Taking Time

Chapters

All About Magic
What I've Learned and Seen
It's Going To Be So Special
As She Takes Time Just For Me

All About Magic

"At the gala, with the princess, is where I'm going to be.
We will talk all about magic, and what I've learned and seen.
It is going to be so special, as she takes time just for me."

Chapter 1: All About Magic

Twilight Sparkle awoke from her slumber, and looked blearily around, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. With a yawn, she stumbled out of bed, knocking an empty wine glass over along the way. Something nagged at the back of her mind about today, but she disregarded it. Time for some breakfast, she thought.

"Spike. Spike!" she called out. "Spike?" Where was her number one assistant, anyways?

Then her mind started to become functional enough to remember recent events, despite a bit of a headache. Rarity had needed Spikes help with a large order of giant hats for the next few days, and he was staying with Rarity until they were complete. For breakfast, she was all alone.

Oh well, most other ponies can cope with breakfast without an assistant anyways. This shouldn't be a problem. After all, how difficult could it be?

Twilight headed to the kitchen area in a bit of a funk, not used to Spikes absence. She grabbed a bowl, and poured some corn flakes into it. Opening the refrigerator, Twilight levitated the bottle of milk over to the counter, then pulled off the top. She wrinkled her nose at the pungent odor that then filled the air. Examining the date stamped on the bottle, it turned out to have expired several days previously.

"All right, Twilight, you can handle this. What was that spell? Ah, right." Her horn glowed a deep lavender color, briefly surrounding the milk bottle. The milk bubbled up briefly for a moment, and emitted a glooping sound before settling back down.

Success! She examined the bottle with a triumphant smile which quickly turned to a puzzled frown. Rather than containing fresh milk, as she had expected, the bottle now appeared to contain some form of cheese.

"I wonder what went wrong?" She slapped a label on the bottle saying "Experiment #4" and tucked the bottled cheese back in the refrigerator for further study at a later time.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be much else left in her refrigerator. Needing something to eat, she pulled out a half-eaten daisy, artichoke, and goldenseal pizza from last night. She added some chopped onion from a baggy on top. Shrugging a bit, she dumped the cornflakes on top of the mess, then heated it up magically.

To go with her pizza, she took a packet of one of Zecora's tea blends, scooped it into a tea ball, and added the ball to a cup of water. One quick gesture from her horn, and it was boiling. Making water boil that quickly always ended up tasting inferior to a properly made cup of tea, but it would wake her up, between the caffeine, ginseng and various other stimulants.

The pizza didn't taste particularly good, especially now that she was awake, but it would at least keep her going. She would clearly need to do some grocery shopping later.

Proceeding over to her desk, she pulled out her to-do list for the day. She then checked "Eat breakfast" off, and, thinking about it, scribbled "Buy groceries" at the bottom of the list. Heading downstairs, she looked to see what the next item was.

"Spend quality time with Princess Celestia." Right, because of her visit. The rest of her memories crashed down on her, not helping with her headache any. Her mentor had planned to visit her for a few days. No emergencies or state visits this time, just the two of them spending time together.

Twilight had always looked up to her ever since they first met. Despite being her student, they rarely had any time alone. Even in Canterlot, the hours they spent together were few and far between. It wasn't that Celestia didn't want to spend time with her. It couldn't be. The Princess was extremely busy running the kingdom.

Moving to Ponyville had made matters worse. The time with her mentor had gone from scarce to totally nonexistent. She had hoped they could talk at the Gala, but that had been a total disaster. Since then, Twilight had sent her teacher a number of requests for some time together. She always seemed to be too busy. Even when she went back to Canterlot for the wedding, the business with that fake trying to steal her brother had gotten in her way.

Princess Celestia had always been her role model, ever since she was a filly. She would be too embarrassed to admit it, but Twilight had always tried to emulate her as much as possible. It was hard to follow in her shoes when she never spent any time with her, though.

Some time had passed since all of her requests for time together had been denied. She had given up on it for a while. Then, just last week, she received a letter from Celestia. She had managed to clear her schedule for a few days, and was coming to Ponyville to spend time with her.

Twilight had been ecstatic. She had reworked her entire month's calendar in a frenzy to free up those days. She had only stopped bouncing up and down with glee when Pinkie Pie had started bouncing along side her, claiming that it looked like fun.

Unfortunately, a followup to the letter had come last night. A minor diplomatic incident had occurred in the Griffin kingdoms. Due to it involving her great granddaughter, Celestia was going to have to travel there personally to deal with it, and would not be able to come out as scheduled.

She hadn't... dealt well with this news last night, a fact she now regretted. To add insult to injury, this business with her great grand-daughter came into play, proving just how little she knew her mentor. She'd never had any idea that Celestia even had ever had children. How much else had she missed?

She sighed. So, she was left with an unchecked item on her to-do list. This would be gnawing at her all day, and was impossible to complete. She had no other plans, and she didn't really want to make any, as that would mean accepting that Celestia wasn't coming. She knew this was true intellectually, in any case, but some part of her wanted to believe it'd all go away if she refused to accept it.

Nonsense, of course. Still, perhaps she could spend the day learning everything related to the Princess, so she was at least sticking to the spirit of her plans for the day. The obvious thing to do was to start a list of things she already knew about Celestia, and then expand on them.

With a mental action she'd practiced so many times that she barely had to think about it, a quill, ink jar, and a blank piece of parchment floated over to her, and she started writing.

"All right, let's approach this methodically. What things distinguish Celestia from most other ponies?" She considered the question carefully.

Well, the first thing was obvious, she thought. Celestia raised the Sun, and when needed, lowered the Moon. That was what had inspired her to learn magic in the first place. As such, she'd already researched this extensively. It takes over 9000 EMU's[1] to move the Sun, which was far higher than her own normal upper limit.

Naturally, she found out her limit, she'd been working on raising it. She did a series of magical exercises every day to increase her magical ability. Her strength had improved since she started them, and was actually much higher than average.

Of course, she still had a long way to go before tackling the Sun, or even the Moon. Ponies with that much magical power actually had it manifest in their appearance, such as in Princess Celestia and Luna's mane. She'd know if she started to get close.

She tapped her quill on the sheet in irritation. She was already doing everything she could on that front. What else distinguished the Princess from everypony?

Celestia had both wings and a horn. While uncommon, this was actually just a quirk of genetics. Every so often, a pony with both pegasus and unicorn ancestry is born as a winged unicorn. Or would that be a horned pegasus?

As it happened, Twilight had no known pegasi ancestry, and she couldn't very well modify her own genetics after the fact. Well, she might be able to, but that would take some pretty high powered magic, and she suspected Celestia wouldn't approve.

It would probably be seen as an effort to promote herself to a Princess, anyways, as all, er, winged horned ponies were automatically considered members of the royal family. Her foal sitter Cadance had been a prime example. At any rate, Twilight already knew a spell to give anypony wings, though it totally exhausted her.

Nothing of interest there. She determinedly continued on.

Celestia appeared to be immortal. She had banished Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago, and had been an adult even then. Twilight wasn't sure if she actually did not age, or was just quite long lived, but it didn't make much practical difference.

As it happened, Twilight had seen studies that pointed towards long life in unicorns being a function of their magical power. She suspected Princess Celestia's long life was actually due to having the strength to raise and lower the sun. If she ever got her power levels up as high as she wanted, a long life may come naturally as a function of it.

Hmm. She'd covered this ground already. What else?

Princess Celestia wielded the elements of harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon. And Twilight had done so as well, with her friends. A twinge of pride ran through her, thinking about it. They had even done what Celestia hadn't been able to, and brought Princess Luna back to her right mind. Had Celestia wielded the elements herself, or had there been other element bearers at the time? So many questions occurred to her, with no one here to answer them.

She continued writing. Twilight felt like she was grasping at straws at this point.

Celestia had a pet phoenix she cared for, Philomena. As if on cue, a few musical notes drifted from over in the direction of Peewee's nest. She may not have her own phoenix, but enough of the responsibility and care of Spikes phoenix fell upon her that she may as well. She made a note to make sure to spend more time with him while Spike was gone.

She chewed on a bit of her mane in frustration. This was getting nowhere! But she continued making her list. It was all she had, right now.

Celestia governed all of Equestria, making the critical decisions for the county, and acting as a final arbitrator and judge. That, Twilight didn't really want to ever do, to be honest. She was sure she'd royally screw something up, and it'd all be her fault. Technically, she likely knew enough from the many legal books she'd gone through, but there would have to be a major crisis before she'd even consider it. In any case, without Celestia there wouldn't be any day, so there would be far worse problems.

How had day and night occurred before Celestia and Luna came along, anyways? Most of Celestia's personal history was a blank book to her. Nothing she had read covered Celestia and Luna's parents or childhood, and given how many books she had looked at, she had to think nopony knew but the princesses themselves. Anything from before the princesses degenerated into myths and legends, with dubious historical value at best.

She would really need Celestia there to tell her about anything related to her early years, and Celestia often tended to deflect questions about her own personal history. Maybe Luna would be willing to fill in the details. She scribbled down a note to write to Luna about it, then paused, thinking about what she could write to her.

Dear Princess Luna,

Your sister's being no fun, and won't spend any time with me. Will you come over and play? We can spend some time gossiping about her scandalous past...

Your sister’s annoyed student, Twilight Sparkle

She laughed a bit, mood lightening a bit. Of course, she would never send such a thing, but it was fun to think about. Now, what else did Princess Celestia do that she could learn from or learn more about?

Drinking tea. Twilight knew as much or more about tea as Celestia did. In fact, she had been delighted when Twilight had sent her some of Zecora's blends. The appreciation she showed for tea in public could easily have just been part of the face she showed the public. But there was no mistaking the look of bliss a well-made cup of tea have her in private.

Come to think of it, there was one other time when she would see a similar look on the Princess's face. Twilight pulled out a scrap book she had filled with articles about her mentor. She flipped through it until she found the article she was looking for.

"Celestia: Just Like Us." It was a clipping from the Foal Free Press. Most of the article was nonsense, but they did make a good point about Celestia's sweet tooth, and specifically her love of cake. Twilight could name any number of times she had seen the Princess eating all varieties of cakes with enthusiasm, and occasionally, a sheer pleasure only matched by some of her favorite teas.

Maybe she was missing something. Twilight had never given cakes and pastries much thought in the past. She had eaten a slice or two of cake in passing at parties, certainly, to be polite. She might as well have been eating a stick of celery for the attention she had paid it, though.

With Celestia's high level of interest, Twilight was sure there was more to pastries and cakes then she had believed. After all, she once hadn't paid tea much attention, either, and now she loved it. So she decided to tackle the matter in the manner she knew the best: research and experimentation.

The research side, she could handle without issues. Experimentation would involve cooking, and there she was clearly out of her element. Her breakfast was a case in point. As such, she needed a partner for this. Somepony with an extensive knowledge of cake and cooking skills to match.

It was clearly time to head over to Sugarcube Corner, and see about getting Pinkie's help. And she should undoubtedly pick up some some groceries while she was out as well.

[1] The EMU, or Equestrian Magical Unit, is the unit normally used for measuring magic throughout Equestria, as set forth by the Royal Thaumaturgical Council of Mareheim in 143 Anno Caelestis. Further information on accurately obtaining measurements of magical energy can be found in the reference materials located at the Golden Oaks Library...

What I've Learned and Seen

Chapter 2: What I've Learned And Seen

If she was going to do research, she would need a selection of books on the subject. Twilight walked over to Owlowiscious's perch. "Would you do me a favor and gather up some books about cakes and their history?" she asked him politely. He hooted in response, and flew over to a nearby bookshelf.

While he gathered research materials for her, Twilight pulled on her saddlebags from a nearby hook. Walking over to the nearby nest, she peered in. Bright little phoenix eyes looked out at her curiously. She fished Peewee out, and tucked him securely at the top of her saddlebags. Twilight figured the diminutive phoenix would enjoy getting out a bit and having some company.

With another hoot, she noticed a pile of books on a table, next to a tired owl. She would have to remember that some of these books were rather heavy for Owlowiscious to handle. She carefully floated the books inside her saddlebag, making sure not to disturb the phoenix inside. Writing a note saying that she'd gone to Sugarcube Corner and placing it on the table, she trotted out of the library at a brisk clip.

Fortunately, Sugarcube Corner was actually pretty close to the library. She just had to head down the street, turn, and it was straight ahead. She walked over towards to the bakery, and greeted a few ponies along the way. Ditzy Do flew by on her mail rounds, and waved at her, nearly crashing into a pole as she did so.

Twilight waved back. I wonder what would cause her eyes to be perpetually crossed like that? Maybe the impact on her vision is what causes her perpetual clumsiness? She jotted down a note to look into it, and continued on her way.

Soon enough, she was at Sugarcube Corner. As always, she wondered about how its construction had been done, and what kept the gingerbread intact, especially with someone as sugar-obsessed as Pinkie Pie living there. As she entered the store, Pinkie Pie bounced from behind the register to greet her. She seemed to be alone. Mr. and Mrs. Cake must have left her in charge.

"Twilight!" Pinkie Pie greeted Twilight, and continued at high speed. "I was just thinking that I'd like one of my best friends to come and keep me company, and then you walked right in! We should totally have a Twilight-Is-Really-Depressed-And-Needs-A-Hug party!"

"Wait a minute. What makes you think I'm depressed?" Twilight scowled.

"It's obvious, silly! You came in with eyes all red around the edges and swollen," Pinkie said, bulging out her eyes to demonstrate. "And your mane is all in disarray, like you didn't bother to brush it, your face is all frowny, and you're all in hyper obsessive list mode. And you were supposed to be spending all day with Princess Celestia, and she isn't with you."

"Er, well..." Twilight couldn't really deny these points.

"So we should have a party. We could have balloons, and streamers, and music, and Pin the Tail on the Pony, and cake-" The excited pink pony bounced up and down more with each word.

"Actually, that's what I came to see you about." Twilight interjected, trying to get a word in before Pinkie went on for too long. Or hit the ceiling.

"You came to see me about a party? And you brought Peewee. Oh! You want me to throw him a party! I've never thrown a phoenix a party before! Let's see, what kind of games and decorations would be appropriate for a phoenix party? Let's start with red and gold streamers!" She started to head to a nearby closet.

"I'm not here for a party. I'm doing some research, and came to see you about cakes-" She was abruptly cut off by Pinkie Pie.

"You're researching the Cakes? Well, they are on vacation right now, but I know a bit about them. They've been married for 5 years, have two foals-" Twilight quickly cut her back off.

"Not the Cakes, just regular cakes. I was wondering why Princess Celestia loves cakes so much, and thought you could help me with research and experimentation." She grinned a hopeful grin.

"Experiment- Wait a minute. Are you planning on hooking that silly metal bowl with the blinking lights up to my head again?" Pinkie asked.

"Not that type of experimentation," Twilight said firmly, though the idea was tempting.

"Are you sure? You could hook it up, and then I could eat a carrot cake while it draws all those squiggly lines. Then I could eat a lemon meringue cake, Tiramisu, a chocolate cheesecake, some marzipan..." Pinkie rambled on.

Twilight toyed with the idea of just going along with Pinkie on this, but her common sense got the better of her.

"I'm sure. I'd like to learn more about the different types of cakes and their history, though, and you obviously know your cakes." Twilight hoped she wasn't making a mistake.

"And how does Peewee fit into this?" Pinkie said, bouncing near the phoenix, who warbled in excitement.

"He doesn't. I just thought he'd like a bit of company, so decided to bring him along." Twilight sighed.

"Okie Dokie Lokie. What would you two lonely birds like to know about cakes?" Pinkie Pie grabbed one of the books out of Twilight's bag. Putting on a pair of glasses, she peered down at the open book. The overall effect of this was somewhat diminished by the fake nose and mustache on them.

Giggling, Twilight pulled out one of the other books, and the two of them started a study session. Twilight let the phoenix out of her saddlebag, letting him flutter and waddle back and forth between them as they called out information they'd found.

For example, in Prance in 1792, cake had been instrumental in averting a revolution. When a group of starving peasants confronted their ruler, Mare Antoinette, with their problems, she had declared "Let them eat cake!". An impromptu party then started, over which a series of compromises between the nobles and peasants were worked out that had served them for many years to come.

Pinkie Pie seemed to know a decent amount more then was in the books about this, making Twilight think Antoinette may have been a role model of hers. The time they spent studying was surprisingly productive, and Twilight felt she knew a lot more about cakes then she'd ever known before. It was time to move on to the next stage.

"All right, Pinkie," Twilight said confidently. "Now that we have extensively studied cakes and pastries of all sorts and their history, it's time for the next step. Hooves on experimentation."

"Which means?" Pinkie Pie looked rather puzzled.

"Gathering up samples of different types of cakes, baking some cakes, and most importantly-" Twilight was suddenly cut off as her stomach emitted a low growl.

"-EATING CAKE?" Pinkie Pie bounced with excitement.

"Eating cake." Twilight smiled. Some part of her was still depressed about the cancelled visit, but it was very difficult to stay sad around Pinkie Pie. The occasional bursts of phoenix song helped her mood as well. She had started to wonder if something in phoenix song was mood altering. Subharmonics, perhaps?

So Pinkie Pie pulled out various slices of cake from the bakery, and they started baking a few more cakes. Pinkie wanted to provide them free of charge, but Twilight insisted on paying. She had plenty of bits anyways. Princess Celestia provided her with a generous allowance as her student. She also received a small salary for running the library, which she shared with Spike, since he did a good deal of the work there anyways.

They had one cake in the oven, and were preparing the cake batter for another when, in the process of getting some raisins, Twilight slipped. The batter went flying, and as luck would have it, ended up covering Pinkie Pie from head to tail.

"Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed in mock anger.

"Pinkie! I-" She started to stammer out, but was interrupted by cake batter splattering in her ear. Instinctively, she grabbed a tube of cake frosting and squirted it at Pinkie Pie, cake making forgotten.

When the oven timer rang, it found them both covered in cake batter and frosting and laughing hysterically. Twilight quickly turned off the heat to the oven and levitated the freshly made cake out.

"I guess we got a bit carried away." Twilight said, still laughing, and applied the frosting to the newly baked cake.

"Maybe, but it was delicious!" Pinkie licked a bit of frosting off her lips.

Just then, they heard the sound of a throat being cleared. Turning towards the sound, Twilight saw Princess Celestia standing in the bakery doorway, looking somewhat bemused.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed. Forgetting propriety, dignity, and, indeed, the fact that she was covered in cake frosting and batter, she ran to the princess and embraced her in a heartfelt, if somewhat sticky hug.

"My most faithful student." Celestia said. Experimentally, she licked off a piece of cake batter that had landed on her nose during the hug. "Carrot Rum Cake?"

Realizing that she had just covered the ruler of Equestria in frosting and cake batter, Twilight blushed and stepped out of the embrace. "Your m-majesty! I'm s-sorry..." she stammered.

"Twilight," Celestia gently stated. "I'm not here as your ruler today, remember? And no apology is necessary."

"But, you cancelled-" Twilight started, unsure what was going on.

"I said a diplomatic matter had come up with my great granddaughter, Effervescence, which it had. But," she sighed. "it has been taken care of."

She then entered Sugarcube Corner, followed by Philomena, who immediately headed over to a corner with Peewee.

Something seemed off about Princess Celestia to Twilight, and she was sure there was something she should be paying more attention to. For the moment, though, cleaning off all the cake batter seemed like a good idea.

"However it happened, I'm glad to see you here." Twilight said. "Pinkie, could the princess use your shower to wash herself off and get settled?"

"Sure, Twilight." Pinkie replied. She led Celestia up to her bathroom, and showed her where the shower was. As she gratefully relaxed and cleaned herself off in Pinkie Pie's bathroom, Twilight and Pinkie set themselves to cleaning up the mess downstairs.

"Well, Twilight, since the Princess seems to have arrived after all, why don't we put the rest of our experimentation on hold till another day?" Pinkie asked. "Once we're all cleaned up, the three of us can have a piece or two of cake. Then you and your mentor can go back to the library and catch up."

"Are you sure, Pinkie? I know you were enjoying our study session." Twilight hated to just abandon her friend like this.

"I was, but there will be other times." She eyeballed Twilight. "There will be other times, right?"

"Of course there will." Twilight reassured her.

"Oh, and go easy on Celestia, all right?" Pinkie said.

Before Twilight could ask what Pinkie had meant by that, Celestia came down, and Pinkie was suddenly nudging her upstairs. As she rinsed herself off, she could faintly hear two voices talking downstairs, but couldn't really make out any words.

She finished up, and headed downstairs, where slices of cake were lined up. The princess perked up as Twilight entered the room, pink mane flowing behind her.

"So, I understand you've expanded your studies to the Magic of Pastries. I'm impressed. Come over here, and you can have your first lesson." Celestia beckoned her over.

Twilight sat with the two of them, quill ready for a lesson with her mentor.

"Here we have a slice of Germane chocolate cake. First, take a small amount of the cake on your fork. Make sure to get a good sniff of the aroma before putting it in your mouth. Roll around the cake on your tongue a bit, sampling its flavor and texture before chewing. Do this for several different sections of the cake, to get a good feel for it." Celestia instructed.

Twilight started doing this, sampling the incredible chocolate and coconut flavors with wonder.

"And then, once it starts to overwhelm you, go ahead and eat the rest as normal," the princess said, rapidly devouring the rest of her piece with glee.

Twilight shrugged and finished the piece off as the other two seemed to be doing.

"And there you have it, the magic of pastries. Use it well."

Twilight wasn't sure any actual magic was involved, but didn't want to contradict her teacher, and instead enjoyed the cake.

As they finished up, Pinkie Pie wrapped up several pieces of different cakes for later, and started tucking them in a basket.

"All right, I know the two of you are going to want to get back to the library. Why don't you go ahead and take some slices with you for later?" Pinkie gestured towards the basket.

"Thank you, Pinkie," Twilight said gratefully. "Oh, I don't really have anything else home to eat. Any chance I could pick up some groceries quickly?"

In response to that, Pinkie Pie gestured towards another basket next to the first.

"How did you know?" Twilight said. This was getting a bit ridiculous. It wasn't as if she could read minds, after all.

"Spike usually stops by for groceries today, so with him at Rarity's, I thought you might need some food." Pinkie explained.

"Thank you." Twilight repeated sincerely.

They cleaned up their dishes, and Celestia and Twilight headed out with the baskets.

Pinkie Pie watched them go a bit sadly, her mane deflating slightly. Finishing tidying things up, she was interrupted by a quick trill that immediately picked her spirits up. Looking, neither Philomena nor Peewee had left yet, and seemed to be quite concerned for her.

"Oh, go on with Twilight and Celestia, you two. I'll be fine. They need you more then I do right now." She lectured the two phoenixes. They looked at her assessingly, nodded, and headed out. Pinkie watched them for a moment, flipped the sign to closed, and headed up for a shower in slightly better cheer.

It's Going To Be So Special

Chapter 3: It's Going To Be So Special

Heading out of Sugarcube Corner, Twilight felt like she was bursting with excitement. This was finally going to happen! Celestia was here, and the two of them were finally going to spend some time together without any distractions! She had to consciously put an effort into not bouncing around giddily.

At the same time, some part of her couldn't help be irritated and somewhat upset that it had taken this long. Surely Celestia could have freed up time before this? And she still knew so little about her mentor.

Well, that was about to change, at least. She shook her head to clear her mixed emotions. Looking around, Twilight realised that she'd gotten a bit ahead of Celestia. She hadn't realised quite how fast she was going. She slowed down to let the princess catch up.

As the Princess caught up, Twilight noticed various ponies Celestia passed kept dropping to the ground and deferring to her. She hadn't thought much about it, but it must be difficult to take time off when everywhere you go, everypony is genuflecting at you. She saw that the Princess was trembling a bit once she reached Twilight's side.

Twilight stopped for a moment, and steadied her with one hoof. "Don't worry about it. They don't see their princess very often, and can be a bit awestruck."

"I know, Twilight. I'd just hoped to get away from all that for a bit," Celestia replied wearily. The two of them were just about to the library at this point. As Twilight entered, she looked back and was startled to notice the princess stumbling for a moment, looking totally exhausted, before going back to her normal poise.

Suddenly, several things began to add up for her mentally. Celestia's problem with her great granddaughter had been in the Griffin Kingdoms, several days away from Canterlot. How could she possibly have gotten here in time?

Celestia's eyes seemed rather puffy, looking closer, and the fact that Celestia's mane was currently completely pink had somehow slipped by her earlier in her excitement. Her normal multihued mane was actually an artifact of her magical power, as was Luna's. She was pretty sure she knew what its absence meant.

"So, you've resolved your business in the Griffin Kingdoms?" Twilight struggled to keep her voice normal.

"Yes, and I gave my great granddaughter quite a lecture." Celestia smiled a bit, not noticing Twilight's tension.

"As I recall, the Griffin Kingdoms is several days flight from Canterlot. And even further from Ponyville." Twilight said, a sharp note in her voice.

"Well-" The Princess looked startled, as she realized where Twilight was headed.

"The only way I know of travelling that far that fast is teleportation. And for most ponies, teleporting those distances twice would kill them." Twilight said bluntly.

"I'm hardly most ponies, Twilight." Celestia replied gently.

"No, but you are magically exhausted. All the signs are there. It just took me a while to notice them. That was incredibly risky! You could have ended up unconscious or-" Twilight's voice broke.

"Do not worry, Twilight Sparkle," Celestia said softly. "I do know my limits. I also know how important this trip is to you, though, and was not about to let you down."

"And I appreciate it, but what if something happened to you? Who'd raise and lower the sun?" Twilight paced nervously. "In fact, who will lower it tonight and raise it in the morning? There's no way you'd have enough magic for that right now!"

"Princess Luna will be taking care of that for the next few days." Celestia reassured Twilight. "Before leaving, the two of us agreed that she would raise the sun as well as doing my other duties while I am gone. It is good practice for her."

As she said that, Philomena flew in the front door, Peewee on his back. The two phoenixes sang a series of reassuring trills. Despite the situation, Twilight found herself starting to relax.

"All right. In that case, since you're clearly exhausted, let's get you comfortable." Twilight and Celestia continued up the library stairs. On the way up, Celestia heavily leaned on Twilight's side, now that she didn't need to try to conceal her exhaustion.

Twilight guided Celestia to her couch, and her mentor collapsed onto it with relief.

"Now, just rest here for a minute, and I'll be right back." Twilight headed back to the kitchen area, mentally dredging up everything she knew about magical exhaustion.

Magical exhaustion happened when your magical reserves were severely depleted, usually from having used too much magic in too short of a time. She remembered having gotten it herself not long after her magic exam, once the adrenaline rush both from what she had done and getting her cutie mark had worn off.

She'd become magically depleted a few times since then as well, when she had overestimated her limits when experimenting with spells. Of course, usually Spike was right there at the time and would take care of her when that happened. She had familiarized herself with what to do if it happened when he was gone, though.

The first thing had been getting Celestia settled somewhere comfortable, since magical exhaustion is normally accompanied by physical exhaustion. Taking it easy and resting would be the best things for her right now.

She did have something else here that would help, though. She put some water in a tea kettle and put it on the stove while hunting in her cupboards. After a minute, she found what she was looking for.

Zecora had a special tea blend for helping recover from low magical reserves, and she had insisted on Twilight always having it in stock. Not that Twilight minded much.The two of them had actually become fairly good friends, and she appreciated Zecora looking out for her.

Besides the tea, chocolate would also help replenish Celestia's magical reserves, but she wasn't sure how much she had home. As she waited for the tea to come to a boil, she unpacked the baskets Pinkie Pie had given her.

Most of it looked like the same groceries Spike picked up every week. There were also several pieces of different types of cake, including chocolate cake. And, to her surprise, a large supply of chocolate was included. Had Pinkie noticed Celestia's condition before she had? Or did Pinkie just assume that Twilight craved chocolate as much as she did?

She shrugged. You never knew with Pinkie Pie.

When the water came to a boil, Twilight started making tea. She poured a cup of Zecora's medicinal tea into one cup, and also made some chamomile tea, to calm both their nerves.Twilight arranged the tea, chocolate, and some slices of cake on a tray, and levitated it over to where Celestia lay.

"Ah, perfect. A cup of tea is exactly what I need right now." Celestia said, trying to levitate her tea to her. The cup started to move up weakly, then started to fall. Twilight caught it with her mind and levitated it into position.

"Remember to minimize your magic use right now. Even minor things like levitation will be problematic." Twilight scolded Celestia. "This is one of Zecora's special blends, but it's medicinal, so may not taste the best. Zecora swears by it for helping recover your mana reserves, though."

She held the tea up to Celestia, who sipped at it, making a bit of a face at the taste.

"I'm sorry to be such a burden, Twilight. I'm afraid I haven't been much of a mentor to you." Celestia said apologetically.

Twilight wanted to deny it, but remembered what she had been thinking about earlier. "You've had your reasons. I know you've been very busy."

"Yes. I have been busy." Celestia sighed. "There are ever growing mountains of paperwork awaiting my signature back in Canterlot. Add the petty squabbling between nobles that I always end up having to straighten out personally, as well as everypony in Equestria with a problem appealing to me for help, and I barely end up with enough time to sleep. The trip here may have magically exhausted me, but I was well on the way to exhaustion before that."

Thinking back guiltily, Twilight realized that while she had known Celestia was too busy to spend time with her, she had never considered the root cause. Her mentor was trying to take the weight of all of Equestria on her back, and shouldn't have to. Twilight's analytical mind switched into overdrive.

"Celestia," she said, trying to phrase this delicately. "You have many loyal, dedicated ponies who would lay down their lives for you in the palace. Surely you could delegate some of your workload to them?"

"If I delegate my workload, what happens if paperwork gets approved that shouldn't have been, or appeals that should have been heard never get taken care of?" Celestia frowned. "The way things are now, I know everything is being taken care of properly, at least."

"And if you sign the wrong papers because of fatigue, or dismiss appeals you shouldn't have because you weren't thinking straight?" Twilight continued. "There will be mistakes either way. The key is to make sure to minimise them by choosing ponies you trust."

"And if I'm mistaken in who I think I can trust?" Celestia said, thinking of some of her past decisions that had backfired on her.

"Anypony who you delegate to would need to write reports summarizing and justifying what they've done with their position, and you would periodically check up on them." Twilight said.

Princess Celestia mulled it over. She didn't really like it, but she could see the benefits. "How could I possibly give anyone else this heavy of a burden, though?"

"The point, really, is that you wouldn't be giving it all to one pony." Twilight stated. "For example, give Luna the job of dealing with the nobles and their politics. They are half-afraid of her, anyways, so that shouldn't be too difficult. Appoint a secretary to read the paperwork coming in, and give you summaries of anything that needs your attention. And give some other clever pony a fancy title like 'Chancellor' to hear all the appeals, and limited authority to act in your name. Their job would be to deal with as many of the appeals as possible themselves, and give you the ones that absolutely need your direct attention."

"Perhaps. I'm sure Luna would be thrilled. She's been urging me to do something about the nobles for ages. I'll discuss this with her and a few members of my court on my return to see what can be delegated." Celestia popped a chocolate truffle in her mouth. "I apologise, though. I really didn't mean to dump my own personal problems on you this visit."

"Who better to confide in then your personal student?" She thought a moment. "Well, I suppose there's Luna. And maybe this granddaughter of yours. How is it that I've never heard of her?" Twilight leaned forward, interested.

"I suppose I haven't told you about her before. It's a long story, though, and the two of us aren't at all close. Are you sure you want to hear it?" Celestia smiled.

"YES! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Twilight started jumping around the room in excitement, before catching herself. Blushing, she turned back to her mentor. "Yes?"

"I suppose, if you really want to. Could you get me another cup of tea first, though? Preferably something relaxing." Celestia examined her empty cup, and shivered a bit.

"Right! I'll also light a fire in the fireplace. Then we can move in front of it, and be a bit warmer." Twilight gathered everything back up and went back towards the kitchen. She made them both some more chamomile tea, and lit a fire in the fireplace.

Bringing some bedding over by the fireplace, she helped Celestia over to it. Then she curled up next to her mentor in front of the fire. It was time for a story.

As She Takes Time Just For Me

Chapter 4: As She Takes Time Just For Me

A long time ago, there lived a unicorn who became the most powerful magician in all the land. He went on many adventures, performed many daring deeds, and invented many unique spells, some of which are in use in the present day. He was beloved to all who knew him.

Owing to his adventures, he had become well known to the courts at Canterlot. Luna and I trusted him like few others. He went by the name of Star Swirl, and had an exceptionally long and fine beard.

"You knew Star Swirl the Bearded, creator of the Omniamorphic spell?" Twilight exclaimed, excited.

"Yes, indeed I did. In my lifetime, I've met many ponies who have become well known." Celestia said. "And met many that weren't nearly as well known as they should have been, for that matter. Star Swirl was quite exceptional, though."

I had held him close to me as an adviser and trusted friend. And then, one day when I was holding court, he announced that he was going to go on his grandest adventure yet. He had been courting an attractive mare by the name of Rosette, and that day he asked her hoof in marriage.

She accepted, and soon came the day of their wedding. It was a beautiful thing. He came to the wedding with bells on, and she had her rose laurels. And no invading army to detract from it. At their wedding, I gave the happy couple a cottage they could share away from Canterlot, but not too far to visit easily. They moved in shortly thereafter.

Many years passed. Star Swirl and I carried on our friendship through letters, and I visited them often. They always made me feel welcome, and treated me like a member of the family. Rosette became pregnant over time, and had a lovely daughter, Aurora.

One day, as I was travelling to their cottage for a visit, I noticed large clouds of smoke in the air as I approached. Worried, I sent my guards ahead to investigate. As I got closer, I was alarmed to find their cottage completely engulfed in flame. I sent one of the guards to fetch help from the nearest village, and battled the fire as best as I could until help arrived.

By the time I had arrived, it was clear that there would be no way to enter the cottage. The flames were covering all the exits, and the cottage was partially collapsed due to burned support beams. I did the best I could to fight the fire, conjuring large streams of water at the blazing wreckage until a pegasi squad arrived and started a storm overhead that finished off the last of the flames.

Once the flames were out, we were able to investigate the ruins. There, I found what I had most feared. Under one of the burned support beams lay my friends Star Swirl and Rosette. They must have been killed instantly when the roof caved in. My heart broke, and I wanted to collapse right there, but one thing kept me going. Their daughter was nowhere in the ruins, and I had to find her.

I searched the nearby area calling her name over and over again. Eventually, I heard some sniffling coming from the branches of a nearby tree. Looking above me, I found Aurora high up in the branches, curled up sobbing. I levitated her down, and the two of us grieved for what we had lost.

"All the history books I read ever said about Star Swirl's death was that he had died in an accident." Twilight shook her head. "His family and daughter were never mentioned. That's horrible."

"That's the problem with history books." Celestia said. "Things that were terrible personal tragedies are often described as impersonally as merely stubbing your hoof on a rock."

I tried to console Aurora for her loss, but I really doubt I was much help. Their deaths had affected me greatly, and I was in tears and shaking as well. After a time, when we were both cried out and somewhat calmer, I asked Aurora what had happened.

From what she told me, Star Swirl had been working on the latest of a series of experiments, He had sent her outside to play while he performed it, and she had gotten caught up in her games and lost track of time. Hearing a noise, she looked back at her home, and saw that it was in flames. She was scared silly, and who could blame her? She ran off, climbed a tree and hid there until I found her.

We may never know what Star Swirl was working on at the time. He had sent his completed research to Canterlot with our letters, but anything he was still working on was lost with his cottage. That plus our correspondence is what is in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing to this day.

I'd like to say that Aurora and I bonded over her parents deaths and became close. Perhaps that should have been what happened. I was grief-stricken and had a number of things demanding my time, and Aurora reminded me of all that I'd lost. I made funeral arrangements, and appointed a mare I trusted to take care of her until then.

At the funeral, I discovered that Star Swirl and Rosette had wanted me to raise Aurora in the event of their death. I honestly did not feel ready or able to take care of her. I wasn't willing to go against their wishes, though. I appointed her temporary caretaker to take care of her for me on a more permanent basis.

I arranged the best teachers and care possible for her that I could. In retrospect, though, I didn't spend nearly enough time with her. I had told myself I was too busy, but I think I just wasn't ready to be a parent. And it was all too easy to pawn off my responsibility on others.

She never really said much about the matter, and acted happy to see me when we did spend time together, but the two of us grew apart. As she approached adulthood, she had grown bitter and resentful of how little affection there was between us, and how little she saw me. Once she was ready to live on her own, she moved away from Canterlot, and I never saw nor heard from her again.

In fact, her descendants lost track of the family relationship at some point. Effervescence is the last of the line, and she started corresponding with me when tracing her lineage. She evidently put me down as her next of kin as well, which has caused me no end of headaches, given how often she gets in trouble. She always means well, too, which makes it worse.

Continuing, Aurora's complete disavowal of me hurt. I'd loved her with all my heart, though I'd messed up things between us badly. I threw myself completely into my work at that point. Which was a pity, actually, because if I'd been paying attention, I might have noticed what was going on with my sister. She was just beginning to be corrupted into Nightmare Moon at the time.

"So you lost touch with Aurora, and shortly thereafter, your sister was banished to the moon. I can't imagine what that was like." Twilight said, wiping a tear away.

"Not good. I was a complete wreck, actually." Celestia said candidly. "That was also when I took over everything I do now for Equestria. Before then, about half of it had been taken care of by Luna. After losing both her and Aurora, I was left with no one I trusted with the workload."

"So when I proposed delegating your work more..." Twilight said thoughtfully.

"You were proposing I change things back to the way they used to be run." Celestia continued. "One of the reasons I'm having Luna run everything for a few days is to see if she is up to resuming her former duties. It took her quite a while to recover from having been Nightmare Moon."

"I see." Twilight said slowly.

"Though that was hardly the most important reason. For that, I could have just picked out a resort on tropical island with plenty of handsome stallions, and just gone there, and drank a few piña coladas. The reason I am here is for you." Celestia smiled.

"For me?" Twilight squeaked.

"For a long time after what happened with Aurora and Luna, I had decided never to let anypony get close to me again. Even when I decided to take in the most promising young magician I'd seen since Star Swirl himself, I tried to keep from letting her into my heart. But I couldn't help it."

Twilight blushed, and said something totally unintelligible.

"But I find I've been making the same mistakes I made with Aurora all over again with you. Can you ever forgive me?"

Twilight took a deep breath. "First, I'd like to make sure you understand how much our spending time together means to me. You've seen how much I care about my brother, Shining Armor, and his wife, Cadance."

"Yes, indeed I have." Celestia motioned for her to continue.

"Shining Armor was always there for me, and that was fairly important, because my parents never were. I seldom ever saw them, and they always left my care to various foal sitters, which was how I met Cadance, or my brother." Twilight stumbled through what she was saying, as it brought up painful memories of her childhood. "The fact is, you've actually been there for me more then they have since I became your student."

Shocked, Celestia thought back. She had rarely seen Twilight's parents, other then when she accepted Twilight as a student, and at the wedding. They had seemed distant, but she hadn't actually thought about it at the time.

"In fact, when they were at my brother's wedding, and I was being held captive in the caves below Canterlot, did they ever ask where I was?" Twilight's voice had an unfamiliar bitter tone to it.

"No, they didn't. I'd assumed Shining Armor had already told them you weren't coming." Celestia replied, surprised.

"I doubt it. Shining usually had to prompt them for them to even recall my existence, though they usually came through when he did, like when they enrolled me in the Academy." Twilight sighed. "I've long since resigned myself to not having much of a relationship with them. At least while you've been too busy to come out, there's been our letters back and forth, letting me know you are thinking of me."

"I had no idea." Celestia had trouble thinking of why anypony would ignore somepony as gifted as Twilight Sparkle.

"It's not something I particularly advertise, for obvious reasons. I'll forgive you for not having had time, but - promise you'll make time in the future?" Twilight's eyes trembled.

"I promise." Celestia said sincerely. "And let's start that now. Is there anything you'd particularly like to know?"

"Well," Twilight said, mind going over the list she had made that morning. "I'm sure I can think of something..."

The two of them talked for hours. Celestia answered as many of Twilight's questions as she could. They swapped stories, and talked about things Twilight had been researching. The conversation drifted along for a while, gradually meandering between topics. After a while, it wound to a halt, and they just lay there sipping tea, enjoying each others presence by the crackling fire.

Eventually, Celestia turned to Twilight to ask her a question and found that she had fallen asleep by her side, a bit of drool running out of the corner of her mouth. Smiling, she dabbed her mouth with a handkerchief. Then she placed one wing over her, and drifted off to sleep, content in the company of her very dear faithful student.

The End