"Thank you, Princess!" The earth pony whose name Twilight had already forgotten bowed for the third or fourth time, and finally walked out the door of her receiving room. It wasn't quite a throne room; the closest thing the crystal tree had to that was the map room, which wasn't an ideal place to meet with petitioners for a variety of reasons. The receiving room had been furnished with a fairly impressive chair that was about half way to being a throne, though. The padded seat was very physically comfortable. On a less physical front, well... she couldn't decide if it was the constant bowing, or if it was the fact that she had such a hard time remembering everyponys' names that made her least comfortable. Certainly neither thing sat well with her at all.
She knew that ponies seemed to think that "Princess" meant she should be treated like she was somehow above them, but she didn't have to like it. For a while she had told ponies to just call her Twilight, and to not bow, but the bowing and the Princess-ing happened anyway, so eventually she'd given up and simply accepted both as graciously as she could, even if she could never quite shake the feeling that Celestia must be standing behind her when a pony bowed and said "Princess."
The name problem she hadn't accepted, but all the little mnemonic tricks she tried never seemed to work, even though other ponies swore by them. She had a hard time matching a name with a cutie mark in her memory unless she knew the pony well, and so far no strategy had sufficed to change that.
On the other hoof, there was an undeniable satisfaction that came at those time where her logic or other skills were able to find a happy solution to pony's problems, which had happened a couple of times today. It was nice to be able to help ponies. She certainly didn't regret becoming an alicorn! It had led to all sorts of good things.
On the third hoof, it was really, really, really not nice when she couldn't help ponies. And that had happened three times today. Three times! Usually she could find something to do to help, even if it was just referring them elsewhere. Having to send ponies away, with hardly even a suggestion of where else to look for help, grated on her, she hated doing it. Which was why, once the last petitioner was gone, Twilight slumped in the chair and put her hooves over her face. Stars and Moon, it had been a rough day.
After a moment she lifted her head and climbed out of the chair. Time to call it a day..
Indeed when she glanced out the window, she found that the sun had already set. A hint of light lingered on the horizon, it wasn't that late yet, but the day was well and truly over and the night had begun.
Twilight stretched her wings, and her body, putting her forehooves out and arching her back like she was a cat, taking a moment to revel in sheer physicality. She smiled, remembering how Celestia had taught her that, had told her about the importance of body as well as mind. Her former mentor had taught her many lessons, including some recent ones that Twilight would never have expected outside of her wildest dreams.
She walked towards the door, then paused, noting something small that sat exactly centered on the threshold. Twilight was fairly certain it hadn't been there just a moment ago, and was immediately suspicious. She took a step closer, then suddenly smiled. It was a chocolate. Specifically it was an apricot truffle from her favorite chocolatier.
With a smile, Twilight walked over and picked up the truffle in her magic. She had a sneaking suspicion who might have put it there. Still, just to be safe she ran a quick magical scan over the truffle. She found no sign of tampering, so she popped the sweet into her mouth and bit down. Rich fruity flavor exploded over her tongue and her eyes went slightly out of focus as she savored the sweet treat.
Standing in the doorway, where the truffle had sat, she could see down the hall, and she grinned as she spotted a second little chocolate speck at the far end of it.
With suddenly lighter steps she trotted down the hall to the second truffle. It too was scanned, but once again she found nothing suspicious, and the second morsel, caramel this time, followed the first into her mouth.
From the L-bend where she'd found the second truffle, she could see a third, just at the base of the stairs. That one proved to be walnut divinity. A fourth, at the top of the stairs, was dark chocolate. The fifth, half way down the upper hall, was a candied ginger, and the sixth, in front of her bedroom door, was strawberry cream. Twilight giggled. "Somepony apparently knows all my favorite flavors." She ate that truffle as well, though if there were many more, she'd end up making herself sick.
She opened the door to her bedroom and peered inside. All seemed unchanged from how she'd left it this morning, including the fact that the bed was an unmade tangle. But there was a little speck of brown sitting on her pillow. She grinned as she trotted into the room. If she was remembering the way her favorite chocolatier decorated their truffles, this one was going to be an almond toffee. She reached out to grab it, and felt a spell suddenly closing around her.
For an instant she panicked, but only an instant, for she almost immediately recognized the magical signature that wrapped around her. It was a golden glow; warm, powerful, and very familiar indeed. She surrendered to it willingly, letting the spell pull her out of her bedroom and into some unknown elsewhere.
Though when she appeared, the elsewhere was of course not unknown at all. It was a very familiar room, decorated simply but richly in warm white and gold, beautifully matching the mare who resided there. Twilight appeared a foot or so above a luxurious cloud bed, and let out a little eep as she fell onto it, then laughed in delight and rolled over in the huge bed's downy softness. Cloud beds were almost universally used by pegasi, but the bed's owner was not a pegasus. Nor was she a unicorn, nor earth pony. She was, like Twilight, an alicorn, and as Twilight lay sprawled on her back, looking up at a ceiling that was painted like the sky, delicate blue and dotted with clouds, the bed's owner peered down at her with an indulgent smile. "Hello Twilight."
"Hello, Celestia." Twilight smiled up at her former mentor from her rather undignified position in the bed. "Did you know that some strange pony has been leaving me chocolates?"
"She must be a very strange pony indeed. No sane pony would give away chocolate instead of eating it." Celestia winked at Twilight, who started giggling helplessly. Twilight was aware that the joke hadn't really been that funny, but after her long, stressful day she just couldn't help it.
Celestia laughed too, a rich, wonderful sound, and climbed into the bed with Twilight. She curled herself around the smaller alicorn, nuzzling her gently as she did so. Twilight sighed blissfully and snuggled herself into the embrace. Celestia's fur was even softer than the downy softness of her cloud bed. She nuzzled into Celestia's shoulder, right where her wings began, resting her muzzle on the little feathers there, and sighed again, letting her eyes slide closed and relaxing completely.
"Spike told me you were having a rough day," said Celestia with a smile.
"Wonderful Spike," murmured Twilight. "Remind me to do something nice for him tomorrow."
Celestia chuckled.
Twilight smiled up at her. "Wonderful Celestia, too. Remind me to do something nice for you later tonight."
"Oh? Did you have something in particular in mind?" Celestia wiggled her eyebrows at Twilight outrageously as she spoke. That prompted another round of hysterical giggles from Twilight.
"That is just about the least sexy thing ever."
Celestia put on an exaggerated pout. "Me? Unsexy? Never!"
Twilight just giggled more.
Celestia bent her head as she put a hoof under Twilight's chin and tilted her muzzle up. She kissed Twilight softly, silencing the giggles. Twilight's eyes once again slid closed and she made a soft, muffled sound of pleasure as she kissed gently back. When they broke apart Celestia, with a little twinkle in her eyes, said, "Least sexy thing ever, hmm?"
"Well... maybe not the least."
Celestia smirked. "I propose to demonstrate that I am the Platonic Ideal of sexy."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Perhaps you could assist my demonstration?"
"Well... I was going to do something nice for you later tonight. I suppose I could rearrange my schedule to do something nice right now."
"That sounds quite delightful. Let's."
This time it was Twilight who lifted her muzzle to meet Celestia's. The sweet, loving kiss lasted for a long time, and other expressions of love occupied much of the night thereafter.
Author's Note
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