Twilight Sparkle sat in her library reflecting on the recent events with her niece, Flurry Heart. To her, spending time with Flurry Heart gave her a sense of joy and ability to show off a different side of Twilight. However, the recent events with her niece had caused Twilight to think about how she could have handled her most recent visit. It had been three days since she had agreed to watch over Flurry Heart while performing her duties as a princess by going to Ponyville Hospital and reading to some sick foals.
"Hey Twilight," said her faithful dragon assistant as he walked into her study holding what appeared to be a newspaper in his claws. "You've been awfully quiet this morning. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine," sighed Twilight. "I'm just starting to second guess to everything that has happened. You were right to say that I should have cancelled my appearance at the hospital in the first place."
Spike sat down next to Twilight and like the faithful assistant he was, felt nothing but sympathy for her. To him, Twilight was acting this way primarily because of the fact that she scolded Flurry Heart when she was causing trouble at the hospital.
"This is because you yelled at Flurry Heart, didn't you?" he remarked and Twilight turned to face him. "You became a big scary bear?"
"Yes, Spike," replied Twilight, turning away from him. "I became a big scary bear and scared her. But, what was I supposed to do? Let her keep us floating in the air like that? I had to do something, Spike, to get control of the situation. In doing so, I became the W.A.E."
It didn't take long for Spike to guess what that saying meant.
"Worst Aunt Ever?" he guessed and Twilight nodded silently. "I wouldn't exactly say that, I mean, this was your real first time sitting for Flurry Heart, wasn't it? Everypony makes mistakes their first time out and even Shining Armor and Cadence realized that they should have given you advanced notice."
Twilight then noticed one of the stuffed bears sitting next to her mirror that she used with Flurry Heart and walked over to hold onto it. However, holding onto the bear made her think back to when she scolded Flurry Heart.
"Nevertheless, I should have handled things better," Twilight said as she looked at the bear. "I'm more to blame than Flurry Heart, Spike and you know that. Flurry's only a baby and I should have spent the day paying attention to her. I let my ego get in the way of being the best aunt ever, thinking that I could have mixed my time with Flurry Heart with the time I had with the foals."
Stilling grasping onto the bear, Twilight walked over to her desk and placed the bear next to a picture of Flurry Heart at a celebration right after her Crystalling. Looking at the picture, Twilight couldn't help but feel a little sentimental at the fact that Flurry Heart wasn't going to understand things right away.
"Well, that's just your personality, Twilight," remarked Spike, walking over to her. "Trust me, you've done much worse in the past. This will pass and you learn from your mistakes and move on with your life. Believe me, Flurry Heart will be begging to spend more time with her favorite aunt. It's just that you have to put Aunt Twilight ahead of Princess Twilight."
Spike then handed Twilight the newspaper that he was holding in his claws to Twilight. Twilight was mortified to see what was on the front page: It was a picture of her scolding Flurry Heart and Flurry Heart crying in terror because of it. At the top of the page read a headline that made Twilight's heart sink: "TWILIGHT SPARKLE, THE PRINCESS OF BULLYING LITTLE FOALS."
"What have I done?" gasped Twilight, dropping the newspaper on the desk. "What have I done to myself, Spike?"
"Well, for starters, you should have let me go to the hospital in the first place," said Spike, hitting it right on the nose. "Among other things."
"Don't you understand, Spike?!" cried Twilight, holding the newspaper in his face with a panicked look on her own face. "I've hurt my reputation both as an aunt and as a princess of Equestria because of my ego! Shining Armor and Cadence will probably never let me babysit Flurry Heart again because of this article!"
Twilight felt herself tear up as she stormed away from her desk. This newspaper said it all: she failed at multi-tasking between being a princess and being an aunt.
"Twilight, do you think that Cadence and Shining Armor are going to do something like that?" asked Spike, going into his reassurance mode.
"But, they could!" answered Twilight, hastily. "Once they read something like this! This newspaper says it all about me, Spike. My popularity as a princess is certainly going to be affected!"
"Quit panicking, Twilight!" said Spike. "Cadence and Shining Armor are likely not going to forbid Aunt Twilight from babysitting her niece. This isn't like the Royal Wedding!"
This statement made Twilight panic even more as the last thing she needed was to hear about how she was initially kicked out of Shining Armor's wedding to Cadence for trying to protect those she loved from Queen Chrysalis.
"All I'm saying is that you should move on from what happened at the hospital, Twilight," cried Spike. "Nopony can be perfect at everything and besides, Flurry Heart forgave you for scolding her, everypony loved me for reading to them and Pinkie Pie even sent an apology cake."
Hearing Spike say these words made Twilight calm down a little. She knew that Spike was right in the sense that all those things did in fact happen.
"If only I had done that in the first place," said Twilight.
"You can start today, Twilight," suggested Spike. "Understand that Aunt Twilight and Princess Twilight are two different personalities, just like Cadence and Shining Armor have two personalities of their own from being rulers and parents."
Twilight of course knew what Spike was talking about and she pulled her number one assistant in for an embrace.
"You're right, Spike," she said. "I will start today and work towards becoming the B.A.E. and B.P.E."
"Um, what is B.P.E.?" wondered Spike.
"Best Princess Ever!" laughed Twilight, nudging Spike on the head with her hoof. "And you obviously know what B.A.E. stands for!"
…
THE END
