! Because that is what I do best!" said Twilight happily still, as the three mares walked out of the Canterlot castle. Cadance was still giggling at the Celestia's new maneline: Which was basically a shiny baldy style.
"Hmm, I would have to agree that is the best choice for you so far..." She tried to think on the next thing she was supposed to say, "and Cadance! Stop laughing at me!"
"Oh my apologies but..." Cadance held her breath in, but made her laugh into a cough instead every time she took a look at Celestia's head, also known as: the shiny baldy.
“Oh I really can't! I'm so sorry! It's just that Spike even tried to glue some hair back onto your mane- I-I can't!"
"Well, if that is so." Celestia quickly ended her sentence in a fume, and she stormed off to put out her anger.
"Cadance!" Twilight called out worriedly as she ran up to her, "You shouldn't say such things to Princess Celestia!" She bent down and whispered, "Not espcially if she is not-"
"Yes Twilight, I knew that a long time ago." Cadance rolled her eyes, "That's why I never called her my 'aunt'."
"What?! You knew this whole time? Then why didn't you tell me about it the last week we gathered for a Summit meeting in your kingdom?"
The Princess of Love put a kiss on her hoof and planted it onto Twilight's nose, "This is solely for you, Twilight. You needed to discover this yourself, and recognize how to bear the painful truth that had you blindfolded this whole time."
Twilight stood there as Cadance caught up to the Celestia, she sat down and bent her front hooves into her view, looking at them. She didn't know what to say next, or do. Just how much is she being put to a test? How much did she have to learn after years and years of studying under her so called "mentor"? How much did she still have to know even as the highest class of this society? And bear with it? Even if she has to, can she?
The sun is ready to set down, and the Celestia stopped in her tracks to move it to when it should be. She saw Cadance gave a hug to her "aunt", kissing her. Twilight began to reflect on what her former foalsitter had told her. This Celestia may not be real, nor was she anywhere close. But once if she is able to treat the Celestia as her family member, and as a friend, anything is practically possible.
She ran to catch up with Cadance and Celestia, while The Celestia ruffled the cherry blossomed alicorn's colorful mane as they both fared each other well.
The Princess of Love teleported herself back to Crystal Empire, where she had a long darn bath because all that magic she summoned was only for that one-time-long-distance teleportation.
The Celestia smiled and turned her head back to Twilight, who was running up to her. She lit her horn and soon those colorful waving mane was back onto her head, original and beautiful.
"My dear Twilight, even though our discussion today was supposed to help you, but it helped me at the same time too: to look at more than just into one angle of the situation, I as a princess now should hold onto that title by thinking for every subject that I am responsible for. You should be quite happy that you have never obtained the power of immortality-"
"Yes! I want to live alongside with my friends, and die with them! Stick by their side, and never fade away into the darkness alone! Goodness that should be my new motto for my next speech about friendship!" Twilight bounced up and down around the Celestia like she was still a student, but the Celestia levitated her back to her side and they continued walking down the trail.
'Phew! Thank goodness she didn't whack me with that index pointer again!'
Meanwhile, as they walked to the gate of the Canterlot Castle, all five of Twilight's closest friends were there, waiting patiently for her. Once the two stepped out of the gate, they ran up to hug her, asking her how was she feeling now. Twilight nodded and turned her eyes back onto the Celestia, who was walking back at a normal pace, as if nothing much had happened between the two of them.
"Wait!" Twilight reached out a hoof to the Celestia's direction, who seemed to stop in her tracks, did not turn back around.
"T-thank you for everything today," Twilight's voice died down when she suddenly realized that she forgot to ask for the Celestia's real name, but the young Princess shook her head and continued,
"Princess Celestia."
The Celestia stopped herself, and grinned her final grin before trotting back to her castle under the yawning dawn as it shined onto the two princesses with a sparkling orange.
Of course, she just had to teleport back in Twilight's face to rub her little horn for the last time before the day ends.
Meanwhile, Spike was still standing in the castle, trying to find Twilight after he had rushed to go use the bathroom. As a Royal guard suddenly slid the curtains wide open in a hallway, came bashing in the sunlight, blinding Spike as he spun around in circles. A series of sounds and noises were heard throughout the hall. Once some other guards came in, they found a fallen bookshelf, with a huge load of books scattered everywhere. Then the guards heard a burp, and a green flame enveloped everything that was on the bookshelf. Once the Royal guards reopened their eyes, they saw Spike with a few holed books that can barely be kept together. The little dragon shrugged his shoulders.
"Oops, I did it again..."
